The Department of Labor held its first-ever prayer service for its staff this week, in a extremely uncommon transfer that mirrors an initiative on the Pentagon.
The service, which occurred Wednesday morning within the auditorium of the division’s headquarters, included a speech by Yaakov Menken, a right-wing orthodox Jewish rabbi, who throughout his speech, disparaged homosexual marriage, transgender folks and the truth that folks use gender pronouns, in response to two Department of Labor worker who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to press.
An worker watching the occasion stated the remarks caught them unexpectedly. “I was not prepared for the unnecessary cruelty.”
Another worker stated they had been “appalled.”
“I am an out queer person in the workplace and I don’t appreciate being spoken about in that hateful way,” the particular person stated.
In a phone interview with NCS on Friday, Menken pushed again on the characterization of his remarks as hateful, saying that he was as a substitute advocating for “religious liberty” within the office and towards employers requiring folks to do issues they are saying are towards their beliefs.
Many staff had been bowled over by the service, sources informed NCS, and a few felt prefer it shouldn’t be taking place in a authorities constructing throughout work hours.
The occasion — held within the constructing’s largest area, bearing a stage and podium with the division’s emblem — additionally included prayers by three staff of the DOL’s Center for Faith, one Labor division worker who attended the service informed NCS. Another company worker sang hymns and tried to steer the group in singing alongside, in response to the worker. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer spoke on the service, telling the group she has a rosary with every bead representing a state.
A spokesperson on the Department of Labor, in response to questions from NCS, emphasised the occasion was nondenominational and voluntary for workers.
“The Department hosted a voluntary, nondenominational service. Employee participation was entirely optional, and work was not impacted. Those who weren’t interested simply continued their day as usual,” stated spokesperson Courtney Parella.
Department management promoted the prayer service in an e-mail, from the account [email protected], to all staff on December 2, telling them they might attend in particular person or just about. Another e-mail on December 7 reminding staff concerning the service described the occasion as nondenominational.
“They did scripture readings from the Bible. They did the Lord’s prayer. They sang ‘Amazing Grace,’ … and then ‘God bless America,’” the Labor worker informed NCS.
The worker stated the service acknowledged Advent and Hannukah, however not different holidays, like Kwanzaa, which fall at across the identical time. “It was very Judeo-Christian,” the worker stated of the service.
“I would wait to see in coming months before questioning whether this is all intended to just promote christianity to the exclusion of other religions I don’t think thats the direction they’re going,” Menken informed NCS on Friday.
The service comes because the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret the thought of separation of church and state in federal workplaces. In July, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum permitting federal staff to advertise their non secular beliefs to colleagues, show non secular gadgets at work and pray collectively or individually.
Earlier this yr, the Pentagon held the primary of what it stated could be month-to-month Christian prayer companies in its auditorium, and broadcast stay on the division’s inner TV community. That occasion featured a sermon from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s hometown pastor. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Experts informed NCS on the time the occasion violated the First Amendment’’s prohibition on the US authorities endorsing a faith as a result of the Department of Defense promoted it in a brochure with the division’s emblem, and since Hegseth personally hosted the occasion.
George Washington University regulation professor Ira Lupu informed NCS he doesn’t imagine the Department of Labor’s service violated the Constitution. “If it becomes coercive in some way, or perceived to be, then the Establishment Clause of the Constitution is implicated.”
But, Lupu stated, the occasion raises “a question about leadership, about whether it’s prudent or appropriate for a leader to be doing something that might alienate some of the people who would otherwise attend the meeting.”
Chavez-DeRemer stated on the occasion she obtained the thought to host a service from Hegseth.
One of the workers who spoke with NCS stated they’ve served within the Labor Department below a number of administrations. Previous labor secretaries, like Marty Walsh, who served through the Biden administration and is a religious Catholic, have by no means talked about their religion, the worker stated. Eugene Scalia, who served throughout below the earlier Trump administration, additionally “never brought it up.”
“I’ve been in government for decades, and we don’t have religious ceremonies sanctioned by political leadership,” they stated. “We very much had that pretty hard separation of church and state.”