President Trump signed an executive order Feb. 6 to create a task force to stop “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government.” He announced his intentions at the 73rd annual National Prayer Breakfast hours before signing.
The order, titled “Task Force to End the War on Christians,” establishes a task force within the Department of Justice to ensure that “any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.” The task force, led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, will “review the activities of all executive departments and agencies,” “identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies,” and “recommend to the head of the relevant agency steps to revoke or terminate any violative policies, practices, or conduct.”
“While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” Trump said. “And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God.”
The order references the federal criminal charges the Biden administration placed on pro-lifers, including Paulette Harlow, 75, who received a two-year sentence for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The order also mentions an 87-year-old woman and a father of 11 children, who were arrested almost a year after they had prayed and sang hymns outside a Tennessee abortion facility.
Some of the 23 pro-lifers Trump pardoned in January attended the National Prayer Breakfast, held at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., including Harlow. Trump mentioned her case, stating she had been “peacefully praying outside a clinic.”
Trump labeled the Biden administration’s prosecution of pro-life advocates as “persecution.”
“In recent years, we’ve seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history,” Trump said.
The order refers to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Biden, which attempted to force Christians to subscribe to gender ideology by requiring them to hire against their faith. Meanwhile, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services pushed Christians who did not support gender ideology out of the foster care system. The order also acknowledges that Christian churches and places of worship faced a sharp increase in reported incidents of hostility and vandalism between 2018 and 2023.
“If we don’t have religious liberty,” Trump said, “then we don’t have a free country.”
