By René Marsh, Steve Contorno, CNN
(CNN) — At first glance, the December meeting of a little-known government panel looked like ordinary bureaucratic business.
But then, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s advisory board opened its proceedings in an unusual way: with a Christian prayer.
The benediction was delivered by a White House official. “Thank you for your son, Jesus, who died for our sins,” the official said at one point, according to two sources who attended the meeting.
Under President Donald Trump, moments like this, rare in recent administrations, are becoming commonplace. A series of faith initiatives championed by the White House have led to a systematic religious revival within the government’s operations, culture and policy.
Americans have been encouraged to pray for an hour each week. Some government agencies have opened their meetings with prayer or hosted regular faith services. Bible verses and Christian imagery now appear on official government social media accounts.
The changes — predominately Christian in character — have been welcomed by conservative organizations that have fought for decades against an increasingly secular government, while alarming longtime defenders of a separation between church and state.
Both supporters and critics alike say this religious turn has little modern precedent — and it may be just the beginning.
Since last year, interfaith leaders, religious legal activists and close political allies of the president have been laying the groundwork for a broader expansion of the role of religion in public life.
By this summer, the group — Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission — is expected to produce a blueprint for policy changes that could redefine the boundaries between government and religion in American life.
“We have to bring back religion in America,” Trump told the commission last year. “Bring it back stronger than ever before.”
Discussions by the commission on how to fulfil Trump’s mandate have included aggressively pursuing legal action against state and local governments accused of blocking religious expression and withholding federal funding for K-12 schools viewed as hostile to faith. The latter mirrors pressure Trump has applied to colleges accused of failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination.
They have also considered ways to encourage the Supreme Court to revisit decades-old precedent governing the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits the US government from establishing a state religion or favoring one religion over others.
Though the commission has representatives from various faiths, and Jewish and Muslim communities are involved, its strongest threads skew toward conservative views within Christianity.
Some participants — including Trump — have lamented the Bible’s diminished presence in schools.
One member, television psychologist Phil McGraw, known as “Dr. Phil” has framed the commission’s work in starker terms.
“We are in a religious and cultural war right now, and every single one of us is a combatant,” said McGraw, a close Trump friend, during a September meeting. “Nobody can afford to sit on the sidelines.”
A new environment
Past presidents have overseen periods of religious revival in government, such as when Dwight Eisenhower signed provisions adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” to paper curren