Baylor Professor Francis J. Beckwith Appointed to Presidential Religious Liberty Commission Advisory Board
Scholar will provide expertise on national efforts to protect and advance religious liberty
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Francis Joseph Beckwith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and church-state studies and associate director of graduate studies in the Department of Philosophy within the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has been appointed by the White House to serve on the Advisory Board of Legal Experts for the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission, a key initiative within the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Presidential Religious Liberty Commission, established by executive order in May 2025, is charged with assessing the status of religious freedom in the United States and recommending measures to protect and advance it.
Dr. Beckwith will lend his legal and philosophical expertise to the Commission’s Advisory Board of Legal Experts, working alongside other renowned scholars and practitioners to address issues facing religious liberty today.
“I am truly honored to have been named by President Donald Trump to this important advisory board for the Religious Liberty Commission. It’s a rare and precious thing for an academic to be invited by his government to offer advice and counsel on what is often referred to as the First Freedom,” Beckwith said. “I am looking forward to working closely with the Commission and my fellow advisory board members in putting my scholarship and years of teaching in the service of defending the religious liberty of all Americans regardless of their faith tradition. Baylor, given its Baptist roots, has a long and storied history of championing religious liberty. I am humbled to now find myself on a national stage contributing to that important Baylor tradition.”
Dr. Beckwith is a distinguished scholar whose academic contributions span religious liberty, legal philosophy, ethics and the interplay of religion and culture. He is the author of Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith, which earned the American Academy of Religion’s Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in 2016.
His recent peer-reviewed articles on religious liberty, religion and law have appeared in top scholarly journals, including Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, The Thomist, Baylor Law Review, The American Journal of Bioethics, Civil Rights Law Journal, BYU Law Review and Religions.
In recognition of his impactful academic contributions, Dr. Beckwith was honored with the Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize by the Heritage Foundation in 2024.
ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more about Baylor University at www.baylor.edu.