The Biden administration enacted policies intended to weaponize the federal government against conservative Christians, according to a report released April 30 by the U.S. Justice Department.
The controversial 208-page report was created by President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, established by executive order in February 2025. Church-state watchdog groups have criticized the task force’s composition and mission from the start, saying it is all about airing evangelicals’ imagined grievances.
The new report claims the Biden White House was adamantly opposed to a “Christian worldview” and determined to shut down “traditional religious practices” wherever it could.
Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, was perhaps the most religiously observant president in recent history. However, evangelicals believe his policies contradicted what they call a “Christian worldview.”
“Ultimately, the Biden administration penalized Christians who lived in accordance with their beliefs.”
“These conflicts frequently arose over abortion, gender ideology and sexual orientation,” the report says. “Ultimately, the Biden administration penalized Christians who lived in accordance with their beliefs.”
The report claims: “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 task force has interpreted the enforcement of federal law during the Biden presidency as ideologically motivated attacks against conservative Christians. Examples include prosecutions of anti-abortion protesters under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, fines levied against Christian universities for false reporting violations, mandating COVID vaccines for federal and some private employers, and prohibiting organized religious activities at government facilities.
Pope Leo XIV greets US Vice President JD Vance, during the Holy Mass for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration at St. Peter’s Square. (Photo by Maria Grazia Picciarella / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
“The Biden administration regulated and suppressed religious speech that it did not like and curtailed Christians’ ability to jointly worship and study the Bible,” the report claims. And the Biden administration was fixated in shutting down “traditional Catholics” because of their anti-abortion views, the report says.
There is a sharp divide among Catholics today, with the traditionalist segment — which includes current Vice President JD Vance — in conflict with the Vatican and Pope Leo XIV, who adheres to Catholic social teaching the traditionalists say is “woke.” This is the source of the current conflict between Pope Leo and the Trump White House over the war in Iran and the treatment of immigrants.
The report claims the FBI under Biden “investigated, monitored, tracked and scrutinized traditional Catholics who had engaged in no criminal misconduct.”
It further charges the IRS under Biden was involved in the mistreatment of Christian pastors “because they applied biblical teachings to daily life.” That is a reference to the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and other nonprofits from endorsing political candidates but does not prohibit teaching or preaching about values or issues.
Trump’s task force claims the Biden administration appeared “to investigate Christians whose religious values aligned with conservative political views, while appearing to ignore open endorsements of liberal candidates at other churches.”
In its preface, the new report stakes an explicit claim of Christian nationalism: “Our nation’s origin and system of government bear the imprint of a Christian worldview and ethic, even as its laws protect religious pluralism. Christian beliefs, in conjunction with contemporary political thought and economic realities, influenced Colonial settlers in their decision to overthrow tyranny and pursue independence. After the Revolutionary War, Christians then informed the structure and contents of the United States Constitution, its amendments and contemporaneous state constitutions.”
“Christians then informed the structure and contents of the United States Constitution, its amendments and contemporaneous state constitutions.”
The task force operated in secrecy despite Freedom of Information lawsuits filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Democracy Forward and Interfaith Alliance. The litigation included demands for documentation of how federal agencies cooperated with the committee’s investigation.
Opponents of the task force cited its composition as indicative of its agenda. Its membership includes most of Trump’s cabinet members, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and White House Faith Office leader Paula White-Cain. Attorney General Pam Bondi chaired the task force until her firing April 2.
Todd Blanche
DOJ said the report included findings from more than 17 federal agencies through which the Biden administration allegedly waged its campaign of religious discrimination.
“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” Acting Attorney General and new task force chair Todd Blanche said in releasing the report. “As our report lays out, the Biden administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans. That devastation ended with President Trump.”
Not so fast, countered an array of church-state separationist groups and others monitoring the favor the Trump administration bestows on evangelicals as a privileged class.
Rachel Laser
The report’s function was to advance a narrow form of Christianity, said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“The executive summary alone confirms what we have been saying all along: The administration’s claims that it has uncovered extensive evidence of anti-Christian bias within the federal government are unfounded,” she said, claiming the report merely repeats the threadbare and misleading accusations the Trump administration has been making all along.
“The task force is doing exactly what we expected: Imposing its narrow view of Christianity on the country and attacking freedom and equality, especially for women and LGBTQ Americans.”
Paul Raushenbush
Likewise, Interfaith Alliance President Paul Brandeis Raushenbush called the report an “abominably hypocritical” effort to spread the lie that American Christians are being persecuted.
“To find anti-Christian bias, the Trump administration should look in the mirror at its own targeting of Christian communities and leaders who dare to oppose its extreme agenda. From attacking Pope Leo to (Episcopal) Bishop Budde to so many others, this president has repeatedly threatened and clashed with many of the most prominent Christian denominations in our country,” he said.
The task force report consists solely of “bogus findings,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
The purpose of the task force, she added, “was to presume and look for bias against only one class, conservative Christians, and seek to expand protections only for them.”