SEAL denied vaccine exemption testifies at Pam Bondi event

A U.S. Navy SEAL who was denied a religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate under the Biden administration featured as a witness during Attorney General Pam Bondi’s first meeting of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Federal Government earlier this week.

Navy SEAL Phil Mendes was among the several Navy special warfare officers who joined a lawsuit from First Liberty Institute after being relieved of duty for refusing the vaccine and denied a religious exemption from the U.S. Department of Defense, according to a press release.

Hiram Sasser, who serves as executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, told The Christian Post that their organization was honored their former client was given the chance “to testify and tell the story of what all the SEALs suffered under the Biden administration in terms of their religious objections to the vaccine mandate.”

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“I just think that the Left thought that they could just run us over, and I think they figured we were pretty near the end, where they could just shove us off a cliff,” he said. “But this current administration arrived and said, ‘That day is not today.'”

The task force meeting, which convened Tuesday, was attended by senior cabinet officials and agency heads, each of whom offered examples of alleged anti-Christian bias exhibited during the prior administration in their respective jurisdictions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In her opening statement before they began their closed session, Bondi noted that the task force President Donald Trump established by executive order in February intends to “identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct across the government.”

???? BREAKING: First Meeting of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. pic.twitter.com/PRlqJO48MD

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 22, 2025

The task force will also “seek input from the faith-based organizations and state governments to end anti-Christian bias, find and fix deficiencies and existing regulatory practices that might contribute to the anti-Christian bias,” she added.

Another Christian witness who testified during the meeting was Michael Farris, the founder of Patrick Henry College and an elder at Cornerstone Church, which the Internal Revenue Service investigated and charged with alleged violations of the Johnson Amendment.

Scott Hicks, provost and chief academic officer of Liberty University, also testified, describing how the Biden administration allegedly fined both Liberty University and Grand Canyon University because of 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,” Bondi said in a statement after the meeting.

“Thanks to President Trump, we have ended those abuses, and we will continue to work closely with every member of this Task Force to protect every American’s right to speak and worship freely.”

Sasser acknowledged to CP that regardless of the task force’s endeavors, anti-Christian bias could “of course” seep back into the federal government under a future administration.

“We will deal with it the way we always deal with it,” he said. “We all have to stand together, and we have to fight against that kind of discrimination.”

Trump first floated the idea of an anti-Christian bias task force during a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, in February 2024.

In his speech, he characterized the barrage of indictments and exorbitant fines against him as a foretaste of what many on the Left would like to do to anyone who stands in the way of their political agenda, which he noted is any person of faith who worships an authority higher than the state.