By Julianne McShane in MS NOW
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.
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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.
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.
Rabbi Menken adds: What I told the reporter, but she did not include, is that “I would reserve that term [hate] for people who would force others to violate their beliefs.” Strangely, that was not included. She even linked to a report with my full remarks in relevant context, demonstrating for all to see that my comments were not remotely hateful, but, to the contrary, advocated for religious freedom as I said.
“We also live in a generation where too many, even in things that the Department of Labor deals with directly, are focused upon how to do it wrong, persecuting individuals based on their religious beliefs,” he added. “There are employers out there who will try to force even and, of course, in government to certify same-sex weddings, require preferred gender pronouns, force a baker to bake a cake celebrating something he doesn’t like, force nurses to perform abortions, endocrinologists to administer unnecessary and harmful hormones. And in too many firms, anyone with a Jewish name need not apply. Hanukkah tells us that not only that there is a right and a wrong, but there is an almighty God who stands with us when we fight to move in the right direction.”
It says a lot that MS NOW neither quoted my remarks to demonstrate the utter falsehood of the depiction of my remarks, nor used my quote pointing out where the the real hate is coming from. But it tells us nothing we didn’t already know.
Read the full article on MS NOW