Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently filed a lawsuit against Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, alleging she was using her role as department head to inappropriately proselytize to federal employees.
Rollins “has adopted a practice of sending increasingly proselytizing communications to the entire USDA workforce, promoting her own preferred brand of Christian beliefs and theology to the captive audience of employees that report to her” according to the lawsuit, which was filed last week.
"It is exactly the sort of government-sponsored religious coercion, religious sermonizing, and denominational preference that the Establishment Clause prohibits,” the lawsuit reads.
Is it, as the lawsuit alleges, “government-sponsored religious coercion”?
Invocation in the Inbox
The lawsuit features a laundry list of explicitly Christian emails sent to roughly 90,000 USDA employees throughout the last year. “May God continue to protect the United States of America and may His favor shine over all her land” read a Fourth of July email. A Thanksgiving message gave "gratitude towards a loving God.” At Christmas, Rollins praised Jesus and said that “God gave us the greatest gift possible, the gift of his Son and our Savior Jesus Christ."
But the straw which broke the camel’s back was a recent Easter email sent by Rollins. “Today we celebrate the greatest story ever told, the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind,” reads the Easter message. “From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life. And where there is life — risen life—there is hope.”
You can view the full message here:
“The Secretary’s practice reached a crescendo,” with the Easter message, the lawsuit reads. Shortly thereafter, a group of seven USDA workers, consisting of Jewish, Buddhist, pagan, and nonreligious employees, backed by a number of secular activist groups and the National Federation of Federal Employees, filed the lawsuit alleging religious coercion in the workplace.
Is This Religious Coercion?
The lawsuit states that the secretary never commented on non-Christian faiths or religious holidays, using her platform to proselytize to a captive audience. And some employees say the messages make them feel not only unwelcome, but that advancement in their careers now depends on if they share their boss’ faith.
One employee says they were told it would “create trouble” for them if they asked to be removed from the email list. Another says the messages make him feel like he’s “going to hell” for not being a Christian.
“There is a preferred religious ‘in-group’ at USDA,” the lawsuit states - and the messages convey “the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary's religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee's own beliefs.”
When asked about the lawsuit, a USDA spokesperson stated that the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but confirmed that they will “keep the plaintiffs in our prayers during this process."
It seems clear from the response that the USDA sees nothing wrong with the head of the department regularly sending out explicitly Christian missives to 90,000 federal employees. But the employees who filed the lawsuit say that the emails paint a very clear picture: They don’t have a prayer of advancing in their career unless they… well, unless they pray to the same God as their boss.
What do you think? Should federal department heads really be proselytizing to their employees? Where is the line when it comes to faith, management, and the workplace?
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