SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Trump Administration has released a lengthy report on what it calls anti-Christian bias in the federal government. It details numerous instances that it says are examples of the Biden administration persecuting Christians for their beliefs. With me now to talk about the report is NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Hey, Jason.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Hello.
DETROW: Let's dig into what the report found. What are some of the examples of bias it cited?
DEROSE: Well, first, Scott, some context. President Trump called for this report in an executive order just weeks after he returned to office, and a Department of Justice task force looked at 17 federal departments and agencies and has now put out this 200-plus-page report. Among other things, it says Biden's Justice Department pursued, quote, "aggressive prosecutions" against Christian demonstrators at clinics where abortions are performed but responded, quote, "less aggressively" to attacks on Christian pregnancy resource centers. Those are places that dissuade women from having abortions.
Here's another example. The report says the previous administration imposed disproportionately heavy fines on a Christian university, which the Department of Education under Biden accused of functioning as something of a diploma mill, and it compares that with lower fines against Penn State and Michigan State for abuse - sex abuse scandals at those schools.
DETROW: So those are some specific cases. What does the report say about broader policies, things that people might call culture war issues?
DEROSE: Well, that's a sizable part of what this report focused on. One example is that the Biden administration tried to, quote, "mandate an adoption of a view on sexual orientation and gender ideology with limited religious exceptions." Now, what that means is the report says anti-discrimination laws should have greater exemptions for religious beliefs. So if, say, a county clerk were opposed to same-sex marriage for religious reasons, she'd not have to, say, sign her name to a marriage license for a gay or lesbian couple.
DETROW: You mentioned that this is something that President Trump signaled very early on. A lot of conservative Christian groups have been waiting for this report. How are they reacting to it?
DEROSE: Well, they're pleased, for the most part. Jeremy Dys is senior counsel with the conservative Christian legal group First Liberty Institute. He says, many of these recommendations in the report have already been implemented, such as how the Trump administration allows for broad accommodation for people declining COVID vaccines for religious reasons.
JEREMY DYS: We know that it has restored religious liberty to the workplace, and we want to carefully recognize the rights of conscience of our employees. And so we're going to take a careful look at how we accommodate people of faith within our workforce.
DEROSE: Dys says he hopes greater religious accommodation will also now be picked up at the state level.
DETROW: What about people who worked in the Biden administration? What are they saying?
DEROSE: Well, Melissa Rogers served as the head of the White House Office on Faith-Based Initiatives under Biden. She calls this report from the Trump Justice Department absurd.
MELISSA ROGERS: What the DOJ document is largely doing is not even trying to present even an arguable allegation of targeting and discrimination, but rather pointing to certain differences over law and policy between an administration and certain religious communities.
DEROSE: She says, describing disagreements over law and policy as being anti-Christian is deeply troubling because it actually privileges one way of being Christian, a conservative one.
DETROW: Any sense what the administration will do with this report next?
DEROSE: Well, no real call for additional actions because, as Dys says, the Trump administration has already essentially reversed what it says the Biden administration was doing to persecute Christians.
DETROW: Let's just zoom out and put this report in a broader perspective of how the administration has been talking about religion.
DEROSE: Well, this report, Scott, uses the term traditional Christian over and over again throughout how it discusses defending Christian beliefs. Now, many of the concerns in this report - abortion, vaccines, LGBTQ rights - are the concerns of conservative white evangelicals who are an important base for Donald Trump, a base of support for him. The report also describes Christians as something of a persecuted minority. But, you know, Scott, in reality, two-thirds of Americans identify as Christian, and that's definitely not a minority.
DETROW: That is NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Thank you so much.
DEROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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