Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is facing a formal complaint after sending an Easter email to all department employees that nearly 100,000 workers received. The message described Easter as a day to celebrate “the foundation of our faith.”
A federal employee union president filed the complaint, calling the email a pro-Christian message that violated the First Amendment.
“From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed,” the email read. “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.”
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Rollins was within her rights to send the holiday message.
Rollins cited a May 2, 1778, order to the Continental Army that read: “To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian.”
The order was written nearly a decade before the U.S. Constitution was ratified and 13 years before the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment were enacted.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a formal letter to Rollins requesting she refrain from using her official office to promote personal religious beliefs.
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“The purely scriptural message was headlined: ‘Happy Easter – He is Risen indeed!’ Rollins’ email went far beyond a simple greeting, instead delivering an extended theological message about Jesus’ resurrection, sin and salvation, and invoking other explicitly Christian doctrine,” the foundation wrote. “Employees who contacted FFRF described the message as inappropriate and insulting, noting that public servants should not be confronted with overtly religious messaging from the head of a federal agency. Those affronted and excluded by Rollins’ message would include significant numbers, since 29% of U.S. adults identify as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular.’”
