The U.S. Department of Labor hosted a prayer service for employees this week despite warnings from legal experts that it appeared to violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, which mandates the separation of church and state.
The event Wednesday was billed as the “Inaugural Secretary’s Prayer Service,” according to an invitation sent to employees last week and viewed by MS NOW. The invitation came from the department’s Center for Faith, which was established after President Donald Trump’s executive order in February requiring the creation of such centers across federal agencies.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told attendees of the event — held in the auditorium at department headquarters in Washington and livestreamed — that she came up with the idea after attending a similar one hosted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, according to two Labor Department employees who watched the livestream and spoke to MS NOW. The employees spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“The department hosted an uplifting and voluntary nondenominational prayer service. Those who weren’t interested simply continued their day,” agency spokesperson Courtney Parella said Thursday.
While the invitation for the service did not specify a particular religion, the two employees who spoke to MS NOW said it had a narrow scope. Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, invoked her Catholicism at the service, the employees said, and a main speaker was a rabbi.
“It was 100% Judeo-Christian,” one of the employees said. “They mentioned Advent and Hanukkah. They did not mention … any other religious celebrations that happen this time of year,” nor did they reference the secular celebration of Kwanzaa, the employee said.
That’s largely in keeping with how the Trump administration has approached religion. In February, the president signed an executive order aimed at “eradicating anti-Christian bias.” In May, he signed another executive order establishing a 16-member Religious Liberty Commission — all but one of whom have publicly identified as Christian, Catholic or Jewish. One member’s religious affiliation is unclear.
Besides Chavez-DeRemer, speakers at the event included the faith center’s director and other staff, and Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, a conservative nonprofit that “promotes classical Jewish values in public policy.” Menken is also a member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.
During the approximately 30-minute service, the speakers read Bible verses and sang the hymn “Amazing Grace,” the two employees said. Menken also made remarks against gay and transgender people, according to the two employees, who said they found the comments offensive.
“What I did not expect was the purposeful cruelty meted out for no reason whatsoever on a very small portion of the population,” one employee said. “It was despicable.”
Menken said he wasn’t paid to appear at the event and rejected the employees’ description of his comments as hateful.
“I would characterize my remarks as advocating for religious and civil liberty in the workplace,” he told MS NOW on Friday.
The department forged ahead with the service despite requests from two religious freedom groups that it be canceled, and warnings from those groups’ lawyers that it would violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Christopher Line, legal counsel for the nonprofit Freedom From Religion Foundation, sent a letter to Chavez-DeRemer last week requesting the cancellation of the event and more information on its organization. “We’ve seen a lot of creeping Christian nationalism in our government,” Line told MS NOW. “But this is the most extreme version of it.” The staff attorney for the nonpartisan advocacy organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State also sent Chavez-DeRemer a letter Tuesday, saying the group had received multiple complaints ahead of the event and asked that it and any similar future events be canceled. The group alleged the event “disrespects” nonreligious employees, “tells employees that the Department of Labor favors a particular religion, and puts pressure on employees to attend a religious ceremony.” Rachel Laser, the organization’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the government’s role “is to serve the public, not to proselytize.” “Secretary Chavez-DeRemer is abusing the power of her government office — and potentially misusing taxpayer-funded resources — to impose religion on federal workers,” Laser added. The two department employees told MS NOW they agree. “It felt wildly inappropriate,” one said. “The reason I joined in the first place is because I assumed it was going to be, and I had to see for myself.”
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
