(CNN) At a closed-door event Tuesday evening, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed that new federal guidance to protect "religious liberty" is on the way "soon."

Tuesday's speech to the Alliance Defending Freedom was not open to the press and the Justice Department declined requests to provide Sessions' prepared remarks to the media, but later published the speech on The Federalist Thursday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in May entitled, "Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty," which directed Sessions to "issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in federal law," but nothing -- at least publicly -- has come of the executive order to date.

"The department is finalizing this guidance, and I will soon issue it," Sessions said, according to the prepared remarks.

Sessions also took a swipe at the "inside-the-beltway crowd" who, he said, "has no idea how much good is being done in this country every day by our faith communities," adding that "the value of religion is totally missed by many today."

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