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Adam Russell Taylor writes in this week’s SojoMail that President Donald Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force only recognizes one very narrow type of Christianity:
One of the more alarming aspects of the Trump administration is the way it seeks to instrumentalize Christianity — both as a weapon against its political opponents and to reward its political supporters. Perhaps President Donald Trump’s most prominent example of this in his second term is through his executive order on “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” which created a task force that held its inaugural meeting last month. The task force’s initial meeting catalogued incidents from the Biden administration that supposedly constituted federal anti-Christian bias. After the meeting, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins sent a department-wide email asking employees to “submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination” within the VA, citing “any retaliatory actions taken in response to religious holiday observances” and “any observations of mistreatment for not participating in events or activities inconsistent with Christian views” as examples. Liberty University’s provost, Scott Hicks, spoke at the task force’s kickoff meeting, citing his school’s $14 million fine for sexual assault-related campus safety violations as evidence of disparate treatment. Hicks didn’t contest the actual safety violations. He simply argued that the high fines were evidence of anti-Christian bias. I agree that our Constitution requires that our government not show privilege to any religious organization or group. Past administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have created multifaith advisory councils to strengthen the partnership between the federal government and faith-based organizations that can better serve communities and advance the common good. But this is a worthwhile goal that is altogether different than the misguided focus of Trump’s task force.
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