HUD Probes If Pronoun, Vax Police Discriminated Against Christians

Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi convened the first meeting of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the federal government. The initiative follows on the heels of President Trump’s executive order signed in early February “to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.”

Bondi noted a long line of abuses in the Biden administration. 

“Biden’s Department of Justice abused and targeted Christians. Pro-life Christians were arrested and imprisoned for peacefully praying outside abortion clinics. The FBI spied on traditional Catholics in their parishes,” the attorney general said, noting President Joe Biden issued a proclamation celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday. 

‘Contrary to the Constitution’ 

Acting to fulfill the president’s executive order, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is asking its employees, contractors, and subcontractors to provide information “regarding any HUD or individual policies, practices, or conduct involving anti-religious bias” during the Biden administration and to make recommendations on how to remedy acts of bias. 

The Task Force will collect information and ideas from federal employees, including HUD staff, that have experienced anti-Christian bias or other forms of religious discrimination. The task force will then compile a report on its findings. 

“These reports will inform new recommendations on the revocation or termination of any violative policies, practices, or conduct to the relevant agencies,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner wrote Monday in an email to employees exclusively provided to The Federalist. “Although the E.O. addresses anti-Christian bias, targeting anyone for their religious beliefs is discriminatory and is contrary to the Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and other federal laws.”

The department has established a dedicated survey form to collect the submissions. The deadline is May 12. Employees may report anonymously. Examples of anti-Christian bias practices include: 

Discrimination, harassment, exclusion, disciplinary action, adverse security clearance determinations, or any other adverse action, or retaliation for exercising religious rights;

Mistreatment while or for requesting religious accommodation, including religious accommodation from taking mandatory vaccines or observing religious holidays;

Mistreatment for expressing one’s religious beliefs or refusing to participate in events or activities that promoted themes inconsistent with or hostile to one’s religious beliefs, including policies or practices related to preferred personal pronouns;

Forcing employees to remove personal displays of religious faith or conscience, whether as part of clothing/accessories, items on desks, or in personal workspaces, etc.;

Refusing to provide to someone (including a member of the public) a service, a benefit given to others, or an entitlement because of that person’s faith, religious beliefs, or expression of those beliefs; …

Retaliation for exercising legal rights as related to religious discrimination, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.

‘Egregious Penalties’ 

Witnesses at the first Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias included Phil Mendes, a Navy SEAL who was relieved of duty during the Biden administration for not taking the Covid-19 vaccine. His religious exemption requests were denied by the Department of Defense. And Scott Hicks, provost and chief academic officer at Liberty University, testified on how the school and Grand Canyon University were singled out by the Biden administration for fines because of their Christian worldview. 

The universities were hit with a combined $51.7 million in fines, “greater than the value of all enforcement actions levied by the Department of Education over the past seven years,” The National News Desk reported last year. A report from the American Principles Project found Biden’s Department of Education “disproportionally penalized Christian and vocational institutions.”

“The report, authored by APP Director of Policy Jon Schweppe, found nearly 70% of penalties enforced by the Biden Department of Education’s Office of Enforcement were directed at ‘Christian institutions and career colleges,’” the news outlet reported.

Schweppe noted the striking disparities in the fines levied against Christian and “woke” universities. 

“Employing a scrutinize-and-penalize strategy and executive regulatory fiat, the Department has targeted Christian colleges and universities with baseless accusations, sensationalized public-opinion campaigns, and egregious penalties—with the goal of shutting down these schools, which do not comport with the administration’s ‘woke’ agenda,” Schweppe wrote.

Ending the Weaponization

Accomplice media outlets have outlandishly portrayed the Trump administration executive order, the task force, and the tracking of discriminatory practices and conduct in the Biden administration as a way to turn employees against each other. Useful idiot Politico last month asserted the State Department’s effort to document discriminatory behavior “encourages State Department employees to report on one another through a tip form that can be anonymous.” The story then goes on, without a trace of self-awareness, to quote anonymous disgruntled State Department sources. 

“‘It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque,’ said one State Department official, who was granted anonymity because the individual was not allowed to speak openly about internal department affairs,” Politico’s Robbie Gramer and Nahal Toosi wrote. 

Bondi said the Department of Justice is working to ensure that discrimination and other forms of abuse against Christians don’t continue and that no American tax dollars are “used to support the weaponization of our legal system to target Christians.” 

In a statement to The Federalist, Turner said the Biden administration created a hostile work environment “by pushing a radical agenda that was the antithesis of many faiths.”

“President Trump promised to end the war on religion and has followed through on his commitment by signing an Executive Order to protect religious freedom and eradicate anti-Christian bias,” the secretary said. “At HUD, we want to hear from our employees and are giving them the opportunity to help this Administration protect religious liberty in government by sharing their personal experiences. We are doing this to send a clear message to every employee who wishes to participate that faith matters.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.