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A new report compiled by the Trump administration reveals that the Biden administration treated Christian organizations and individuals much harsher than their secular counterparts, pointing to a pattern of what acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche calls the “devastation” of Christians.
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The U.S. Department of Justice released a report titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Within the Federal Government” Thursday. The report, which spans about 200 pages and contains over 300 pages of exhibits, was compiled by the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.
“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” said Blanche, who serves as chair of the Task Force to Eradicate Christian Bias. “As our report lays out, the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans. That devastation ended with President Trump. The Department of Justice will continue to expose bad actors who targeted Christians and work tirelessly to restore religious liberty for all Americans of faith.”
One of the main findings of the report was that the Biden administration imposed disparate penalties on Christian institutions and pro-life activists compared to their liberal or secular counterparts. The report cites statistics documenting prosecutions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which subjects anyone who “intentionally injures, intimidates, or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person” who provides or assists in the provision of abortions to federal charges.
In addition to subjecting pro-life protesters to federal charges, the FACE Act imposes federal charges on anyone who targets religious houses of worship, and its protections also apply to pro-life pregnancy centers.
“The Biden DOJ requested an average sentence of 26.8 months for pro-life defendants, compared to 12.3 months for pro-choice defendants,” the report stated. “Pro-life defendants were ultimately sentenced to an average of 14 months, while pro-abortion defendants were sentenced to an average of 3 months.”
The report also maintains that the Biden administration selectively enforced the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits nonprofit organizations, including churches, from engaging in political advocacy or supporting political candidates. For example, New Way Church in Florida was investigated by the Biden administration after a school board candidate spoke at the congregation, and Grace Church in St. Louis faced scrutiny for outlining “positions local candidates held” as a tool to educate voters.
By contrast, the report found “no public indications” that the Biden administration opened investigations into the more than 1,600 faith leaders in the U.S. who backed former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
The report cited data from the American Principles Project, finding that 59 of 87 actions taken by the U.S. Department of Education were targeted at “faith-based or career education schools.” This accounts for roughly 70% of all enforcement actions despite the fact that these schools only educate 10% of students. Another finding from the report revealed that the average fine imposed against a Christian school amounted to $815,000 compared to $228,571 against secular public and private institutions.
One of the most notable enforcement actions taken during the Biden administration was a $37.7 million fine against Grand Canyon University for allegedly engaging in deceptive advertising, despite the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit finding no evidence of wrongdoing by the Christian school. Liberty University also faced a $14 million fine for allegedly violating a federal law requiring transparency about “public safety issues” at institutions of higher education.
Several years earlier, when Pennsylvania State University made national headlines for violating the same law by failing to report acts of child molestation by assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, it was fined a much smaller amount of $2.4 million. When Michigan State University was found to have violated the law by not reporting illicit sexual behavior by team physician Dr. Larry Nassar, its fine was $4.5 million.
When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted faith-based outreach efforts between March 2023 and January 2024, the agency met with 20 Muslim organizations, 18 Jewish organizations, one Sikh organization and 20 organizations characterized as “interfaith groups whose invitees and content require further review to determine inclusivity.” Just two of the groups DHS met with as part of its faith-based outreach were explicitly Christian.
“This disparity is notable given that Christians comprise an estimated 62 percent of the U.S. population,” the report states. The document also cites testimony from DHS employees who alleged that “Within the workplace, employees were directed to avoid explicit reference to Christian celebrations like Christmas, while similar directives were not provided in cases of holidays celebrated by other religions.”
Additional actions taken by the Biden administration that were flagged as problematic in the report include the denial of economic injury disaster loans from the Small Business Administration to nearly 170 Christian organizations on the basis of their faith and awarding less than half of Federal Emergency Management Agency funding reserved for religious nonprofits to Christian organizations.
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This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Joe Biden, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87229821.
