A Justice Department task force accused the Biden administration of using federal power to pressure Christians whose beliefs conflicted with its positions on abortion, gender ideology, sexuality, and religious conscience.
In a 200-page report released Thursday, the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias said Biden officials often tolerated private religious belief while moving against public religious practice.
"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 said.
The task force said federal agencies "forc[ed] Christians with traditional biblical views to choose whether to live in accordance with their faith or risk violating federal law."
One focus was the FBI's 2023 Richmond memo on "radical-traditionalist" Catholics, which the report said relied on "baseless allegations" from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The report said the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, office scrutinized Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Society of Saint Pius X Chapel after Xavier Louis Lopez — later sentenced to eight years and one month for possessing destructive devices — had attended services and catechism classes there.
"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," an FBI employee wrote in a Jan. 5, 2023, email.
The Society of Saint Pius X is a traditionalist Catholic group that opposes many of the changes adopted by the Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s and is widely known for promoting and preserving the Traditional Latin Mass.
Although the task force said Lopez's arrest was lawful, it faulted the FBI for using his religious statements to broaden scrutiny of 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," the report said.
Agents also questioned Lopez's priest, "who was uncomfortable and noted that he would need to speak with the church's attorneys before providing any additional information about his congregant."
The report said that response "was reasonable," but FBI officials treated it as suspicious and used it to justify a wider review.
After the memo became public, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray called it "appalling" and told lawmakers that "as far as what we can tell," it "did not result in any investigative action, none."
But the task force said internal FBI messages showed some officials were unbothered by targeting Christians.
Stanley Meador, then head of the Richmond field office, told the colleague who authored the 2023 memo: "No apology needed."
The report also accused the Biden DOJ and Department of Health and Human Services of abandoning Trump-era protections "to vindicate conscience rights," citing "a Christian nurse" who was "coerced … into participating in an abortion despite her religious objections."
"The Biden Administration's policies regularly clashed with a Christian worldview and burdened traditional religious practices," the report said.
"No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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