- Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias: A newly released 500-page report compiled by 17 federal agencies says Christians faced discriminatory treatment under Biden administration policies.
- Policy conflicts over social issues: The report says many tensions arose around abortion, gender identity and sexuality policies.
- Internal communications cited as evidence: It highlights government emails and discussions describing Catholicism as 'radical-traditional Catholic ideology.'
- Targeting of religious schools and universities: Faith-based institutions received a disproportionate share of enforcement actions, fines and regulatory pressure.
A massive interagency report published Thursday sheds light on anti-Christian bias wielded by federal agencies during former President Joe Biden’s administration from 2021-2025.
It offers 300 pages of exhibits and 200 pages of reports collected by 17 federal agencies.
Much of the depicted bias arose from conflicts between the Biden administration and traditional religious practices. “These conflicts frequently arose over abortion, gender ideology and sexual orientation. Ultimately, the Biden administration penalized Christians who lived in accordance to their beliefs,” the report said.
A Biden-era assistant secretary of Education for Civil Rights, Catherine Lhamon, refuted the claims, telling Politico there was no “animus involved” in the department’s regulations.
“I can guarantee that there was no religious discrimination that operated to infect any of our investigations,” she said.
Emails describe Catholicism as ‘radical-traditional Catholic ideology’
The report documents hostility toward Christians in emails sent between federal employees.
One email from November 2022 shows two government workers discussing whether someone named Lopez was involved with “radical-traditional Catholic ideology.”
The sender is requesting information as to whether Lopez “share(d) his ideology or intentions with anyone in the congregation,” whether Lopez was “in contact (to include physical, electronic, social media, etc.) with other adherents to radical-traditional Catholic ideology,” and whether Lopez “frequent(ed) radical-traditional Catholic websites, the accounts of radical-traditional Catholic social media personalities, etc.”
Anti-Christian bias within the Education Department
From 2021 to 2025, nearly 70% of the Department of Education’s 87 enforcement actions involved faith-based or career education schools, despite these institutions representing only 10% of students.
The department banned at least 12 Christian colleges from receiving financial aid or issuing them fines to “force them ... into implementing a specific agenda,” the report said.
Christian schools were fined an average of $815,000, while public and private institutions were fined an average of $228,571.
The report added that the Biden administration treated differing sects of Christianity dissimilarly. “Christians who ascribed to traditional Christian morality relating to abortion, marriage and human sexuality were targeted for their beliefs.”
When policy goals came in conflict with religious liberty, the Biden administration “almost always” favored policy, the report said. “The Biden administration prioritized protecting certain groups from being offended at the expense of religious beliefs and conscience protections.”
Religious universities received harsher treatment, report says
The report includes a section illuminating bias against Christian universities, including Grand Canyon University in Arizona and Liberty University in Virginia, both of which were fined disproportionately large sums compared to other universities.
The private, nondenominational Christian college, Grand Canyon University, was accused by the Biden administration of “falsely advertis(ing) a lower cost than what 98% of students end up paying to complete certain doctoral programs.”
As a result, Grand Canyon University was issued a $37.7 million fine. In a House Appropriations Committee, then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said his department was “cracking down not only to shut them down, but to send a message to not prey on students.”
Three independent evaluations found no such tuition issues, the report said.
Meanwhile, the Education Department fined Liberty University $14 million for its treatment of sexual assault victims and failing to report campus crime.
The fine was given under the Clery Act and was “by far the largest ever levied” under the law, The Associated Press reported.
Upon announcing the settlement, Liberty said the Biden administration’s “methodologies, findings and calculations ... were drastically different from their historic treatment of other universities.”
In 2019, the federal government fined Michigan State University $4.5 million under the Clery Act, and in 2020, fined the University of California, Berkeley, $2.35 million.
The report says an executive order fueled the bias
On the day of his inauguration in January 2021, former President Joe Biden signed an executive order, directing all executive branch agencies to ensure that everything — all policies, documents and regulations — in their control “prevent(ed) and combat(ted) discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
The order didn’t reference religious exceptions. “The agencies often quickly complied, to the detriment of religious freedoms,” the report said.
Thursday’s report also gave significant attention to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which concluded that any employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates the Civil Rights Act.
Through Biden’s term, the Justice Department extended Bostock’s reasoning to incorporate many issues around sex and sexual orientation, which ultimately infringed on religious liberty, the report said.