Biden admin zealously probed traditional Christians even keeping tabs on priests: DOJ report

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration “zealously” investigated, penalized, and engaged in “aggressive prosecutions” of Christians “with traditional biblical views” — ignoring their conscientious objections and even secretly keeping tabs on Catholic priests, a Department of Justice task force found.The DOJ-led Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias released 14 findings Thursday, confirming the 46th president’s officials “forc[ed] Christians with traditional biblical views to choose whether to live in accordance with their faith or risk violating federal law.”In a 200-page report, the task force concluded: “The Biden Administration generally tolerated religious beliefs that were privately held but zealously pursued actions to limit Christians’ ability to act in accordance with their faith.”That included prosecutions of pro-life Christians who were given longer sentences than their pro-abortion peers for violations of a federal law protecting access to abortion clinics or pregnancy resource centers.The report also unearthed new details about a January 2023 FBI memo sent to multiple field offices that called for the targeting of “radical-traditionalist” Catholics as a result of “baseless allegations” from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.The FBI’s Richmond, Va.Field Office, which first compiled the memo, later probed a “priest and an entire Catholic sect” as a result of learning that a “career criminal” — who was stocking up on weapons and explosive materials — regularly attended a certain church in the commonwealth’s capital.Agents who interviewed the repeat offender, Xavier Louis Lopez, noted that he was a self-described “radical traditional Catholic Clerical Fascist” — and, as a result of his professed beliefs, began tracking the priest of his onetime parish, as well as the cleric’s family.“Lopez had attended Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) Chapel for approximately ...