A Justice Department panel established by President Donald Trump has released findings claiming Christians faced widespread bias during Joe Biden’s presidency, pointing to incidents involving education policies, tax regulations, and prosecutions of abortion clinic protesters.
The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias released its 200-page findings on Thursday, drawing immediate pushback from progressive organizations who characterized the document as political advocacy masquerading as legitimate investigation.
According to the task force, which included multiple Cabinet officials, conflicts arose “When Christian beliefs about morality and human nature conflicted with the Biden Administration’s views, religious rights often suffered.”
While the panel stopped short of claiming Biden’s team suppressed churches or worship services directly, it argued his administration took aggressive stances against faith-based advocates promoting conservative positions on abortion access, gender policies, educational content, and vaccination exemptions.
The document states: “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.”
Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice executive director Jim Simpson dismissed the findings as “advocacy dressed up as investigation.” Simpson argued the report incorrectly treats policy disputes as “evidence of anti-Christian bias rather than the normal functioning of a pluralistic democracy.” He also questioned framing Christians, who comprise nearly two-thirds of Americans, as “a persecuted minority despite being the country’s largest and most politically influential religious group.”
The task force highlighted Justice Department prosecutions of anti-abortion demonstrators who illegally blocked clinic access, suggesting these cases received harsher treatment than threats against pregnancy resource centers, which are frequently operated by Christian organizations encouraging women to avoid abortions. The report referenced a group convicted in federal court and imprisoned after invading a Washington abortion facility, whom Trump pardoned in 2025.
One controversial section accused Biden of “replacing Easter” with Transgender Day of Visibility, which occurs annually on March 31st and happened to coincide with Easter in 2024. The report called this a “profound lack of consideration for the Christian faith,” though Biden actually issued proclamations recognizing both observances.
The document criticized the Biden administration for displaying Pride flags at U.S. embassies, including at the Vatican, despite varying Christian perspectives on LGBTQ+ matters, with some progressive congregations embracing Pride symbols while conservative denominations typically oppose same-sex marriage and transgender rights.
Melissa Rogers, who directed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under Biden, contrasted the presidents’ Easter communications. “President Biden spent Easter and Orthodox Easter wishing Christians worldwide joyful Resurrection Sundays, not by pretending to be Jesus, by tweeting profanities, and by attacking the pope,” she stated.
Rogers emphasized Biden’s Catholic faith and noted his administration regularly collaborated with Christian and other religious leaders on various issues, from sanctuary security to immigration to COVID-19 clinic support.
The report criticized a Biden-era Justice Department memorandum addressing potential violence and threats against school boards. Though these discussions never resulted in federal action, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the initiative as violence prevention, not policy debate suppression. The task force didn’t explicitly explain how this constituted anti-Christian bias, though many school board meetings during that period featured conservative Christians and others opposing policies and curricula regarding gender and race topics.
Additional criticisms included federal agencies denying Christians exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination requirements and regulators instructing a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma to extinguish its chapel candle due to fire hazards near oxygen equipment. The hospital ultimately retained the candle after installing barriers and warning signs.
The report also highlighted what it characterized as disproportionate fines against two Christian universities by Biden’s Department of Education: Grand Canyon University for allegedly misleading students about program costs, and Liberty University for failing to properly disclose crime statistics. The Trump administration has cleared Grand Canyon University and eliminated its fine.
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, criticized the report for presenting “cherry-picked anecdotes” that don’t demonstrate systematic persecution. “To the extent that the government ever did overreach or violate the law in any of these examples, the courts of law, not a partisan political report, provide the right venue to settle any legal disputes,” she said. “Focusing government resources on this narrow issue while ignoring or discounting the much more widespread instances of anti-religious discrimination against other faith groups in the U.S. further harms religious freedom for all.”
The findings emerge as another Trump-created entity, the Religious Liberty Commission, prepares its own report featuring similar complaints heard during its hearings.
