The Inquisition held secretive interrogations; citizens were encouraged or compelled to report heretical behavior. By encouraging anonymity, Trump’s Task Force is emboldening workers to spy on each other; creating a culture of suspicion and fear. The Inquisition was religious intolerance and abuse of power on steroids. Sans brutality and physical initiation, nevertheless the impact of Trump’s Task Force – thus far limited to U.S. federal institutions — appears to be heading down a path of religious orthodoxy.
Trump is escalating its war on church-state separation. Led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the new “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force” — established by a Trump Executive Order 14202, issued February 6th, setting up a White House Faith Office headed by televangelist Paula White — recently convened a meeting of the Task Force at the Department of Justice. The room was packed with Christian nationalist cabinet members and framed as a defense against persecution.
Christians now, and since the founding, have held majority power in this country. Trump’s task force is not about ending bias—it’s about further institutionalizing power in favor of a single religion. And one way of consolidating power is by stoking fear.
In early April, the State Department ordered employees to report any instances of “anti-Christian bias.”
This week, the Department of Veteran Affairs sent out the following internal email titled “Message From The Secretary: Task Force on Anti-Christian Bias.” In the message, Secretary Douglas A. Collins encouraged all VA workers to spy on their co-workers and report any thing that a worker might claim to be anti-Christian bias. The memo from the VA’s chief makes no mention of bias against Muslims, Jews or any other religious believers other than Christians.
The 11-point e-mail “Message” declared that the Veterans Administration (VA) “is establishing its own Task Force to better effectuate the Department’s internal review. The VA Task Force now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to vog.avnull@gnitropeRsaiBnaitsirhC-itnA.
“Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”
Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana reported that “The email from Collins, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Air Force chaplain turned politician, lists 11 kinds of bias or discrimination — three of which specifically name Christianity — ranging from retaliation in response to requests for religious holidays or religious accommodations to discipline against chaplains in response to their sermons. The email also says the task force will “review all instances of anti-Christian bias” but makes no mention of how to report discrimination of any other faiths” (https://religionnews.com/2025/04/22/veterans-affairs-asks-employees-in-email-to-report-anti-christian-bias/).
According to The Guardian, “The email states that the department will review ‘all instances of anti-Christian bias’ but that it is specifically seeking instances including ‘any informal policies, procedures, or unofficially understandings hostile to Christian views.’
“In addition, the department is seeking ‘any adverse responses to requests for religious exemptions under the previous vaccine mandates’ and ‘any retaliatory actions taken or threatened in response to abstaining from certain procedures or treatments (for example: abortion or hormone therapy)’” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/veterans-affairs-anti-christian-bias).
Soon after Trump’s executive order, Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, “expressed concerns with the focus on anti-Christian bias but not religious liberty when Trump issued his executive order in early February.
“We have strong concerns that this new task force could be weaponized to enforce a theological conformity that will harm everyone’s religious freedom, including those of Christians,” she said. “Today’s action is consistent with inflaming the completely unfounded claims of rampant Christian persecution in a majority-Christian nation.”
The Inquisition enforced its mandate through brutality and intimidation. Trump’s Task Force, which encourages anonymous reporting of so-called anti-Christian bias, is fostering a culture of surveillance and fear. With the administration hell-bent on redefining religious freedom as privileges for Christians only, we’re no longer talking democracy—we’re talking theocracy. This isn’t about “religious freedom” — it’s about Christian supremacy.
The post Trump’s Christian Nationalist Twenty-First Century Inquisition first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Bill Berkowitz.