The Biden Admin’s Anti-Christian Bias Was Even Worse Than You Think

Joe Biden’s presidency was even worse for Christians than you think, according to an exhaustive report from the Justice Department’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, published Thursday.

The anti-Christian bias seeped into official policy across the federal government, from personnel matters—where Christians’ requests for time off around Easter Sunday were met with suspicion in the State Department—to the IRS investigating churches for traditional Christian values perceived to be aligned with the Republican Party, to the Department of Education levying heavier fines against Christian universities than against convicted sex offender Larry Nassar.

The bias extended to official policy of reinterpreting federal law to push transgender ideology and to symbolic statements, such as celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday.

“The Biden administration generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held but zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith,” the report states. “This affected matters of deep personal importance to nearly every American: life, family, marriage, and self-identity.”

While many of the task force’s findings have been publicly known for years, the report includes a few new data points and puts disparate news stories into context to form a coherent condemnation of the Biden administration’s hostility toward Christians.

Anti-Christian Enforcement

The Biden administration wielded law enforcement as a cudgel against Americans who disagreed with its radical pro-abortion stance.

The anti-Christian bias report adds yet more information to the task force’s previous report on how the Biden administration teamed up with pro-abortion groups to weaponize the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act against pro-life protesters outside abortion centers.

The new report contrasts the Justice Department’s sentencing requests for pro-life protesters and the few pro-abortion agitators who targeted pro-life pregnancy centers.

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The new report also mentions the FBI’s reliance on a discredited smear factory, the Southern Poverty Law Center, to target “radical-traditional Catholics.”

It highlights how the IRS denied a church’s application for tax-exempt status because its “[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”

The report also contrasts the Eduction Department’s fine on Grand Canyon University ($37.7 million) over tuition cost reporting with its lesser fine of only $4.5 million against Michigan State University over Nassar’s sexual assault of hundreds of female athletes.

Federal Policy

The anti-Christian bias report faults the Biden administration for supporting the so-called Equality Act, which “would have treated Christians as second-class citizens by eliminating any claim or legal defense based on religious beliefs” when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity matters.

Although the “Equality Act” did not become law, the Biden administration attempted to rewrite federal law to mandate the adoption of its LGBTQ+ agenda. The report highlights how the Biden administration attempted to force sex-rejecting procedures in medicine “with limited or no religious exemptions.”

The Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, took steps to exclude conservative Christians from the foster care system, and undermined conscience rights on abortion.

The anti-Christian bias report highlighted how the Biden administration “sidelined Christians in favor of their preferred constituencies.” This didn’t just extend to the “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter, but also to federal departments replacing their faith offices with offices focused on “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

The State Department downplayed the threats Christians face in Nigeria, and multiple agencies sought to make rules “that broadly burdened faith-based organizations’ access to federal funds and public programs.”

Adverse Employment

Finally, the report highlights how various agencies applied the religious accommodation process in ways that “functionally penalized Christians.” The Department of Labor’s Job Corps program barred a Christian student from holding a voluntary Bible study outside school hours.

The Smithsonian museums penalized Christian pro-life students in Washington, D.C., for the 2023 March for Life, requiring them to remove religious and pro-life attire or leave the premises. The National Park Service also denied a Catholic organization access to a national cemetery where it intended to hold a Memorial Day mass to honor fallen soldiers.

Putting Anti-Christian Bias in Context

Finally, the report puts this anti-Christian bias in context, noting that conservative Christians face adverse action in many arenas, from threats to parental rights in school, to debanking threats, to COVID-19 closures of churches, to violent attacks on churches.

The report presents a comprehensive view of the way the Biden administration imposed leftist ideologies often described as “woke,” and it dovetails much of my research in “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”

I do have one quibble with the report, however. Besides the notorious anti-Catholic memo from the FBI, the report does not delve into the Southern Poverty Law Center’s broader influence in the federal government, nor the fact that the SPLC has arguably revealed itself to be anti-Christian.

That said, this report shines an important light on the prior administration’s breathtaking hostility to conservative Christians—and it should send a wake-up call to the Left that this sort of behavior is unacceptable. Sadly, I expect the Left largely to ignore it, and double down on the anti-Christian bias.