Two watchdog groups are using the Freedom of Information Act to seek details of the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.
Democracy Forward and Interfaith Alliance joined forces in making information requests of the Small Business Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Justice and Department of State.
President Donald Trump created the task force via an executive order Feb. 6 titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.”
The task force was charged with reviewing all federal departments and agencies for “anti-Christian bias” and recommending actions for the president to “rectify past injustices of anti-Christian conduct.”
A news release from Democracy Forward and Interfaith Alliance noted: “There has been no evidence of widespread anti-Christian bias in the United States and experts have found that perpetuating this myth is deeply offensive to the actual persecution of Christians around the world.”
Steven Bressler, senior legal adviser at Democracy Forward, said: “Tolerance is not antithetical to faith, and using our government to imply otherwise is a dangerous affront to true religious liberty. Democracy Forward is proud to work with the Interfaith Alliance to investigate this task force, increase this administration’s accountability, and protect our freedom of religion.”
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, concurred there is no evidence of an anti-Christian bias in federal government.
“We fear this task force will in fact persecute those, including Christians, who don’t align with a particular religious agenda — and circumvent anti-discrimination laws under the guise of protecting religious freedom,” he said. “The task force convened by Attorney General Bondi has dangerous potential to enshrine preferential treatment for a narrow set of right-wing Christian nationalists. Nothing could be more harmful to true religious freedom in our democracy.”
In a series of FOIA letters to the various involved agencies, the organizations asked to see:
- All calendar entries concerning task force meetings
- Records reflecting the organization of the task force
- All guidance, directives or communications sent to task force members
- All solicitations for records of anti-Christian bias submitted to date
- All reports of alleged anti-Christian bias submitted to the task force
- All electronic communications between DOJ officials and Michael Farris of Patrick Henry College, Scott Hicks of Liberty University, former Navy SEAL Phil Mendes, and First Liberty Institute
The first meeting of the task force focused solely on grievances of conservative evangelicals against the Biden administration.
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