Secretary of USDA gets sued for workplace evangelism…

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Thank you, France. Speaking of news, I want to share with you something. Um, it was an email I received today. The friendly atheist did a talk on it. I heard about it on the news. I think I read it on CNN. I found out about it um a couple of days ago. Anyhow, bottom line is uh the sec the the US secretary of agriculture, yeah, is being sued being sued by her employees for um basically because she's too preachy. Uh she's being sued because she is bringing religion into the workspace, into the workplace. She is prostilitizing and evangelizing uh in her in her capacity as the secretary of agriculture and her employees are tired of it. And it's not just it's not just like atheists who are vehemently opposed to this. It's it's not just people of other religions. It's Christians who are saying that's not my denomination. She's she's preaching a very and she is preaching. This isn't somebody saying merry Christmas. Oh my god. We can't even say merry Christmas in the world anymore without getting sued. No, no, no, no, no, no. Like I said, I was I was watching our boy, the friendly atheist, and uh and he was he was sharing his he was giving like her greatest hits, right? And that she said Merry Christmas or she did this and she did this and she did this. And then he he showed her Easter letter. I hadn't seen her Easter letter until I watched his his clip on this.

[00:01:34]This isn't just saying have a happy Easter. Enjoy your long weekend, you know, yay Jesus. It wasn't even just that. It was a fullon it was a fullon sermon.

[00:01:47]Let me let me just show you. This is uh this is her. So she was sermonizing her sermonizing Easter emails prompts USDA employees to sue the agency. In response to the lawsuit, the department said, "We will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers."

[00:02:04]Cuz yeah, so again, this for the people in the back is not a case that, "Oh my god, we can't even say merry Christmas."

[00:02:16]This isn't a situation where, oh my god, we can't even say God bless you. No, this is much much bigger than that. This is this is the letter she sent. Now, I know you probably can't read it from where you are. So, let me read it to you to the best of my ability. This is what she says. Happy Easter. He is risen. The Lord He is risen indeed. Today, we celebrate the greatest story ever told.

[00:02:43]The foundation of our faith and the abide the foundation of our faith and the abiding hope of all mankind. From the foot of the cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away now uh from the empty 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. No matter the very real trials and hardships we face, fear and sin and death, do not get the last word. Because on Easter morning, hell took a body and discovered God. It took earth and encountered heaven. It took what it saw and was overcome by what it did not see.

[00:03:30]Now, that is reason to rejoice. And so, like the very first disciples to encounter our risen Lord in the upper room almost 2,000 years ago this Easter, let us too be alive with hope, full of pascal joy, confident in the mission each of us has been called for. Please know how amazed and grateful I am for the hard work each of you do to support our shared mission at the USDA. I hope you and your loved ones have a truly blessed and happy Easter. May God continue to bless you, your families, and our exceptional country, one nation under God. Sincerely, Brooke L. Robbins, Secretary of Agriculture.

[00:04:26]I would write a letter like that for my church congregation on Christmas and on Easter Thanksgiving too. I think I write one. That's when I would that's when I would write a letter like this. That isn't that isn't a letter you send to your employees at a at a government agency. That's not a letter you send to your employees at a at a at a secular company. That is the letter a minister sends to their congregation. That is a letter the minister sends to people who have chosen to be a part of the parish.

[00:04:59]That's a letter you might send to your friends and family, people who know you and hopefully like you. That's a letter you send to people you have the kind of relationship with where faith is something you talk about. It's not something that you send to employees.

[00:05:15]It's not something you send to other government bureaucrats and other government uh other government folks.

[00:05:22]Now, at the end, I I kind of like what she said at the end. You know, I'm okay with I and I think it's okay for a person to say, "God bless you. I I I don't have an issue with that. It's up to you whether or not you want to choose it." Her letter here goes, "It's this is proilitizing."

[00:05:37]Anyhow, I do like what she said at the end. I hope you have a great Easter weekend. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Uh, I think I hope you have a great long weekend. Would have been more than And I love that she said, "We're proud of the work you're doing.

[00:05:50]Proud of the work you're doing. We're proud to be on the same team as you." I love that, but the rest of it, she's trying way too hard.

[00:06:02]And and she's she's overstepped boundaries. And I'm saying this from a Christian perspective.

[00:06:09]She's overstepped the boundary. These people have to be there. They don't get to choose to be in relationship with her. And they have not most employees do not choose to be in relationship with a manager, the secretary of agriculture, secretary of the department of agriculture. They don't choose to be in the kind of relationship where they're sharing about their faith.

[00:06:32]That has to be I think for it to be acceptable, proper, appropriate, it must be something that that relationship goes both ways that we talk about our faith. You share your faith with me and I share my faith with you. Like what would happen if somebody responded to that email and said, "All hail Satan, right? Would that's okay too?

[00:07:05]Would it have been probably not? Do you think the people in her department feel like they can talk to her about their faith? Do you think the Hindu folks in her department think that they feel like they can say, you know, I'm I'm Hindu. This is what I believe and this is my this is my holy weekend. This is my holy day. and and may you know Shiva be with you?

[00:07:31]Do do you think that that that the Muslims in her in her employee do you think they feel safe and saying uh you know God bless you this Ramadan?

[00:07:44]Probably not because there there is there's a power dynamic here. And when she proilitizes, when we proilitize like this to people that we are not in that kind of relationship with, we are using, we're taking advantage of the power we have over them.

[00:08:01]We're taking advantage of the power we have over them. And we are we're overstepping our boundaries. And I know, but it's the most important thing we can do. Evangelizing is the most important thing we can do. Sure, I I I get that. But my word in heaven, she can evangelize. We can evangelize without prostitizing.

[00:08:24]We can evangelize without hijacking entire departments within the government. We we can evangelize without using the platform that we've been given to do one thing, to do this with it.

[00:08:44]as a Christian, this isn't this isn't okay. I mean, I don't know if the lawsuit's going to gonna win or I don't know if they're going to win or lose. I have no idea. Uh the way things have been going, probably not, right? The it'll get to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court will bend over backwards to to find a loophole for them and make it so that no, those employees don't have a leg to stand on. Whatever the case might be, I I don't know. But for you Christians out there, it's just not it's not the time. It's not the place.

[00:09:15]And you have to know that. But if you're really really I, you know, I Ed, I just I feel like I I have to evangelize. I have to proitize. I got to get the message out there. I got to share the good news. I got to share the hope. I got to share the love.

[00:09:31]And again, as a minister, that would have been a lovely letter to send my congregation. Maybe I'll get maybe I'll get this secretary to secretary of agriculture to write my my my next Christmas letter.

[00:09:44]But she can evangelize through her actions awfully awfully effectively. She is in a again she's in a position where she has a platform. She can evangelize. She can show the world not just her employees.

[00:09:58]She can show the world the love that Jesus has for it every single day.

[00:10:07]Her problem here is that she's using her words. Her problem is that she's using this platform in a way that that it isn't meant to be used. And I don't think it's I don't think that she's using her platform in a way that is glorifying God. I think maybe other Christians are going to say, "Oh my God, that's so good of her." But it's not other Christians that she's supposed to be impressing.

[00:10:30]This is an inappropriate way of evangelism.

[00:10:34]It's a captive audience.

[00:10:37]It's it's a captive audience. Those people don't have an opportunity to escape.

[00:10:43]They have to read her letter. There might be something in there for them to do that day. They have to read her correspondence. They have to read her emails. They are her employees. If they disappoint her, if they just start erasing her stuff, if what happens?

[00:10:59]Would they feel like I need to start towing that line or my job?

[00:11:07]When we have a power dynamic over another, when we are when we are their leader, when we are their manager, we cannot we cannot use that status in this way.

[00:11:29]I'm not saying you can't evangelize.

[00:11:32]I'm saying you have to evangelize in a very different way in a very in a way that is that you are respectful to those to to to their beliefs you you have to again coming back to St. Francis, right?

[00:11:51]Share the gospel every day. Use words only when necessary.

[00:11:56]When you are in a position of power, don't use words.

[00:12:03]Don't use words.

[00:12:07]And not for nothing, if I were her manager, I would wonder where she finds the time to write these letters and send them out. If I were her manager, I would wonder if she doesn't have the time and she's having somebody else write them, how is it how is this advancing how is this advancing the the mission of the USDA?

[00:12:29]How is this advancing the mission of the of the United States Department of Agriculture?

[00:12:35]Again, that's that's who she works for.

[00:12:38]That's what she's supposed to be about.

[00:12:40]But she's a Christian. This is a thing that she's supposed to do more than anything else. And she can she can do that on her free time.

[00:12:47]This isn't free time. This is government resources.

[00:12:51]This this, you know, this isn't a a a mailing list she put together on her own free time. This is this is the mailing list of the USDA. These are the employees of the USDA. There's lots wrong with this.

[00:13:06]Lots wrong with this. I I get the onus to I get the urgency. I do. Share the gospel. Share the gospel. share the gospel. I get that we got to save these souls. Sure. We We got to make sure they know Jesus. I understand.

[00:13:21]But there is a right way and a wrong way. And that's the wrong way.

[00:13:28]That is the manipulation of power.

[00:13:35]It's not the right way going forward.

[00:13:37]Again, I don't know what the courts will say, but if you're out there as a Christian and you're thinking to yourself, I'm in this position where I got 20 or 30 or 40 or 500 people working for me.

[00:13:50]How can I effectively evangelize them?

[00:13:53]Should I send an I should send a letter out like that that secretary of of agriculture, Department of Agriculture.

[00:13:58]I should do that. No, you want to effectively evangelize all those people that work for you.

[00:14:07]Be like Jesus.

[00:14:11]Serve them.

[00:14:13]Love them as you know Jesus loved you.

[00:14:18]Serve them.

[00:14:20]Love them as as God loves them.

[00:14:26]See them as precious as God sees them.

[00:14:31]Serve them.

[00:14:35]procilization, it's going to push them away from you.

[00:14:38]You want to evangelize those people that work for you. You want to evangelize those people that you manage. You want to evangelize those people that um that report to you, those people that you lead, those people that you have power over.

[00:14:56]Let them see Jesus in you.

[00:15:00]Let them see Jesus in your in your actions.

[00:15:07]love them and serve them and take care of them in such a way that they scratch their head and they think, "Huh, why are they so good to me? Huh? Why are they so kind? Huh? Why are they so loving? I wonder.

[00:15:27]Maybe it's their faith."

[00:15:32]Amen.