The DOJ’s report on anti-Christian bias mistakes policy for persecution, advocates say

When the U.S. Department of Justice released its report on “eradicating anti-Christian bias” last week, the argument it sought to settle had long hardened along familiar fault lines.

For some, the document confirmed what they see as a years-long sidelining of Christian voices in public life. For others, it read less like a civil rights diagnosis and more like a reframing of political grievances as religious persecution.

The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, established by executive order in February 2025 and chaired by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, included numerous members of the Cabinet, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler.

In their 565-page report—with appendices—the task force catalogued a cavalcade of issues it believes show systemic bias against Christians, from abortion policy to gender identity discrimination guidelines to public school lessons about race to vaccination against COVID-19.

Pointing to federal actions, legal interpretations, and enforcement priorities that, in its telling, disproportionately burden Christian individuals and institutions, the task force concluded that “in its zealous pursuit of its preferred policies and constituents, the Biden Administration engaged in anti-Christian bias, seeking to limit Christians’ ability to act in concert with their sincerely held beliefs in their homes, in the workplace, and in the public square.”

Yet critics argue the report rests on a foundational assumption that treats policy disagreement as persecution, taking different political positions in a pluralistic democracy and casting them as evidence of anti-Christian hostility.

“The bulk of the report consists of cherry-picked anecdotes that omit crucial context and legal basis,” Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty said in a press release.

Tyler argued the report reflects a selective and politically driven interpretation of events, adding that disputes over religious liberty are “best worked out in the courts, not in partisan political documents.”

Tyler’s critique questioned the scope of religious freedom encompassed in the report as well. “Make no mistake: religious freedom only exists when it is enjoyed by everyone,” she said, warning that focusing narrowly on alleged anti-Christian bias risks ignoring broader patterns of discrimination affecting other groups.

By “advancing certain theological views … not shared by all faiths or even all Christians” and seeking special protections for them, she said, the task force risks perpetuating “the very bias it purports to eradicate.”

Claims of religious persecution in the media

Religious persecution is a profoundly human story.

Deeply held beliefs, issues of identity and belonging, power and exclusion, violence and reconciliation all play a role in telling that story, which makes it particularly compelling for reporters to cover.

Yet religious persecution is among the most complex issues journalists can report on.

Across the globe, individuals and communities face threats to their freedom of religion or belief.  Such threats include limitations on, not only how people worship and care for their sacred spaces, but also on how they live their public and private lives — because of who they are and what they believe. At the same time, narratives about these violations can be shaped, amplified or distorted by political interests, cultural anxieties and media ecosystems that reward simplicity and dissension over nuance and systems-thinking. 

Journalists have a responsibility to illuminate injustice without reinforcing misleading tropes or inflaming tensions.

This guide offers you the tools to navigate the topic as it plays out in the media, offering background, resources and a special interview with Candace Lukasik, author of Martyrs and Migrants (NYU Press). 

The Spiritual Is Political: Georgia’s Peace Cathedral as a Hub for Pro-Democracy Religious Resistance

Draped in a Georgian flag, protective goggles over her fashionable eyeglasses, and wearing a European Union flag for a scarf, Keti Chikviladze is standing with hundreds on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It is the 150th consecutive day of protests in front of the Georgian Parliament building, demanding the resumption of Georgia’s progress toward European Union membership, railing against a series of laws limiting free speech, and calling for fresh parliamentary elections.

On November 28, 2024, following months of mounting tension and conflict with the European Union, Georgia’s ruling party, Georgian Dream, suspended the country’s bid to join the EU. Since then, hundreds and thousands of protestors have shown up every night to block traffic along Tbilisi’s main symbolic, cultural, and political artery. On numerous nights, Chikviladze has been one of them, there to counter what human rights organizations report are systematic crackdowns on civil society, media, political opposition, and a turn away from European democratic standards and toward Russian-style authoritarian practices.

Beyond her political activism on Rustaveli Ave., Chikviladze is also the co-founder of the first liberal Jewish movement in the Caucasus region—Dor L’Dor (meaning “generation to generation”)—along with her husband Mikheil “Misha” Grishashvili and others. Just two weeks before the April 28 protests marking 150 days, Chikviladze was welcoming attendees of multiple faiths at the community’s Passover seder. Organized around themes of democracy, justice, and peacebuilding, the haggadah for the evening retold the story of the exodus from Egypt connecting enslavement in the Hebrew Scriptures to what it means to be a citizen in Georgia today. One participant, Benny, said the haggadah reminded him of the need for Jews and others to stand up for freedom, liberation, and democracy “right here, right now.”

The Chikviladzes’ progressive Jewish community, however, does not have support from Georgia’s wider, and larger, Orthodox Jewish community—in part because its physical home is in a church, the Peace Cathedral.

The Peace Cathedral, sometimes called the Peace Project, was originally established in 1867 as the First Baptist Church of Tbilisi. Embodying a legacy of bold social justice, inclusivity, and courage in the face of opposition, it is the mother church of the country’s Evangelical Baptist Church. But in 2017, its leader, Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, reimagined—and managed to rebuild—it as a multi-faith sacred space, with a synagogue, mosque, church, temple and oratory housed under one roof and sharing a single entryway.

More than a spiritual home for members of multiple faith communities, it is a place for homegrown political activism as well.

And as the human rights situation in Georgia deteriorates at a rapid rate, the Peace Cathedral could serve as a proving ground for how building coalitions and working across differences might be part and parcel to restoring Georgia to the path of democracy, and a potential model for other countries facing an assault on democracy and human rights violations today.