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Here’s what most people do when they hear of the president’s “Anti-Christian Bias Task Force”…
They roll their eyes. 🙄
Why?
Because Christianity is still the dominant religion in the United States.
And this task force is coming from a president whose behavior looks anything BUT Christlike.
But this administration is serious.
They just released a massive government report arguing that conservative Christians are being persecuted by the federal government.
This isn’t really about Christian persecution. It’s about Christian privilege.
This week on The Justice Briefing we talk about: The Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and Christian Privilege.
Inside the Report
The Trump Administration created the “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” through Executive Order 14202.
Coordinated by the Department of Justice and involving no less than 17 federal agencies, the report argues that the Biden Administration targeted conservative Christians over issues such as abortion, gender identity, sexuality, and what it calls “traditional morality.”
The framing is openly partisan from the start. The administration’s own press release says the report exposes the Biden Administration’s “radical efforts to punish Christians” while highlighting Trump’s efforts to “restore religious liberty.”
Throughout the report, the administration portrays conservative Christians as victims of government hostility.
Conflicts over abortion, LGBTQ rights, COVID policies, workplace protections, and education are all presented as evidence of anti-Christian bias.
The report consistently centers a particular form of conservative Christianity and presents it as under siege.
At the center of this conversation is a struggle over whose Christianity receives cultural legitimacy, political influence, and the backing of state power.
Religious Freedom vs. Religious Privilege
This report highlights the difference between religious freedom and religious privilege.
Religious freedom means people can practice their faith without government coercion or punishment. Religious privilege is when one faith gets to dominate all others in the public square.
The Anti-Christian Bias Task Force and the report they generated are not about protecting religious freedom but enshrining religious privilege.
One of the most significant aspects of this report is the way it defines anti-Christian bias.
In this report, “bias” is framed almost entirely around perceived hostility toward conservative, fundamentalist Christianity.
The administration describes its efforts as a return to “equal justice under law,” yet the report consistently privileges one theological and political expression of Christianity over others—white Christian nationalism.
These fundamentalist religious beliefs are treated as uniquely burdened, and opposition to those beliefs is often described as discrimination rather than disagreement within a pluralistic society.
This approach is deeply tied to grievance politics, which has long animated white Christian nationalism.
The movement gains momentum by convincing people that Christians are under siege, that “real Americans” are losing their place in the country, and that outside forces are taking something from them.
The language is emotionally powerful because it taps into fear, loss, and resentment. “They’re coming for us.” “America is being stolen.” “Christians are victims.”
These narratives mobilize people politically by portraying “traditional” Christians as an embattled group fighting for survival.
What’s At Stake
True faith has never depended on controlling political power.
Christianity has often lost moral credibility when it became too closely aligned with governments and empires.
Some of the clearest witnesses to the Christian faith have come from communities pushed to the edges of society rather than those seated at the center of authority.
Oppressed believers around the world continue to practice courage, compassion, conviction, and hope without controlling the state.
The early church lived under empire. The Black church endured slavery and segregation without holding institutional power.
Christians in the United States now face a spiritual challenge that goes beyond politics. We have to learn how to follow Jesus without assuming we will always occupy the center of cultural life.
It is on the margins of political power and cultural favor where the truest faith may be found.
Have American Christians become too accustomed to cultural dominance to recognize the difference between disagreement and persecution?
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