Biden DOJ Amends Filing, Cancels Plan To ‘Vigorously’ Defend Christian Schools’ Religious Exemptions Following Backlash

Religious Exemption Accountability Project

The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly changed its mind to "vigorously" defend Christian school's religious exemptions following a backlash on it from the LGBTQ+ community.

WND reported that the fight for the Title IX exemption of Christian schools is over as the Department of Justice has edited its court filing released last Tuesday by deleting the content in it that they will "vigorously" defend religious rights.

Instead, the Department of Justice used the word "adequate" in the filing several times and also removed the "ultimate objective" in it. It also deleted part of the sentence that said it will "uphold the Religious Exemption as it is currently applied."

The report comes a day after the Department of Justice took the side of Christian schools over the lawsuit filed by the LGBTQ+ group Religious Exemption Accountability Project.

"The Federal Defendants' ultimate objective is to defend the statutory exemption and its current application by ED, which is the objective sought by the Proposed Intervenors here," the Department of Justice's District Court from Oregon's Eugene Division said originally.

The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP) condemned the DOJ's decision, which according to their Director Paul Carlos Southwick, "betrayed" them considering President Joe Biden has been insisting the protection of the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination.

"My clients feel betrayed by an administration the promised to protect LGBTQ+ students. The Biden administration did not need to defend this unconstitutional religious exemption, and they certainly did not need to say that it 'shares the same ultimate objective' as anti-LGBTQ extremist group Alliance Defending Freedom," Southwick said in an interview with CNN.

Meanwhile, the Christian Headlines reported that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Abert Mohler pointed out that the incident shows why the Christian community should not trust President Joe Biden to defend the religious liberty of religious schools.

Mohler warned in the Thursday episode of the podcast "The Briefing" that things work differently at the White House where things do not really "appear to be" what people see.

"One insight into how things actually work in Washington, D.C. is that sometimes they are almost the opposite of what they appear to be," Mohler said in the podcast.

"Why is it that the Biden administration's Justice Department would say that it is going to defend the current federal law? Why not allow the Christian colleges and their representatives to do this, to make the case?" he raised.

"The answer is the Justice Department is really arguing that it will take this role in defense of federal law so that it will not be defended very vigorously at all," he added. "What the Justice Department is really doing is saying that it does not want to allow attorneys for the Christian colleges and universities to be able to make the case themselves."

Mohler pointed out that the fact that Biden supports the Equality Act, there is "reason to believe" that the Department of Justice would "subvert the arguments" of Christian schools. He pointed out that the Biden Administration's Department of Justice does not want to uphold the fact that the exemption stated in Title IX is "not only allowable" but is actually "required by Constitution" as a means to protect religious liberty.