WASHINGTON (RNS) — A new government report accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of fomenting “anti-Christian bias” is being met with mixed reactions from Christian leaders, with some conservatives celebrating the study and others arguing it appears narrowly focused on the concerns of evangelical Christians and obscures President Donald Trump’s own conflicts with faith groups.
The report, which was released on Thursday, is one of the first public actions by the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, a body created by President Donald Trump in February of last year. Written by a group primarily composed of Trump’s cabinet members, the study concluded that while the Biden administration “generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held,” the government under the former president’s leadership nonetheless “zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith.”
The report, which stretches for more than 500 pages, alleges the wide array of incidents it highlights represent clashes between the Biden administration and a “Christian worldview” — particularly among what the report calls “traditional Christians,” who hold conservative-leaning views on abortion, gender and sexual orientation.
Among the report’s claims are allegations that anti-Christian bias was present at various federal agencies during the Biden administration, including the Departments of Justice and Education, the latter of which is highlighted in the report for what the authors argue was an unfair focus of “enforcement actions against Christian universities.” The report argues that Christian colleges such as Liberty University and Grand Canyon University were made to pay larger fines than other schools that were scrutinized by the Biden administration.
The report also accused the Biden administration of using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — which bars certain behaviors directed at those seeking an abortion — as the “enforcement arm for abortion non-governmental organizations.” It pointed to the monitoring and prosecution of Christian anti-abortion demonstrators who blockaded an abortion clinic, some of whom were pardoned by Trump.
The report was celebrated by figures such as Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, a conservative group that is cited in the report. In a blog post, Perkins said the task force had “produced one of the most, if not the most, substantive works of this administration.”
Similarly, Kelly Shackelford, who leads the First Liberty Institute and sits on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, called the report “shocking.”
“The Biden administration’s record of hostility toward Christian Americans is despicable and should serve as a warning,” Shackelford said in a statement. “We can never let this happen again.”
But the report has also garnered ample criticism. In a call with reporters on Friday, Melissa Rogers, who led the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships under Biden and former President Barack Obama, derided the report.
An AI-generated image that President Donald Trump shared on social media. (Screen grab)
“It’s absurd to say that President Biden’s administration was anti-Christian,” said Rogers, who noted she is a lifelong Baptist. “He firmly believes, as I do, that we must protect religious freedom for everyone, everywhere, in equal measure.”
Rogers also referenced a series of controversial social media posts made by Trump around Easter, such as his use of profanity when referring to Iran, decrying Pope Leo as “weak on crime” and posting an image that depicted himself as a Jesus-like figure.
“It’s also worth noting that 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,” Rogers said.
She was echoed by Amanda Tyler, who leads the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Tyler said any examples of government “overreach” regarding religious freedom should be handled by “courts of law, not a partisan political report,” and accused the report’s authors of using “cherry-picked anecdotes that omit crucial context and legal basis for the policies and actions it takes issue with.”
She also expressed frustration with what she said was the report’s suggestion that Christianity and the U.S. government have long had a close relationship.
“The Baptist contribution to our nation’s founding is in the advocacy for the separation of religion from government,” she said.
Tyler was one of several speakers on the call who also argued that the report seems to focus on what authors of the report call “traditional Christians.” She noted that Christian beliefs and practices have long been a source of debate throughout Christian history.
“What they talk about as ‘traditional Christianity’ … they’re really just going to focus on conflicts around abortion, gender ideology and sexual orientation,” Tyler said. “They’ve narrowed, in the report, Christian theology to those three topics.”
Robert Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute, noted that on all three of those issues, polling from his group shows as many or even most Christians holding more liberal positions. A slim plurality of Christians overall support the right to an abortion in all or most cases (50% versus 48%), he said, and majorities support the right to allow gay and lesbian people to marry (56%). In addition, roughly two-thirds said they favor laws that would protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination.
The recurring outlier, he said, is white evangelicals, who often take a different view.
“The idea that there’s a broad anti-Christian — writ large — bias and that Trump is on the side of all Christians really just doesn’t hold up when you look at the data,” Jones said, adding a majority of Christians (54%) also have an unfavorable view of the president.
The report does acknowledge a spectrum of Christian belief. In one section, after citing a series of Bible passages, the report notes that “some Christians argue that these verses should be understood in a manner different than traditional Christians,” but adds that “only the latter” were “subjected to hostility by the Biden administration.”
Even so, the study also draws from conservative Christian sources when defining Christianity itself. A section devoted to outlining “Christian beliefs” uses some broader sources, such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and statements from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, but it also initially cites G.K. Chesterton, a Catholic Christian apologist popular in conservative Catholic circles. The section and another immediately following then cite a series of prominent evangelical Christian voices, such as the late pastor Timothy Keller, theologian John Piper, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and commentator Allie Beth Stuckey. The report’s authors also quote Scripture exclusively using the English Standard Version of the Bible, a translation first published in 2001 and created by “more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors,” according to the translation’s website.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers did not directly respond to questions about the criticisms of the report, instead reaffirming the authors’ overall conclusions.
FILE – President Joe Biden, center, standing with first lady Jill Biden, left, and Rabbi Aaron Alexander of the Adas Israel Congregation, participates in a memorial candle-lighting in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“The Biden Administration weaponized the full weight of the federal government against people of faith, specifically Christians — this is the second report that reinforces that with real examples,” the spokesperson said. “There has never been a bigger champion for Christians than President Trump, and his track record proves it: he has proudly defended and expanded our religious rights, pardoned pro-life activists, stopped the chemical mutilation of our nation’s children, and protected parents’ rights.”
But on the press call, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons of Interfaith Alliance, which is also suing the administration over the makeup of the president’s religious liberty commission, noted that a growing number of Christian groups and other religious organizations, as well as individual faith leaders, have accused the Trump administration of violating their rights. Dozens of religious groups — including entire Christian denominations — have signed on to four separate lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to rescind an internal policy that discouraged immigration raids at houses of worship. And clergy in Illinois and California have filed legal complaints after federal agents were filmed shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and pepper rounds as they were protesting Trump’s immigration policies.
In addition, priests, nuns and faith groups have filed two separate lawsuits demanding the administration allow clergy to have more access to detainees; more than a hundred faith leaders have been arrested protesting Trump’s policies since he was inaugurated; and the president has repeatedly sparred with Catholic leaders who have been critical of him — including Pope Leo.
“The greatest threat to Christians exercising our religious liberty in the United States today is the Trump administration itself,” Graves-Fitzsimmons said.
The task force is slated to produce another repot in 2027.
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