DOJ issues new report on eradicating anti-Christian bias in federal government

The Department of Justice (DOJ) released a new report on April 30 detailing allegations of anti-Christian bias from former President Joe Biden’s administration and unveiling how President Donald Trump’s administration is working to reverse those policies.

“When Christian beliefs about morality and human nature conflicted with the Biden Administration’s views, religious rights often suffered,” the executive summary says.

“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 says. “This affected matters of deep personal importance to nearly every American: life, family, marriage, and self-identity.”

The report, titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias within the Federal Government,” was issued by the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, which Trump established in February of 2025.

The review lists Biden-era regulations related to abortion, contraception, gender, and human sexuality, among other issues, which often pitted the government against religious institutions, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Similar issues also exist in “state and local governments and the private sector,” it notes, which had either “limited interference” or “tacit support” from the Biden administration.

It also alleges a “weaponization” of the government against Christians, which includes concerns about the Richmond office of the FBI investigating what it called “radical traditionalist Catholics” along with criminal convictions of pro-life protesters under the the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The report notes that the Trump administration has worked to rescind those regulations and end those practices. It also states the administration has sought to incorporate faith into public life.

“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the chair of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, said in a statement.

“As our report lays out, the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans,“ he said. ”That devastation ended with President Trump. The Department of Justice will continue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians and work tirelessly to restore religious liberty for all Americans of faith.”

Biden-era regulations

A major issue noted in the DOJ report is the Biden administration’s reading of the 2019 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found the Civil Rights Act bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The report notes the first Trump administration issued a memorandum on Bostock instructing the DOJ to interpret that ruling without violating religious liberty.

Yet the Biden administration rescinded that memorandum and issued a new one which the report states “applied the ruling to sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and sports.”

“The Biden DOJ also considered requests for religious exemptions as harmful conduct to be regulated and pushed its incorrect Bostock interpretation in amicus briefs, even though federal courts repeatedly rejected it,” it states.

In one example, the report notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture tied this interpretation of Bostock to the National School Lunch Program. Initially, religious freedom objections were considered on a case-by-case basis, but the administration eventually issued a memo that acknowledged religious exemptions.

“The policy left Christian schools and ministries with a coercive choice: If they wanted to feed the hungry using these programs, they would need to abandon the Bible’s teachings on sex and marriage,” it states.

“As a result, the Biden USDA pushed many Christians out of the programs,” it adds. “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, for example, chose to remove all of its parochial schools from the National School Lunch Program, even after the Biden USDA issued its memo acknowledging Title IX’s religious exemption.”

This interpretation was also applied to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rules for what the Biden administration called “gender affirming care for minors.” The report notes that “many providers interpreted [this] as a requirement with limited or no religious exemptions.” Similar to the lunch program, religious exemptions were looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Similar rules were applied to workplaces through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Other regulations scaled back conscience protections related to abortion and contraception. It notes, for example, that HHS and DOJ withdrew a notice of violation against the University of Vermont Medical Center after it “coerced a Christian nurse into participating in an abortion despite her religious objections.”

In other examples, HHS issued guidance that required hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to offer abortions in certain circumstances under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. The Biden administration also interpreted the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to force employers to accommodate an employee’s abortion, “regardless of whether doing so would conflict with an employer’s religious rights,” the report states.

“The findings presented by the TaskForce raise serious concerns about whether certain Biden-era policies and practices were administered in a manner consistent with the Constitution and applicable federal law,” the report states.

“These concerns implicate core American commitments — religious liberty, equal treatment, and the rule of law — that protect all Americans of faith and conscience,” it adds.

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/doj-report-anti-christian-bias