Task forces won’t cut it. Trump needs a truth commission.



No one’s cheering the pace of accountability since the Biden administration ended. Not even those who promised it. Bureaucratic obstacles, legacy systems built to resist scrutiny, and a federal culture allergic to transparency have slowed progress — sometimes to a crawl.

The reality is worse than expected. Even those with the best intentions have found it nearly impossible to extract and expose the truth. That failure isn’t just frustrating. It’s unacceptable.

A commission on political persecution would offer Americans what they’ve long been denied: justice, reconciliation, and a full accounting of the truth.

One of President Trump’s key promises for his second term was accountability — real, lasting de-weaponization of the federal government. His success will be judged by whether he delivers on that pledge.

Several months in, it’s clear the current approach may not be enough. What’s needed isn’t more subcommittees or working groups. What’s needed is a Trump-style solution: a big, beautiful operation designed to supersede the siloed efforts now underway.

Every new administration faces the same dilemma: clean up the last one’s messes while managing the day-to-day chaos of federal governance. Cabinet secretaries and agency heads walk into jobs already on fire. Few have the time, staff, or political will to launch sweeping internal investigations — especially when they’re tasked with running the agencies they’d be probing.

And time is the enemy. As months pass, political momentum cools. Distance sets in. Memories fade. I saw this firsthand during Trump’s first term. Having worked on the House Oversight Committee during the Obama years, I believed we would finally get answers about Benghazi, Operation Fast and Furious, and Hillary Clinton’s emails. We didn’t. Too many in Washington shrugged and said it was time to “move on.”

That can’t happen again.

The Biden administration oversaw one of the most sweeping and coordinated campaigns of federal abuse in modern U.S. history. Nearly every major department played a role.

The Department of Justice targeted pro-life activists and traditional Catholics. The FBI chased down January 6 defendants over misdemeanor charges and shattered lives in the process. Federal health agencies turned Orwellian, assuming censorship powers once considered unthinkable. Immigration authorities weaponized the law against citizens while rewarding illegal entry.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies manipulated information, partnered with tech companies to censor dissent, and colluded with legacy media to shape a false public narrative. All of this operated with one shared goal: crush political opposition, and above all, destroy Donald Trump.

This wasn’t rogue behavior. It was systemic. And systemic abuse demands a systemic response.

A few scattered task forces won’t cut it. Today, we have the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group, a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias, and another to combat anti-Semitism. Fine. But these efforts lack coordination, power, and focus.

They should be consolidated — or at least centralized — under a larger, empowered investigative body.

RELATED: Democrats smear, stall, and spin to stop Trump’s DC cleanup

francescoch via iStock/Getty Images

This new entity must have one mission: hold the weaponizers accountable. It must have real teeth — subpoena power, prosecutorial authority, the ability to grant immunity for witness testimony, and the mandate to provide restitution for the Americans harmed by the Biden administration’s abuses.

We’ve seen this before. The United States has convened truth-seeking bodies to investigate civil rights violations. Other democratic nations have formed “truth commissions” to heal from periods of state overreach.

A commission on political persecution wouldn’t just fulfill one of Trump’s key promises. It would offer Americans what they’ve long been denied: justice, reconciliation, and a full accounting of the truth.

If Trump wants to succeed where others failed, he must go big. Not with more bureaucracy — but with a focused, powerful effort to make the permanent government answer to the people again.

Here's the proof: Trump makes good on promise to defend Christians



President Donald Trump is taking more action on behalf of Christians, making good on his promise to defend the faith.

On Tuesday, prominent Christians and members of the Trump administration convened for the first meeting of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. Trump established the task force to correct the "egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses" that he said occurred in the Biden administration.

The Trump administration is exposing the rotten fruit of the negative world.

Shocking evidence to prove those allegations was presented at this week's meeting.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, presented evidence of bias against Christian foreign service officers who homeschool their children. Rubio said the Biden administration threatened the officers with allegations of child abuse or IRS investigations if they insisted on homeschooling. He also said Christians in the Biden administration were discriminated against for opposing DEI and LGBTQ ideology, stigmatized for opposing the COVID-19 shot, and had their religious holidays downplayed while non-Christian holidays were openly celebrated.

This is what other officials testified to:

  • FBI Director Kash Patel spoke about the anti-Catholic memo the FBI, under then-President Joe Biden, issued.
  • HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke about how the Biden administration targeted a Catholic hospital and exposed "progressive rules" the administration enacted against Christians hoping to become foster parents.
  • Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke about discrimination against Christians who oppose the LGBTQ agenda in education policy.
  • Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender discussed "financial surveillance" of Christian organizations under the Biden administration, which allegedly included weaponization of tax classification statuses, de-banking, and labeling certain organizations as "hate groups."
  • Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins revealed how the Biden administration allegedly punished a chaplain for preaching from the Bible.
  • Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley spoke about the Biden administration's campaign to advance anti-Christian gender ideology on children.
But that's not all.

The task force also heard allegations that the IRS under Biden targeted churches under the guise of the Johnson Amendment and claims that Liberty University and Grand Canyon University were targeted for fines over their Christian worldview.

"As shown by our victims' stories today, Biden's Department of Justice abused and targeted peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses," Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

Michael Farris, a celebrated attorney, said he thought the meeting would be "small" and "informal." But he was surprised when he learned just how serious the Trump administration is about defending Christians.

"I have been in a lot of high ranking meetings in my 40+ years in DC but this was over the top," Farris said.

"I was absolutely blown away. We heard frank stories of terrible treatment of Christians by the prior administration. In the military, by the FBI, by the State Department, by the Justice Department, the Education Department and more. And the solutions were swift, real, and incredibly inspiring," he continued.

"I have chaired meetings in the past where the top Christian litigators shared our most outrageous cases and where we were making plans to fight back," Farris explained. "Today’s meeting had that same spirit but with one major difference. These people actually run our government and were swiftly taken the kind of action that for a long time Christians have believed were demanded by justice. I was amazed and encouraged deeply in my soul."

The task force, Farris added, is proof that the Trump administration is following through on campaign promises "quickly" and "vigorously."

"If every believer could have seen this in person their hearts would be overflowing tonight," Farris said.

Not only is the Trump administration exposing instances of anti-Christian bias that happened in the Biden administration, but it is taking proactive measures to prevent such discrimination from continuing.

Earlier this month, the State Department and VA deployed memos to employees asking them to report incidents of anti-Christian bias. The goal is to completely eliminate all forms of anti-Christian discrimination from the federal government.

For a generation, American Christians have existed in a "negative world." Aaron Renn, who coined the phrase, explains:

Society has come to have a negative view of Christianity. Being known as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. Christian morality is expressly repudiated and seen as a threat to the public good and the new public moral order. Subscribing to Christian moral views or violating the secular moral order brings negative consequences.

Our faith has been mocked. Our values have been eroded and stigmatized. In a progressive world, faithful Christians have increasingly become an "other," the target of scorn and public ridicule.

But now, the Trump administration is exposing the rotten fruit of the negative world.

Clearly, Trump means business. The task force is more than a nod or gesture; it's a signal that anti-Christian bias will no longer be tolerated in the federal government. More importantly, Trump is sending a message to Christians everywhere: I see you. I hear you. I am willing to fight and to defend you.

Christians should celebrate this moment. Not because our hope is found in Washington, but because faithful Christians and biblical values have increasingly become stigmatized in the halls of powerful institutions. And now, that is changing.

Perhaps we are finally witnessing a reversal of the negative world.

Blaze News original: Trump gives willing parents hope by taking aim at anti-Christian bigotry in foster system



As has been widely reported, the Biden administration spent years persecuting Christians who live out their faith, even those who volunteered to serve as foster parents for some of the most vulnerable children in their community. Now that Joe Biden has left the Oval Office and President Donald Trump has once again entered it, some of these Christians are hopeful that the persecution they've endured in the foster-care and adoption systems will come to an end.

Blaze News caught up with several of these Christians whose travails in the foster-care and adoption systems made national news. All are hopeful that in Trump's second term, Christians will no longer suffer discrimination on account of their faith or risk compromising their most cherished religious beliefs in order to become foster or adoptive parents.

'Dangerous': Biden, faith, and foster kids

Though a Catholic who purports to attend Mass regularly and who once claimed that his faith "defines" him, Joe Biden spent more than a decade as vice president and then as president targeting fellow Catholics and other Christians who adhere to biblical teaching on issues such as abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender.

Early in his presidency, the Supreme Court seemed to warn against discriminating against faith-based organizations for adoptive and foster placements. In 2021, the justices unanimously ruled that the city of Philadelphia violated the First Amendment in severing ties with a Catholic foster agency because it would not certify same-sex couples.

All LGBTQ children should be 'placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity.'

That case, commonly referred to as Fulton, compelled Philadelphia and other blue municipalities and states to reconsider working with faith-based organizations for foster and adoptive care.

Nevertheless, Biden seemed to take a keen interest in gender- and sexually confused foster children. In 2022, he issued an executive order to address "disparities that LGBTQI+ youth face in the foster care system," pledging to keep them from the practice of conversion therapy, which he described as "dangerous."

He also called on foster parents to "affirm" the gender identities of foster children in their care and for agencies to create a pool of "affirming" families available for LGBTQ-identifying foster placements. All LGBTQ children should be "placed in foster homes where they will be protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive," Biden said in September 2023.

This fixation on LGBTQ-related issues prompted some states to begin openly discriminating against people of faith who stepped forward to serve as foster parents. And since Christians foster and adopt children at twice the rate of the general American population and fully 65% of foster parents regularly attend church services, this discrimination affected a large number of licensed and prospective foster parents.

'Their faith is not supportive': Kitty and Mike Burke

One of the most egregious cases of anti-Christian discrimination in the foster-care system involves Mike and Kitty Burke of Massachusetts. After discovering they could not have biological children, the couple decided to consider other parenthood options and sought to become licensed foster parents. Though they went through invasive home inspections and hours upon hours of training, the state Department of Children and Families ultimately denied the Burkes a license on account of their Catholic faith.

Kitty Burke told Blaze News that she and her husband were "absolutely devastated" about the denial. They appealed their case and partnered with legal experts at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who immediately filed a lawsuit on their behalf.

Photo from Becket Fund for Religious Liberty website. Used with permission.

According to documents included in the complaint, officials from the DCF and a private organization called 18 Degrees openly engaged in anti-Christian discrimination in the Burkes' case.

In a message dated October 2022, Linda-Jeanne Mack of 18 Degrees contacted Dawn Sweetman of the DCF to express "concerns" regarding the Burkes and LGBTQ issues.

"They had the 'right answers,'" Mack wrote, "but they are not supportive of LGBTQIA+ youth, we didn't even talk about trans youth."

"Their faith is not supportive and neither are they," Mack continued, even as she described the Burkes as "lovely people" who "have a lot of strengths." Mack then recommended approving the Burkes for a license — with conditions "specifically around religion and LGBTQIA++ related issues."

Screenshot of complaint

Five months later, social worker Tywanna Jones of the DCF apparently documented the decision of her license review team to deny the Burkes' application, despite "their willingness to parent a child w/moderately significant medical, mental health and behavioral needs" and to maintain connections with a child's birth family.

"Issue(s) of concern for which the couple's license study was denied is based on the couple's statements/responses regarding placement of children who identified LGBTQIA," Jones said.

Screenshot of complaint

Kitty Burke told Blaze News an entirely different version of events. She claimed that she and her husband repeatedly insisted that they would love and care for any child in their home, including sibling groups and children with disabilities.

"We more than had the space for it," she explained. "... We had a basically an open-door policy of children that we were ready to welcome into our home."

Burke noted that she, a former paraprofessional for special-needs students, and her husband, a former combat Marine who previously received treatment for PTSD, are in a unique position to care for vulnerable, traumatized children.

"My husband and I both work from home, so we are essentially stay-at-home parents, the both of us," she said.

'A foster parent shall not be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, color, [or] creed.'

Burke also claimed that during home visits and other communications, the state and 18 Degrees representatives harped on the couple's Catholic faith, often grilling them about the teachings of the Catholic Church.

"Most of the interview questions seemed to focus both on our faith and on the Catholic views on sexuality and marriage," she said.

In court documents, the Burkes said "much of the questioning centered around their views on sexuality and their response if a child were, in the future, to struggle with gender dysphoria or to identify as gay or lesbian."

"It was a lot of hypothetical questions," Kitty Burke told Blaze News.

Such probing questions about their church and denying the Burkes a license based on their religious identity also seem to run afoul of the state foster parents' bill of rights, which expressly prohibits such discrimination. "A foster parent shall not be discriminated against on the basis of religion, race, color, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age or disability," reads one of the first lines of the bill that is considered part of the Massachusetts General Laws.

District Judge Mark Mastroianni seemed amenable to the Burkes' allegations of discrimination in light of Fulton, ruling in the couple's favor after defendants in their lawsuit filed a partial motion to dismiss. The litigation in this case remains ongoing.

William Haun, senior counsel at the Becket Fund who represents the Burkes, told Blaze News that he is confident that his clients will ultimately prevail in court and that state foster agencies will no longer be able to use the "discretion" granted to them to ensure that kids are placed in well-suited homes as "a weapon against religious families or religious groups."

While Kitty Burke still expressed interest in fostering children, she emphasized that, first and foremost, she wants to prevent other people of faith from suffering the same discrimination.

"Our goal is to make sure that Massachusetts can never do this to a family again," she told Blaze News. "Because at the end of the day, it's the children who are the biggest losers. It's the children who are stuck living in these horrible situations."

Massachusetts DCF and 18 Degrees did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

'Because of your faith': Jay and Nancy Harmon

A similar situation with a much happier ending involves Jay and Nancy Harmon of Minnesota. After more than two decades as foster parents, the Harmons were nearly denied the opportunity to adopt one of their foster daughters because of their Christian faith.

Nancy Harmon shared her rather unique story with Blaze News. Nancy was actually once a Minnesota foster kid herself, after she reported to school officials one day that her abusive and alcoholic mother had threatened her with a knife the previous evening. Unbeknownst to Nancy, her English teacher, Barb, was at that time a foster parent and volunteered to care for Nancy in her time of need.

Those few months with Barb are some of Nancy's most cherished childhood memories. "The first time Barb gave me a hug, she just smelled amazing. I was just like, I never thought that a mom could be so loving, tender, and smell so good all in one breath," Harmon recalled to Blaze News.

Nancy and Jay married when Nancy was just 17, and they soon started a family. They also had a radical conversion to Christ and Christianity.

Nancy then felt compelled to care for foster children as Barb had once cared for her. The Harmons paired up with a Lutheran organization and began fostering children. Over the course of 24 years or so, they welcomed more than 50 children into their home without a major issue.

'Maybe I was naive.'

That all changed in early 2023, when the state asked the Harmons to consider adopting the three sisters who had already been living with them for approximately 18 months. After praying and talking it over, the Harmons agreed — only to have the state rescind the invitation to adopt the oldest sister.

Nancy learned the news that officials had changed their minds when she accidentally received an email that she wasn't meant to see. The email stated that she and Jay were not the right "fit" for the girl, who had expressed to an adoption worker some type of struggle with her sexual or gender identity, Nancy said.

When Nancy called caseworkers to inquire why her family was not "fit" to adopt the girl, she was told in no uncertain terms that it was because of their Christian faith.

"She's like, 'I'm so sorry. You weren't meant to receive that email.' And I said I need an explanation. Why do you feel like we're not the right 'fit'?" Nancy recalled to Blaze News.

"And she said, 'Just to be honest, it's because of your faith. It's because of your religious beliefs.'"

At a meeting a week later attended by the Harmons, the girl in question, and some adoption workers, Nancy received a similar explanation. "Both the county worker and the adoption agency that they were working through point-blank said, 'It's because of your religious beliefs,'" Harmon claimed.

The Harmons were "shocked," Nancy said, not only because they had never encountered this issue before after decades of fostering but because they had never even been asked about their religious beliefs regarding sexuality and gender.

"They didn't even ask if we would affirm her," Harmon told Blaze News, nor did they consult any of the mental-health professionals working with the girl before determining that the Harmons were the wrong "fit" for her.

Adoption agents then decided that the Harmons could proceed with adopting the two younger girls but that they would have to find an alternative home for the oldest, who was frustrated and furious that a private conversation could tear apart her family. The suggested compromise satisfied no one in the Harmon household.

"You're just going to split them up?" Harmon remembers thinking. "... Is that the best interest of the child? I don't think so."

After some continued wrangling, the girl's therapist eventually wrote a letter urging the court to keep the three girls together and to allow the Harmons to adopt them. The girls officially became part of the Harmon family in December 2023.

Looking back, Nancy still feels blindsided by the recent obsession with sexuality and gender in the foster-care system.

"It seems to me that all of a sudden there was this change about gender ideology that just flipped on a dime, for sure," she said, "and I didn't think it was going to affect us."

"I just thought I can just be the normal family that we are, that loves God and can take care of kids, you know? But that's not the case," she continued.

"Maybe I was naive."

Blaze News made contact with one supervisor involved with child protection and licensing in Nicollet County, where the Harmons live. The supervisor, who included pronouns in his email signature, then recommended contacting Health and Human Services Director Cassandra Sassenberg.

Sassenberg, who also included pronouns in her email signature, declined to comment, citing laws prohibiting release of data without permission from the subject or the court. She added:

Nicollet County Health and Human Services is not involved in all adoptions that occur within Nicollet County. To the extent Nicollet County is involved in adoptions and the selection of adoptive families, Nicollet County follows all guidance provided by the Department of Children and Family Services as well as Minnesota Statute ... when it makes recommendations to the court.

'It's a good sign': Hope for change under Trump

Earlier this month, just a couple of weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order demanding an investigation into anti-Christian discrimination in sectors and industries across America.

"My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians. The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my Administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms. My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified," it read.

The order, entitled "Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias," specifically mentioned the plight of Christians in the foster-care system under the previous administration. "The Biden Department of Health and Human Services sought to drive Christians who do not conform to certain beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity out of the foster-care system," it said.

Between the EO and Trump's recent pardons for Christians arrested in connection with peaceful protests outside abortion facilities, Christians are hopeful that they will no longer be targeted for their views on gender, marriage, and sexuality.

Andrea Picciotti-Bayer — the director of the Conscience Project who also filed amicus briefs on behalf of several beleaguered foster and adoptive parents, including the Harmons — is encouraged by what she has seen and heard from Trump.

"It's a good sign that he's stated publicly and very clearly that gender ideology is really a frontal assault on the well-being of America's youth," she told Blaze News.

Picciotti-Bayer reiterated that "Trump is very aware" of how the Biden administration foisted woke, gender-related ideology onto various federal agencies, including the State Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"He's very well aware of the need to extract the ideology out of the federal government," she said.

'It takes time to unwind all of the mess that's happened.'

The Harmons are likewise "thrilled" about the future in Trump's second term. "This gives our kids time and gives us hope that the executive order he signed will prevent many children from making a mistake that will affect them for the rest of their lives," Nancy Harmon said in a statement to Blaze News.

William Haun, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty senior counsel who represents the Burkes, also hopes that soon Christians across America will be able to live their faith openly without fear of reprisal from their government.

"Foster children nationwide are waiting to be welcomed into safe, loving homes. Unfortunately, there’s been a disturbing trend of state and local governments blocking children in need from forever homes like Mike and Kitty’s because of their religious beliefs. We are hopeful that the new administration will take steps to ensure families like the Burkes aren’t punished for their faith any longer," he said in a statement to Blaze News.

Still, everyone is keeping their expectations measured. Picciotti-Bayer warned that due to the nature of the administrative state, the process of removing that ideology won't be easy. "It takes time to unwind all of the mess that's happened," she said.

Haun also wants to see Massachusetts own up to targeting Christians like the Burkes for their faith. "I think the government needs to say, 'Hey, we're actually going to treat you fairly this time. We're not going to treat your religious beliefs like a problem,'" he told Blaze News.

"Until that kind of assurance comes through, I think, really, the ball's in Massachusetts' court."

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Left-wing writer mocks turning to God in response to Uvalde massacre with 'faith that allowed brutal enslavement to be the law of the land'



An opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times penned a Wednesday piece mocking the act of turning to God following the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, with the "kind of faith that allowed brutal enslavement to be the law of the land."

What are the details?

LZ Granderson begins his Times op-ed by lambasting "so-called religious conservatives" who "like to explain away national tragedies — be they natural or man-made — through the lens of God’s wrath, or at least indirect punishment for 'sins.'"

After picking on the likes of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and evangelical pastor John Hagee, Granderson writes that "they clearly have a period in mind in which they believe God was happier with the direction of the country, but our history makes it impossible to pinpoint a date without looking racist. So they tend to talk in nostalgic Judeo-Christian generalities."

He then invokes the aftermath of last week's mass killing in Uvalde, particularly the funerals for elementary school students beginning to take place — and adds that at these services "we’re going to be hearing a lot more of these generalities."

"With each passing day, it is clear that conservatives want to move the national conversation surrounding these mass shootings away from gun access and toward God," Granderson writes in his Times op-ed.

Specifically, he says conservative Christians like Hagee, Santorum, and Gingrich believe evil is to blame for massacres like Uvalde rather than guns: "The adherents of this thinking say after any horror: We have to fight evil."

"My question is how a nation that romanticizes, even monetizes, its own evil beginnings can even start to fight the kind of evil some of these politicos speak of," Granderson continues in his Times op-ed. "This is the country that turned Christopher Columbus from being lost at sea into a folk hero who 'discovered' a land full of people. We are the ones who rebranded slave labor camps as plantations."

He also suggests there's a "desire to see ourselves as good people," which is "much more pleasant for us than acknowledging we were never as holy as we like to tell ourselves."

Granderson then declares in his Times op-ed that "we don’t need to return the kind of faith that allowed brutal enslavement to be the law of the land for centuries. We don’t need to return to the kind of faith that allowed Jim Crow laws to follow."

After quoting Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — "You just cannot change character without changing a heart, and you can’t do that without turning to God" — Granderson writes that he'd ask Patrick, "When exactly did a nation built on stolen land, kidnapping, and enslavement turn away from God?"

He concludes his Times op-ed by saying "many of us don’t wonder how this evil came in. We wonder why people ... won’t admit it’s been here since the beginning."

Bibles removed from Easter display at veterans medical center gift shop after atheist group objects to them



Bibles recently were removed from an Easter display at a New Mexico veterans medical center gift shop after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation — an atheist activist group — objected to them.

What are the details?

The MRFF noted Wednesday that it managed to convince leaders at the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Administration Medical Center in Albuquerque to remove a display of Bibles and related Christian reading materials on "prominent display" in its Patriot Store facility on the first floor of the main medical building.

The MRFF said 10 employees and patients — seven of whom "identify as avid practitioners of the Christian faith" — complained and reached out to MRFF "for help regarding the unconstitutionality of that sectarian Christian literature display; especially as it was juxtaposed right next to an otherwise non-objectionable display of 'secular-ish' chocolate Easter bunnies, related holiday candy. and Easter bunny cutouts, et al."

According to MRFF, the displayed Bibles "completely violated the time, place, and manner restrictions of the VA’s own regulations as well as the No Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and its construing Federal caselaw."

The Bibles and other religious items were gone within 24 hours of the request, the MRFF added while praising the VA's quick actions.

Hold on a second

The American Center for Law & Justice caught wind of the issue and said it penned a legal letter — dated March 31 — to the interim director of the VA to "inform her that her decision, rather than upholding the Constitution, actually violated it" and "to demand that the display of Christian literature be returned forthwith to the gift shop."

The ACLJ insisted that the Constitution "requires the government to be neutral toward religion, to neither favor it nor inhibit it. By removing only the religious display while leaving the secular display of Easter bunnies, the government singled out religion for special detriment — which it may not lawfully do."

In addition, the ACLJ said "Easter is a time when many Christians exchange gifts. It makes sense for a gift shop to offer the type of items popular at Easter. Offering a religious product that visitors to your gift shop are looking for and wish to purchase — even in a gift shop in a federal facility like a VA Medical Center — does not mean that the government is either endorsing the message contained in the literature offered or favoring the faith group the literature reflects. To suggest otherwise is nonsense."

'Fighting Christian nationalism'

It isn't clear how or if the VA has responded to the ACLJ's demand to place the Bibles back on display in the gift shop. But the MRFF added on its website that the ACLJ is "constitutionally ignorant and religiously bigoted" and that the ACLJ's post about the controversy "repugnantly libels MRFF as 'anti-religion crusaders.'"

The MRFF added that it has "consistently – 24/7/365 – been at the forefront of fighting Christian nationalism in the military and our veterans' facilities."

As readers of TheBlaze are well aware, this is far from the first time the MRFF has raised objections of this sort:

Democratic NYC Mayor Eric Adams forces Christian minister — who wrote book that 'called homosexuality a sin' — to resign from education panel



Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams forced Christian minister Rev. to resign from an education panel — to which he recently appointed her — because it was discovered that she had authored a book that "called homosexuality a sin," the New York Times said.

Rev. Kathlyn Barrett-Layne, one of Mayor Adams\u2019s appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy, was forced to resign hours after it was disclosed she had written a book that called homosexuality a sin.https://nyti.ms/36h7HhD
— NYT Metro (@NYT Metro) 1648074002

What are the details?

Barrett-Layne leads Staten Island’s Reach Out and Touch Ministries, the New York Daily News said, adding that she had been one of Adams’ picks for the Panel for Educational Policy, which approves contracts for the city's Department of Education.

While Adams’ office had lauded Barrett-Layne as a minister who "spends her time inspiring people with her speaking and teaching in Bible studies," just hours after the Daily News published a story about her "anti-gay rhetoric," the paper said Barrett-Layne got the boot.

In her 2013 book “Challenging Your Disappointments,” Barrett-Layne wrote that Christian leaders "struggle with the same temptations of drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, pedophilia, stealing, lying, envy, covetousness, and every other sin" that people in the congregation "struggle with,” the Daily News said.

The Daily News characterized the aforementioned passage as placing "same-sex relationships in the same category of 'sin' as pedophilia and other crimes."

'A virulent homophobe'

LBGTQ advocates were furious and demanded Barrett-Layne's ouster.

Allen Roskoff, a longtime LGBTQ rights activist, told the Daily News he texted as much to Adams a few hours before Barrett-Layne was asked to resign.

Roskoff added to the paper that her firing was “only a partial victory" and that Barrett-Layne's "replacement needs to be someone from the LGBTQ community. We’re only halfway there.”

Ex-Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm, who's gay, told the Daily News prior to Barrett-Layne's ouster that the mayor "appointed a virulent homophobe to a panel that will have direct impact on LGBTQIA+ students and staff; it’s unbelievable." The Panel for Educational Policy has say over public school curriculums, the paper said.

What did Barrett-Layne have to say?

"I feel bullied," Barrett-Layne told the Times in an interview. "I believe that the city is being bullied. I feel as though my character, my name, my church have been defamed with lies, and that everything was taken out of context.”

She also told the Times her comments were based on interviews with people she had counseled or conducted for the book and that she's considering legal action against the city.

“I’m not homophobic. The answer is no, absolutely not,” Barrett-Layne added to the Times.

Anything else?

Christian commentator Michael Brown took issue with Barrett-Layne's ouster, asking "was she equating homosexuality with pedophilia? Obviously not — that is, no more than she was equating lying with pedophilia, or envy with pedophilia, or 'every other sin' with pedophilia."

Brown added that "her grave transgression was that she simply stated that homosexual practice was a sin. In other words, she agreed with the Bible. She affirmed what Christians have taught for two millennia. She wrote what Paul (and others) wrote in the pages of Scripture. For this, she was promptly dismissed."

(H/T: FaithWire)