U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi held a press conference Tuesday where she formally launched the White House Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.
The issue of anti-Christian bias extends as well into the halls of academia.
U.S. President Donald Trump mandated the task force through a Presidential Executive Order in February. The decision is designed to end the anti-Christian weaponization of government and unlawful conduct targeting Christians.
Joining the attorney general were members of President Trump’s cabinet and key government agencies as well as people purportedly affected by anti-Christian bias during the Biden administration.
“Together, this task force will 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 and existing regulatory practices that might contribute to the anti-Christian bias,” Bondi said.
The attorney general was clear: “The Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses.”
Christians under the administration of Joe Biden were subjected to abuse and spying from federal agencies, Bondi claimed. She criticized the previous administration for “targeting” pro-life protestors, allowing the FBI to “spy” on Catholic parishioners — declaring March 31 the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which last year fell on Easter.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has already requested that their workers relay instances of “anti-Christian” bias via an email established for that purpose. Firstpost reported a similar internal memo was circulated among U.S. State Department staff, earlier this month.
“The First Amendment isn’t just a line in the Constitution, it’s the cornerstone of our American liberty,” Bondi said. “It guarantees every citizen the right to speak freely, worship freely, and live according to their conscience without government interference. Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism. It’s upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise.”
What Will the Task Force Actually Do?
As designated by Trump’s executive order, the task force includes the secretaries of state, defense, and education, the director of the FBI and the United States’ representative to the United Nations, among other high-level officials.
According to the executive order, the task force will:
- Review all activity within the federal government for anti-Christian policies and practices.
- Identify and address gaps in law and law enforcement that permit “anti-Christian conduct.”
- Recommend further presidential and legislative action to “rectify past wrongs.”
It has not yet been established exactly what constitutes Christian bias or how the existence of such bias will be determined, but “various stakeholders” — state, local, and tribal governments as well as faith groups — including churches, will likely be consulted in the process of creating a rubric for bias.
Since his election, the president’s support of policies traditionally embraced by the Christian faithful in America has not diminished. At the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, Trump told the crowd he is “bringing religion back” to the United States in his second term.
How Much Bias Against Christians Actually Exists?
According to a recent Pew Research Survey, at least a third of Americans believe that Christian evangelicals face some degree of discrimination — and divisions occur along party lines.
Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to say that evangelical Christians (70 percent vs. 32 percent), whites (58 percent vs. 25 percent) and men (48 percent vs. 27 percent) are subject to at least some discrimination.
Others argue, somewhat cynically, that Christians are merely mistaking their loss of privilege for persecution.
So, are anti-Christian attitudes widespread, or is this hyperbole? In his book So Many Christians, So Few Lions, George Yancey documents that roughly 32 percent of Americans believe conservative Christians are victims of prejudice. In comparison, about 44 percent of Americans think Muslims are discriminated against while 40 percent are similarly opined about our Jewish population.
Logic demands that if we’re concerned about anti-Muslim prejudice in America and antisemitism everywhere, shouldn’t we also be equally concerned about anti-Christian prejudice, somewhere?
The issue of anti-Christian bias extends as well into the halls of academia. There is research indicating that conservative Christians face discrimination in higher education. Stanley Rothman and Robert Lichter at George Mason University find that academics with socially conservative perspectives are relegated to lower-status academic positions, even when controlling for their productivity. Albert Gunn M.D. and George Zenner M.D. of the University of Texas-Houston Medical School find similar evidence of religious discrimination against Christian medical students.
Yancey, a professor of sociology at the University of North Texas, focuses his research on racial and ethnic bias. His newest study in “Compromising Scholarship” documents the bias of university faculty against members of various groups — including Christians.
Although Christians make up approximately 75 percent of the American public, only about 30 percent of academic scientists identify as Christian, making Christians one of the most underrepresented groups in science.
Studies through the National Institutes of Health indicate that perceived bias against Christians in science may contribute to underrepresentation of Christians, but actual bias against Christians in science may be restricted to a specific type of Christianity that some scientists consider fundamentalist or evangelical.
Some will argue that Christians still have advantages in America, such as political power. It may well be the case that there are benefits to being a Christian in the United States. But such advantages do not negate the fact that among the socially and politically powerful liberal ruling class, unfair treatment of Americans due to anti-Christian bias and other forms of religious prejudice is not just a possibility — evidence patently discloses its existence. As Christianity is foundational to traditional American culture and history, it is imperative that we rid ourselves of this scourge.
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