While addressing the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 6, President Donald Trump announced the formation of a task force to oppose alleged “anti-Christian bias” in American society. The task force will be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi and include several members of the Trump cabinet and other government officials.
Trump later issued an executive order asserting that under President Joe Biden, the federal government had “engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”
Americans United blasted the creation of the task force and challenged Trump’s assertion that anti-Christian bias is rife in American society.
“Americans United believes that all people, including Christians, should be able to live as themselves and believe as they choose so long as they don’t harm others,” said AU President and CEO Rachel Laser. “But rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws. We’ve seen Christian Nationalists do this already, turning the sacred concept of religious freedom on its head and into a license to harm others.
“If Trump really cared about religious freedom and ending religious persecution, he’d be addressing antisemitism in his inner circle, anti-Muslim bigotry, hate crimes against people of color and other religious minorities, but instead, he’s abolishing federal programs and protections that address those wrongs,” Laser added. “This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to make America into an ultra-conservative Christian Nationalist nation.”
Laser concluded, “This is part of the Christian Nationalist crusade to remake our country. Not on our watch. Americans United and our hundreds of thousands of supporters across the country will not stop fighting for church-state separation until this nation lives up to its promise of freedom without favor and equality without exception.”
Trump also appointed Paula White, a controversial TV preacher and proponent of the “prosperity gospel,” to head the renamed White House Faith Office. White led the same office during Trump’s first term.
Americans United criticized the appointment.
“Televangelist Paula White was unfit to serve in the White House when Trump first appointed her in 2019 and she’s still unfit today — particularly in a position that could focus on combatting discrimination and advancing religious freedom for all,” Laser said in a media statement. “White is a Christian Nationalist powerbroker who’s spent much of her career operating in the shadows to influence public policies that discriminate against women, LGBTQ+ people and religious minorities, and the nomination of partisan judges who will support those harmful policies.”