The memorandum consolidated and added to extensive findings RFI submitted a month earlier to the White House Religious Liberty Commission that covered these and many other issues.

The film, which premiered in May at the Kennedy Center, highlights the new Republic’s pursuit of religious liberty as enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Adding important context, it also tells the story of America’s second Revolution – the War of 1812 – when America fought attacks against freedom on its own soil. And against those important backdrops, the film portrays a series of attacks against Christian beliefs in contemporary America, which involved the use of ideological weapons to jeopardize the very freedoms that the American Founders aimed to secure from the start for subsequent generations of Americans. 

Providing redress for the prejudice many Christians have faced for their beliefs and practices is the focus of the DOJ Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, created by the Trump Administration’s Executive Order 14202. The Task Force, consisting of several key cabinet officials and federal agency leaders, serves to ensure “people [are] free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or retaliation by their government.” 

In the documentary, Royer notes (beginning at 06:56) that the freedom of religion is embedded in the Constitution and “is an outgrowth or an elaboration of the Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of Independence is very clear that every human being was created in the image of God, and as such enjoys rights and duties with respect to their treatment of their fellow human being.”

As our country prepares to commemorate and celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Royer and other figures in this documentary remind Americans that a primary end of that independence was religious liberty. The Task Force spent the prior year investigating 14 areas of bias perpetrated by the federal government against Christians and Americans of other faiths.

Royer argued (beginning at 13:30) that a full understanding of the liberties protected by the Constitution is not possible without reference to the Declaration of Independence, and that “those who would seek to reinterpret the Constitution without reference to the Declaration” have in reality “set out to establish a new order.” 

RFI supported the Task Force in its efforts to review and document ongoing religious freedom infringements against families with children in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). As RFI’s September 2025 memorandum to the Task Force noted, and which the Task Force’s April report mentioned on page 158, MCPS has adopted a strategy of spreading the very LGBTQ materials at issue in Mahmoud v. Taylor throughout its curriculum as a means of enabling school officials to continue to frustrate parents’ opt out rights, contrary to the rule set forth in Mahmoud. 

The Task Force’s report notes that “[b]ased on feedback received during these stakeholder meetings, MCPS appears to have simply moved all the objectionable books to other parts of the school curriculum so that parents do not receive prior notice and cannot opt out.” The Task Force’s finding in collaboration with RFI’s research and outreach illustrates the nuanced threats to the religious liberty and parental rights of those with children in public schools.

RFI will continue to support efforts of the White House Religious Liberty Commission and DOJ Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias as those efforts undertake the indispensable work of upholding religious freedom for all Americans.

Watch the full documentary film: By Dawn’s Early Light.