Religious Privilege Is Not Religious Freedom: BJC Responds to Administration’s Anti-Christian Bias Report

For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Karlee Marshall | [email protected] 

WASHINGTON – Amanda Tyler, executive director of BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty), issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias report:

Furthering religious privilege for a few is not expansive religious freedom for all. With the release of this one-sided report, the administration continues to show that it is interested in advancing the interests of some at the expense of everyone else’s freedom. The bulk of the report consists of cherry-picked anecdotes that omit crucial context and legal basis for the policies and actions. The report selectively highlights grievances while misrepresenting the legal framework – the First Amendment’s “no establishment” and “free exercise” clauses – that work together to ensure everyone’s freedom in a pluralistic society. Disputes over when these laws are violated are best worked out in the courts, not in partisan political documents like this one. 

Make no mistake: religious freedom only exists when it is enjoyed by everyone. Focusing government resources on this narrow issue, while ignoring or discounting the much more widespread instances of anti-religious discrimination against other faith groups in the United States, further harms religious freedom for all. 

This country’s religious freedom tradition requires the government to safeguard everyone’s freedom, not elevate or denigrate any particular religion. This task force and its report violate those principles by advancing certain theological views – positions not shared by all faiths or even all Christians – and claiming special government protection for them. The Baptist contribution to our nation’s founding is in advocacy for the separation of religion from government. This commitment is rooted in being a disfavored and persecuted sect under the prior system. In its misguided advocacy for a particular subset of Christians, the administration perpetuates the very bias it purports to eradicate. 

Rooted in a Baptist commitment to soul liberty, BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) is a 90-year-old organization building a movement toward a just society that cultivates and expands religious freedom for all. BJC is the home of Christians Against Christian Nationalism.