U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet have launched a task force to address anti-Christian bias in federal agencies that they argue escalated under the Biden administration.
The goal of the task force is to identify any unlawful, anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct across the government; seek input from the faith-based organizations and state governments to end anti-Christian bias; and find and fix deficiencies in existing and regulatory practices that might contribute to anti-Christian bias.
“The Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses,” Bondi said at the task force’s first meeting. “Pro-life Christians were arrested and imprisoned for peacefully praying outside abortion clinics. The FBI spied on traditional Catholics in their parishes. … Vandalism against churches was eight times higher in 2023 than it was in 2018.”
“No longer,” she said. “We ended those abuses at the Department of Justice on Day One. We dropped three ongoing cases against pro-lifers. … Just a few weeks ago, we convicted a man in Arizona for a plot to bomb Christian churches. The Department of Justice will protect religious liberty for Christians and for all Americans,” she said.
The task force was launched in response to an executive order issued by Trump but also in response to pledges Bondi and others made during their confirmation hearings.
In response to questions raised by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, Bondi vowed to investigate DOJ weaponization of people of faith, The Center Square reported.
In mid-2022, attacks by abortion activists increased against a range of prolife targets and U.S. Supreme Court justices ahead of the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion case, Roe v Wade. At the time, protesters were targeting justices’ homes and 25 attorneys general and U.S. senators called on the DOJ to enforce a federal law prohibiting anyone from targeting judges’ homes, The Center Square reported. It ignored their request.
More than 100 pregnancy care centers and 300 churches were attacked, vandalized and firebombed, but the DOJ prosecuted only two cases, Hawley said. The Biden administration DOJ wouldn’t “lift a finger to defend [prolife] Americans but at the same time they used … the Face Act to prosecute at least 53 different pro-life demonstrators,” Hawley said.
Prior to being confirmed as FBI director, Kash Patel also told Hawley he would investigate who wrote a Jan. 23, 2023, FBI Richmond, Virginia, field office memo “making a list of Catholic churches and parishes that they regard as potentially suspect and directing the potential recruitment of informants and other spies” into them, The Center Square reported.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised concerns about some Christian Foreign Service Officers being threatened for homeschooling their children, including being referred to the IRS, threatened with prosecution, and investigated by the Inspector General’s Office.
He also cited examples of State Department employees being harassed because they refused to take the experimental COVID-19 vaccine, citing religious reasons. He also discussed allegations that religious freedom policy offices and programs were sidelined unless they promoted diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Biden administration threatened the St. Francis Health System in Oklahoma to put out a sanctuary candle or lose Medicare, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program funding and agency rules dissuaded Christians from becoming foster parents.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Oregon educators were fired for helping others teach without violating their conscience in response to so-called gender identity education policies and how public schools were transitioning minors without parental consent or knowledge.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said the Biden administration implemented “financial surveillance” and removed certain IRS tax classifications of Christian and pro-life organizations through a “debanking” process and FinCEN’s identified certain pro-Christian groups as “hate groups.”
The Biden administration brought federal criminal charges and obtained multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen pro-life Christians who prayed and demonstrated outside abortion facilities. Those convicted included a Catholic priest, a 75-year-old grandmother, an 87-year-old woman, and a father of 11 children who was “arrested 18 months after praying and singing hymns outside an abortion facility in Tennessee as a part of a politically motivated prosecution campaign by the Biden Administration,” Trump said in his order. On his third day in office, he “rectified this injustice … by issuing pardons in these cases.”
Trump said his administration “will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians” and that Americans will be protected to practice their faith in peace, and those targeting them will be brought to justice.
Reproduced with permission. Original here: Bondi leads task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’ in federal agencies | National | thecentersquare.com