Biden Administration Persecuted Christians with ‘Traditional Biblical Views,’ DOJ Report Reveals

The Biden administration carried out “aggressive persecutions” against Christians who hold “traditional biblical views” according to a Department of Justice report released Thursday.

The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias found the Biden administration “zealously” investigated Christians and even kept tabs on Catholic priests. The report also detailed the Biden administration’s efforts to undercut conscience rights by rejecting religious exemption requests for employees at federally funded institutions who objected to mandatory vaccinations and transgender accommodations, among other instances of anti-Christian bias.

Biden officials “forc[ed] Christians with traditional biblical views to choose whether to live in accordance with their faith or risk violating federal law,” the 200-page report reads. “The Biden Administration generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held but zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith.”

The report confirms and further illuminates the findings of a previous investigation by the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group, which found the Biden DOJ specifically persecuted pro-lifers, weaponizing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Pro-lifers’ homes were raided by the FBI, they were given longer sentences than their pro-abortion counterparts, and abortion groups shared pro-lifers’ personal information with the administration.

“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 reads.

The egregious bias spanned across numerous agencies under the former president, with the report even detailing bias against Christians by the Internal Revenue Service.

“In one matter, the Biden IRS denied a Christian organization’s application for tax-exempt status because its ‘[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3),'” the report reads.

Further, the Biden Education Department fined Grand Canyon University — a private Christian university in Arizona — $37.7 million over tuition-cost reporting, a disproportionate punishment as compared to the fines imposed in similar previous cases. The former secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, said the department was “cracking down” to “not only to shut them down, but [also] to send a message not to prey on students.”

The report released Thursday also includes new details around the infamous January 2023 FBI memo advocating the targeting of “radical-traditionalist” Catholics. Produced by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, the memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has a record of maligning conservative groups as “extremist.” The memo was distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees but was later retracted after it was leaked and inspired a public backlash.

The FBI’s Richmond Virginia Field Office compiled the memo as part of an investigation into a local “priest and an entire Catholic sect” which began after agents learned that a “career criminal” attended a certain Richmond parish. The criminal in question was stockpiling weapons and explosives.

Xavier Louis Lopez was a self-described “radical traditional Catholic Clerical Fascist.” Agents, as a result, began tracking the parish’s priest and his family.

“Lopez had attended Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) Chapel for approximately seven months and participated in three or four catechism classes as part of the process to become baptized,” a January 2023 email from an FBI agent reads.

“FBI Richmond attempted to interview the priest … who was not cooperative. Additionally, he has been to see Lopez six times in jail,” the email continues. “According to [redacted] he frequently flies back to Kentucky. It appears that his uncle is key people [sic] in the SSPX-MC organization.”

The Society of Saint Pius X is an uber-traditional sect of Catholicism, rejecting many Second Vatican Council reforms and practicing the Traditional Latin Mass.

Ultimately, Lopez was convicted, and sentenced to eight years and one month in prison for possessing destructive devices. The Trump administration, however, found that the Biden FBI’s use of Lopez’s statement and the SPLC memo was an inappropriate “justification to launch a two-pronged attack against traditional Catholics.”

“The Richmond Field Office opened a law enforcement profile, known as a Guardian profile, on Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Society SSPX Chapel, a church that played no role whatsoever in Lopez’s acquisition or possession of the destructive devices,” according to the Trump administration report.

The priest was initially reluctant to speak with FBI officials, saying he needed to speak with a lawyer before revealing information about his congregation. The FBI Richmond office found this reluctance to be “suspicious.”

Both then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland publicly apologized for the 2023 memo. According to emails, however, senior FBI officials stood by the investigation. Wray, specifically, called the memo “appalling.”

Stanley Meador, the special agent in charge of the Richmond field office at the time of the memo, told his colleague who authored the memo “No apology needed.”

“Keep that head up, this too shall pass. Will make for a great chapter in your memoirs some day!” Meador wrote in a July 2023 email. Meador now serves under Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger as Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security.

The continued support of the work ostensibly reflects the agents’ support of the administration’s targeting of “radical-traditionalist” Christians.

Additionally, on Biden’s first day in office, he reversed the Trump administration’s directive regarding Bostock v. Clayton County, in which the Biden DOJ far surpassed any protections guaranteed by the Supreme Court’s ruling and mandated widespread acceptance of gender ideology in the federal government.

Biden’s order expeditiously reversed a Trump-era memo that guaranteed the federal government would “respect its employees’ right to express traditional views,” particularly on marriage and gender issues.

Repeatedly under Biden, religious exemptions regarding gender ideology were viewed as harmful, and the administration pushed its interpretation of Bostock, even though federal courts continually rejected said interpretation.

The 200-page report is extensive, detailing a plethora of examples, including the Biden administration’s removal of Nigeria from a list of countries of concern for religious freedom despite the genocide of Christians in the country. Further, on Good Friday, Biden issued a proclamation for a “Transgender Day of Visibility,” which was to be celebrated on the same day as Easter Sunday.

“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who leads the task force, said in a statement. “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.”