Religious Liberty and Antisemitism

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chair of President Donald Trump’s White House Religious Liberty Commission, removed Catholic activist and former Miss California Carrie Prejean Boller from the panel on Wednesday, saying she tried to "hijack" a public hearing on antisemitism for her "personal and political agenda." During the hearing, Boller clashed with witness Shabbos Kestenbaum, a former Harvard student who sued the university over antisemitism, by pressing him to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza before Patrick cut off that line of questioning. Afterward, Boller posted that she would "never bend the knee to the state of Israel," accused Christian supporters of Israel of justifying "bombing, starvation, and mass killing," and publicly refused to resign before Patrick announced her ouster. Conservative commentator Candace Owens defended Boller and accused the commission of pushing a "performative Zionist" message meant to "neuter the Christian faith," while Patrick framed his move as necessary to keep the commission’s hearings from being derailed. The episode exposes deep rifts inside Trump-aligned religious and conservative circles over antisemitism, Israel policy, and what "religious liberty" should mean in practice.