As director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Center for Faith, I witness every day the power of faith in action—feeding the hungry, strengthening families, and healing communities. Under President Donald Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, the quiet miracle of faith is no longer sidelined. It is welcomed, protected, and given room to grow.
The Coptic Christian community I belong to knows what it means to practice faith under persecution. Thankfully, Trump has taken bold steps to eradicate religious persecution against not just my community but all people of faith.
On Feb. 7, 2025, he established the historic White House Faith Office—the first of its kind, housed in the West Wing and reporting directly to the president. He then created centers for faith across every federal department, including here at USDA. For the first time in generations, people of faith were given a permanent seat at the table of government. Rather than mere symbolic gestures, this administration has worked concretely to restore trust between the American people and the institutions meant to serve them.
Nowhere is this restoration more apparent than in the defense of conscience and the protection of life. The administration strengthened conscience protections, restored the Hyde Amendment, expanded the Mexico City Policy, launched Moms.gov to support mothers, expanded infertility research, and strengthened adoption and family leave. These are concrete expressions of hope for every mother who wonders whether her country still believes every child is a gift.
Faith communities in this country have always stood on the front lines of safeguarding religious liberty and providing resources for the most vulnerable among us. That includes helping those struggling with addiction, mental illness, and homelessness—three crises that particularly erode nutrition, family stability, and community health.
Now the federal government is deliberately walking alongside these forgotten men and women in real, tangible ways. After all, communities caring for the most vulnerable among us deserve clear and easy access to federal resources that exist to help them.
At USDA, this new era of First Amendment freedom has taken practical form in the guidance we have issued to protect religious expression and accommodation in the federal workplace. Secretary Rollins wasted no time rescinding the previous administration’s attempt to redefine sex discrimination in ways that threatened religious schools’ participation in the National School Lunch Program. She also reaffirmed that faith-based organizations may fully participate in nutrition assistance and food distribution programs without being forced to abandon their religious identities or missions.
When churches, synagogues, mosques, and community ministries can serve without fear, more families eat, more children thrive, and more neighborhoods begin to heal. Recent initiatives such as Harvest to Hallways further strengthen the sacred link between American farms and school cafeterias, turning local abundance into nourishment for the next generation.
Trump’s wider record—restoring free speech, ending the weaponization of government against believers, expanding school choice so parents can choose faith-based education, and affirming the simple truth of biological reality—has prepared the soil. As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we are reclaiming a founding conviction: that our rights come from God, and that a nation under God is a nation still capable of renewal.
This is the work of the White House Faith Office and the centers for faith it has inspired. It is the work of protecting what is sacred while meeting what is practical. And it is only the beginning. With faith restored to its rightful place, America can once again shine as a light to the world—one family strengthened, one meal shared, one life restored at a time.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal - By Steve Messeh
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