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Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas A. Collins sent a letter to staff this week saying the agency is establishing its own task force in line with President Donald Trump's February executive order aimed at eradicating what he has described as "anti-Christian bias" within federal agencies and regulatory practices.
VA's task force, Collins said in the message sent on Tuesday, requests that department employees submit any instance of "anti-Christian discrimination" to an agency email address.
Collins wrote that the task force is seeking examples of adverse actions taken by VA in response to a variety of religious accommodations, such as requests for holiday observances, the display of Christian imagery or symbols, and exemptions to vaccine mandates. The memo also said employees should report any adverse actions taken against staff who decline to participate in activities "inconsistent with Christian views" or who opt against performing certain procedures or treatments, including abortions or hormone therapy.
Additionally, the task force seeks information regarding informal agency policies that may be "hostile to Christian views," "examples of retaliatory action against VA Chaplains in response to sermons preached" and instances in which individuals were not promoted "for religious reasons."
A VA spokesperson confirmed the validity of the email but declined to comment further.
The memo has sparked concerns within VA and from some Democratic lawmakers and religious-freedom advocates.
A VA employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they worry providers will leave the department out of fear of being reported or punished "for not being Christian."
"So many of us do this because we sincerely believe in the mission, and that allows us to provide our veterans highly invested care," the employee said. "The more care providers that leave, the more care gets outsourced to community care, where there is no guarantee of provider knowledge or experience with the veteran population or veteran needs. It's so hard to recruit good mental health providers, and this will just make that even harder to do."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement, "While religious discrimination must be forbidden and fought, this internal VA memo lacks any factual basis or rationale."
"It raises the specter of dividing the veteran community and favoring some religions over others," Blumenthal added. "… The government should be vigilant never to endorse or favor one religion above others. All veterans deserve equal respect and dignity."
Collins's message to VA staff came the same day Attorney General Pam Bondi convened the first meeting of a broader Cabinet task force Trump has charged with searching for and eradicating "anti-Christian bias" across the federal government.
Bondi kicked off the session by attacking the administration of former president Joe Biden, who she said had "abused and targeted Christians." But even before the group's inaugural meeting, critics have assailed its mission as a bald attempt by the government to elevate one faith over others and to rewrite recent history under the guise of protecting religious freedoms.
According to a Justice Department readout of the meeting, Collins "discussed actions the VA took to stop the speech code that the previous administration used to punish" Chaplain Rusty Trubey. A VA medical center in Pennsylvania allegedly threatened to reprimand him over the content of a sermon last year, removing him from his duties as chaplain and reassigning him to logistics within the hospital.
Hiram Sasser, executive general counsel at the First Liberty Institute, which represented Trubey, said he was "heartened" that VA's task force will fight what he describes as the department's "ongoing and pervasive anti-faith bias."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonpartisan group that advocates for church-state separation, said in a statement on Tuesday that the Trump administration's new task force risks using religious freedom "to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws." The American Civil Liberties Union said in February, when Trump signed the executive order directing the creation on the task force, that the president "wants to eliminate the separation of church and state."
"Everyone has the right to religious freedom, not just the select few who practice this administration's preferred brand of Christianity," the ACLU posted on social media.
The most commonly reported religious hate crimes in the United States are against Jews. FBI data shows that over the past five years, there were four times as many reported anti-Jewish hate crimes as anti-Christian hate crimes. Jews make up an estimated 2 percent of the total U.S. population, while Christians make up about two-thirds.
Congressional Republicans have for years accused the Justice Department and the FBI, without evidence, of engaging in a broad campaign to persecute Christians. They've cited Biden-era initiatives to step up enforcement of laws barring antiabortion protesters from interfering with access to reproductive health clinics and a 2023 FBI memo that warned of possible threats posed by "radical traditionalist" Catholics. That memo was later withdrawn, after it leaked publicly, setting off a firestorm of criticism on the right.
A subsequent inspector general's report found "no evidence of malicious intent" and concluded that there were no signs that "anyone had ordered or directed" FBI agents to investigate Catholics simply because of their religious beliefs. Nevertheless, Bondi said at the start of Tuesday's meeting: "We ended those abuses at the Department of Justice on day one."
"Protecting Christians from bias is not favoritism," she said during the task force gathering. "It's upholding the rule of law and fulfilling the constitutional promise."
Trump signed an executive order in February creating the task force and appointing Bondi as its chairwoman. Several other Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, were also named as members and were in attendance at Tuesday's meeting.
The memo from Collins has similarities to an internal cable from Rubio reportedly sent within the State Department. Politico reported that the cable stated that the agency was asking employees to report instances of their co-workers displaying perceived anti-Christian bias within the State Department.
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