President Trump’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force is FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” for its recent 565-page report speciously detailing the alleged persecution of Christians in the United States, primarily under the Biden administration.
Early into the second Trump administration, Trump signed an executive order establishing the task force, giving the group the sham assignment of identifying “anti-Christian” actions from the federal government and recommending suitable fixes. Clearly, the task force was formed as a means to expand protections solely for Christians aligned with the Trump administration, therefore privileging conservative Christianity in the United States.
The task force, chaired by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and comprised of notorious Christian nationalists like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, a major architect of Project 2025, issued its final report last week, proving its intent to warp religious liberty.
In a press release from the Justice Department, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche underscored the report’s central claim that the Biden administration “devastated the lives of many Christian Americans” through efforts such as upholding nondiscrimination laws. The task force admits that the Biden administration “generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held” but alleges that Christians were zealously limited in their “ability to act in accordance with their faith.”
The report repeats the Christian nationalist myth that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, claiming in its executive summary that “our nation’s origin and system of government bear the imprint of a Christian worldview and ethic” and that Christians “informed the structure and contents of the United States Constitution, its amendments, and contemporaneous state constitutions.”
The first point of evidence the report presents to back its claim of anti-Christian bias is the Biden DOJ’s enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits obstructing those accessing reproductive health care clinics. The task force alleges that the Biden era’s enforcement of the FACE Act is anti-Christian because the Biden Justice Department responded less aggressively in cases of attacks against crisis pregnancy centers, anti-abortion clinics that are also protected under the FACE Act. However, the Biden administration prosecuted multiple FACE Act cases involving crisis pregnancy centers, whereas the first Trump administration did not, according to public records.
And the Biden DOJ did not prosecute anti-abortion protestors because of their Christian beliefs, but because they obstructed access to abortion clinics, therefore breaking the law. These cases were generally successful, delivering guilty verdicts with little to no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. They are not examples of anti-Christian bias.
Second, the report points to the Biden Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supposedly unjustly investigating and targeting Catholics. This story has no basis in reality, leaving out crucial details that explain why the FBI was documenting a potentially extremist sect calling itself Catholic, completely separate from the Catholic Church.
The report then absurdly points to the Biden IRS’s enforcement of the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits houses of worship and other nonprofit organizations from engaging in partisan political activity or risk losing their tax-exempt status. It alleges that the IRS investigated conservative churches and groups over liberal ones under the Johnson Amendment, targeting so-called traditional biblical teachings. In fact, the Johnson Amendment is rarely enforced, even though religious leaders consistently violate the longstanding law. The report presents no proof that the IRS specifically targeted conservative groups, and only points to a single example of the IRS denying a tax exemption to a Christian group that invoked biblical language in its planned campaign interventions.
The task force alleges next that the Biden Department of Education imposed larger fines on Christian universities than on public universities because of their religious beliefs. The report points to one Christian university that was fined after it was found to have lied about tuition costs in its enrollment agreement and subsequently raised its fees after students had enrolled. The case had nothing to do with the school’s religious beliefs or teachings, but rather with its deceptive tactics for attracting prospective students. The report also highlights that Liberty University, another Christian school, was fined $14 million for violating the Clery Act, meaning the school failed to adequately disclose crime statistics and information on sexual violence on and around its campus. The report compares the case to two state schools that received smaller Clery Act fines as evidence for bias against Liberty. The case had nothing to do with Liberty’s religious affiliation, but rather the sheer amount of evidence in the Education Department’s case against the university.
The Biden Department of Health and Human Services and DOJ were the report’s next target, alleging that they ignored conscience rights and coerced a Christian nurse into participating in an abortion. At a Vermont medical center, staff members were allowed to abstain from partaking in abortion care but were required to step in if no other staff were available to assist the patient. In 2017, a Catholic nurse was required to be a part of an abortion procedure, which the report presents as anti-Christian bias. Notably, after investigation, the Biden administration actually helped develop a policy that both protected patients and allowed staff members to not partake in abortion procedures. Regardless, the report complains that the case, and others like it, were resolved through “administrative means” rather than litigation.
The report then moves to federal policy decisions that supposedly involve anti-Christian bias, such as support for the Equality Act, governmental protections regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, safety regulations for LGBTQ+ minors in the foster care system, denial of religious exemptions for Covid-19 vaccine mandates and, of course, Biden issuing a proclamation celebrating the 2024 Transgender Day of Visibility, which happened to fall on Easter Sunday that year. (The Transgender Day of Visibility is always on March 31.)
The report ends with the task force concluding that “the Biden administration engaged in anti-Christian bias, seeking to limit Christians’ ability to act in concert with their sincerely held beliefs in their homes, in the workplace, and in the public square.” It fails to present any substantial evidence of real bias or persecution against Christians outside of the government enforcing the law, separate from one’s religious beliefs.
The Anti-Christian Bias Task Force is clearly a means to distort religious freedom and reframe neutrality toward religion, fundamental to our country’s founding, as persecution of Christianity. The group’s report works to elevate certain Christian beliefs above the law and the rights of all Americans, effectively privileging Christianity in our country. A report on the task force’s policy recommendations is scheduled for publication next year, which the FFRF Action Fund will diligently monitor.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.