{"id":697252,"date":"2026-06-11T07:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T07:07:13","slug":"actor-who-played-dwight-on-the-office-promotes-religious-freedom-on-capitol-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697252\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor who played Dwight on \u2018The Office\u2019 promotes religious freedom on Capitol Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Rainn Wilson is also a Central Oregon resident and was evacuated during the 2025 Flat Fire.<\/a> <\/p>\n

By:Ashley Murray<\/a>-June 9, 2026<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 As various officials and groups aim to use the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States\u2019 founding, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, with the help of a\u00a0famed sitcom actor, turned the spotlight Tuesday to a central tenet of U.S. democracy: religious freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Actor Rainn Wilson, widely known for playing Dwight Schrute on NBC\u2019s \u201cThe Office,\u201d joined a press conference that U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., hosted along with religious leaders to advocate for the American tradition of religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Reading from the Declaration of Independence, Wilson, an outspoken member of the\u00a0 Baha\u2019i faith that originated in 19th-century Persia, now Iran, said the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary \u201cis an opportunity to ask profound questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we give fresh expression to the ideals in the declaration?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow can we leave behind tendencies that divide us and replace them with a widening circle of concern? We need to be able to speak and think in terms of spiritual and moral dimensions of individual and collective life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to do that in ways that are meaningful across different perspectives, both religious and secular,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s appearance marked the public release of the Baha\u2019i faith\u2019s five-part\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0\u201cA Common Endeavor,\u201d which argues for the realization of \u201cideals, like freedom, equality, and justice\u201d as many Americans have become \u201cexhausted and disillusioned by polarization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The press conference was attended by members of several denominations, and is among numerous independent events ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018A universal human right\u2019<\/p>\n

Boyle cited Baha\u2019i writings that \u201cbeautifully\u201d emphasize unity.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., co-led at an event Tuesday, June 9, 2026, on Capitol Hill, marking 250 years of religious freedom in United States. (Photo by Ashley Murray\/States Newsroom)<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own Catholic faith teaches a similar truth. Pope Francis reminded us that we are called to come together as brothers and sisters, quote, \u2018as children from the same earth,\u2019\u201d Boyle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that for America\u2019s 250th anniversary, this will be more of a focus on what our next 250 years look like, rather than just a wonderful commemoration of the past quarter of a millennium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bilirakis, an Orthodox Christian who co-chairs the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus, said, \u201cReligious freedom is not simply an American value, it is a universal human right, and I truly believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we are speaking out on behalf of the persecuted Christians, Muslims, Jews, Baha\u2019is, Hindus, Buddhists, Uyghurs, or members of other faith communities, our message must remain clear,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery person is endowed with inherent dignity and deserves the freedom to live according to their conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., co-led at an event Tuesday, June 9, 2026, on Capitol Hill, marking 250 years of religious freedom in United States. (Photo by Ashley Murray\/States Newsroom)<\/p>\n

Bilirakis is an original cosponsor of a House\u00a0resolution<\/a>\u00a0condemning the Iran government\u2019s persecution of Baha\u2019is. The resolution was introduced in December 2025, just months before the U.S. escalated war in Iran.<\/p>\n

Pentagon list<\/p>\n

The event on Capitol Hill, though unrelated, happened just one day after the Pentagon\u00a0modified its list<\/a>\u00a0of recognized religions following criticism from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s two Republican Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis directly appealed to the administration to change the Department of Defense list, which did not categorize the Latter-day Saints as Christian.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Pentagon revised its list of recognized religions for service members to 31, down from roughly 200.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon\u2019s shortened list includes the Baha\u2019i faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s Note: Rainn Wilson is also a Central Oregon resident and was evacuated during the 2025 Flat Fire.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[281660,88,92],"class_list":["post-697252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ablock-local","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}