- On Tuesday, April 22, the White House Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias officially launched.
- The task force includes over a dozen top government officials. It will comb through government and law enforcement agencies for signs of anti-Christian bias.
- What exactly does anti-Christian bias look like, to what extent does it exist, and what can the task force do about it?
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.
Joining her were members of the task force as well as people allegedly 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 and regulatory practices that might contribute to the anti-Christian bias,” Bondi said.
In her remarks, Bondi repeated some of Trump’s criticisms of the Biden administration, saying that the previous White House “engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians.”
She criticized the Biden administration for “targeting” pro-life protestors, allowing the FBI to “spy” on Catholic parishioners and declaring March 31 the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which last year fell on Easter.
“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 would 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,” including state, local and Tribal governments and faith groups, including churches, will likely be consulted in the process of creating a rubric for bias.
Examples of bias mentioned by Bondi include law enforcement singling out protests by Christians while ignoring offenses by non-Christians and vandalism of churches, which has increased since 2018.
The task force fits into the broader context of Trump’s engagement with Christians. He campaigned on promises to advance legislation favorable to some Christian groups and employed various tactics to curry favor with Christian voters, including selling a “God Bless the USA Bible”, speaking at Christian events and holding prayers with Christian leaders.
Since his election, Trump has not reduced his support of policies traditionally backed by Christians. 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 anti-Christian bias actually exists?
The question remains: How much anti-Christian bias actually exists in the U.S., and how effective will the task force be at eradicating what does exist?
Christian Americans is still the largest demographic within the United States, but the number of Christians has been shrinking in recent years.
Nevertheless, data from the FBI shows that only 3% of hate crimes over the past five years targeted Christians; while, 14% was targeted at Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, though those groups make up only 3% of the population.
In 2019, research also established that 32% of all Americans like conservative Christians “significantly less” than other groups. Other statistics suggest that Christians and conservatives face institutional bias from higher education.
The task force is empowered to make changes to hiring quotas within the federal government, possibly promoting the retainment and advancement of Christian employees.
Further, the task force may also pull strings when it comes to bias in higher education — as the government is already doing, as the Deseret News previously reported.