As President Donald Trump’s administration points to a new set of claims about religious bias, a Justice Department task force created last year has argued that Christians faced discrimination during former President Joe Biden’s tenure in federal decision-making tied to law enforcement and regulatory oversight.
The task force, the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, issued Thursday a 200-page report that says religious rights “often suffered” when Christian beliefs about morality and human nature conflicted with the Biden administration’s views. The report’s summary, as described in reporting, argues that the Biden administration generally tolerated religious beliefs held privately but “zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith.”
The task force did not, the report said, accuse the Biden administration of suppressing churches or preventing worship, according to the Associated Press account. Instead, it directed its allegations toward a range of policy fights in which the task force said Christians advocating conservative positions based on their faith met a “hard line,” including disputes involving abortion, gender, school curriculum and requests for vaccine exemptions.
One focus of the report’s allegations centered on enforcement actions in the anti-abortion protest context. The task force contended that the Biden-era Justice Department sought severe penalties for anti-abortion activists who illegally blockaded clinics. The report also said the Biden Justice Department treated those protests more seriously than threats aimed at pregnancy resource centers—facilities that the report said are often Christian-run and focused on persuading women not to obtain abortions.
The report also drew criticism from religious and civil-rights advocates who said it relies on selective examples and does not establish a broader, documented pattern of discrimination. Jim Simpson, executive director of the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, said the report is “advocacy dressed up as investigation,” arguing that it mischaracterizes normal policy disagreement in a pluralistic democracy as anti-Christian bias. Simpson also criticized how the report portrayed Christians—describing them as nearly two-thirds of Americans—as a persecuted minority.
In the report’s account of alleged religious favoritism or neglect, the task force described what it called an effort to replace Christian observance with a related LGBTQ-focused event. It accused Biden of “replacing Easter” with Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place every March 31 and coincided with Easter in 2024, according to the Associated Press summary. The reporting also notes that Biden issued proclamations honoring both occasions, while the task force argued that Biden showed “profound lack of consideration for the Christian faith.”
The report’s criticism extended to other faith-policy signals, including how federal diplomats display messages. It faulted the Biden administration for flying Pride flags at U.S. Embassies, including at the Vatican, according to the Associated Press account. Melissa Rogers, who served under Biden as executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, contrasted what she said were Biden’s Easter messages this year with Trump’s, and said Biden “spent Easter and Orthodox Easter wishing Christians worldwide joyful Resurrection Sundays” rather than attacking Christian institutions or figures. Rogers also said Biden’s administration officials met regularly with Christian and other faith leaders to cooperate on matters including sanctuary security, immigration and support for COVID-19 clinics.
Beyond the diplomatic and holiday examples, the report also pointed to federal regulatory and enforcement disputes in which Christian groups sought exemptions or challenged specific government directives. The Associated Press account says the task force criticized a Biden-era Justice Department memo that discussed possible efforts to prevent violence and threats targeting school boards, noting that the discussions did not lead to federal action and that Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the idea as intended to curtail violence rather than inhibit policy debate. The task force’s report did not, in the Associated Press description, provide a direct explanation for how it determined anti-Christian bias in that material, though the reporting said school board meetings during that period drew conservative Christians and other critics who denounced lessons and policies on issues such as gender and race.
The report also criticized agency denials connected to Christians’ requests for exemptions from policies such as COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and it cited what it described as regulatory actions affecting religious practice. The Associated Press summary says the task force pointed to federal regulators that told a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma to snuff its chapel candle, describing it as a safety hazard because of the risk of combustion to patients using oxygen equipment; the hospital was allowed to keep the candle after installing a barrier and warning notice.
In higher-education enforcement, the report cited federal fines the Biden Department of Education imposed on two Christian universities—Grand Canyon University and Liberty University—according to the Associated Press summary. The reporting says the Trump administration cleared Grand Canyon University of the charges and rescinded the fine.
The report’s critics said the task force failed to demonstrate that the examples it selected add up to persecution. Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, criticized the report as “cherry-picked anecdotes” and said courts—not partisan reports—should resolve any legal disputes if the government overreached. Tyler also said focusing government resources on that narrow issue while discounting broader instances of anti-religious discrimination against other faith groups harms religious freedom for all.
The Associated Press account said the report’s release comes as a separate Religious Liberty Commission created by Trump prepares a report on its own findings, with hearings that included many of the same grievances the DOJ task force cited.