The Church of the Department of Labor
Over the summer, the Trump administration released a report purporting to uncover the “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government during the Biden presidency. The report alleged that “the political, social, and humanitarian contributions of Christians have been devalued, their beliefs marginalized, and their communities unlawfully targeted by their own government.”
Many of the examples were exaggerated or minor issues, like claiming Christians were discriminated against because various government agencies didn’t promote Easter or other Christian holidays enough on social media. Others came down to ideological disagreements on issues like LGBTQ equality or promoting racial diversity. Despite framing such moves as “anti-Christian,” many Christians actually agree with the Biden administration’s priorities.
The U.S. Department of Labor was criticized in the report for eliminating its Office of Faith Based Initiatives. It’s odd to call that “anti-Christian” since an argument to justify the constitutionality of such offices in federal agencies is that they serve all faith communities. And if not having such an office is anti-Christian, then every president prior to George W. Bush was apparently anti-Christian. The Trump administration’s report also listed a few cases when the DoL didn’t side with anti-LGBTQ individuals who claimed their Christian beliefs were infringed upon. Yet, in some of the listed examples, the courts or other authorities have also ruled against the employees.
Critics of the “anti-Christian” focus of the administration have sued to demand the release of government documents related to the task force. Additionally, such church-state advocacy groups insist the task force is not really about stopping discrimination against Christians but instead favoring conservative Christianity above other faiths and those of no faith.
“There is no basis for the administration’s assertions of ‘anti-Christian bias’ in the federal government and it appears this task force is an attempt to target free speech and those the administration disagrees with,” argued Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which joined the Interfaith Alliance in suing for records.
“This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to privilege Christian Nationalism,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve on the board of directors), which has also sued for records. “Rather than protect everyone’s religious beliefs, this task force will misuse department resources and the principle of religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws.”
There are other signs in the administration demonstrating why the concerns of Perryman and Laser are correct. Far from pushing religious freedom and stopping religious discrimination, the administration is privileging conservative Christianity. The Department of Homeland Security has even created propaganda videos with Bible verses to justify ICE actions, and the Department of War has similarly co-opted Scripture. The Department of Labor has also been pushing Christianity on social media, albeit as part of a vision of a patriarchal, White nation. So this issue of A Public Witness looks at the DoL’s use of religion in its recent propaganda posters.
Make America White Again
Over the past few months, the Department of Labor’s social media feeds have posted a number of inspirational posters about the importance of workers. Beyond a 1940s Norman Rockwellesque Americana, the posters also often have another thing in common. Most feature just a muscular White man along with a slogan like “Build Your Homeland’s Future” or “Your Nation Needs You!” A few deviate from this format but still depict society led by White men. Some borrow from mid-century Americana art or advertisements, while many appear to be AI-generated.
If you knew nothing about the U.S. workforce outside the DoL’s posters, you’d be surprised to learn that White men are only about one-third of the U.S. workforce. Only one poster over the last few months included racial diversity, though it seems to depict a White man as the leader over a White woman and a non-White man. The social media campaign has ramped up this fall as the administration imposed rules and fees to limit companies hiring immigrant workers, particularly in specialized and technical positions. One such administration effort is the so-called “Project Firewall” to investigate alleged H-1B visa abuse.
“By purveying this image of an all-White workforce, they are choosing racism over economic growth,” said Seth Harris, who served as President Joe Biden’s top labor adviser. “That White supremacism is more important than the economic future.”
Hannah Yoest, a writer for the center-right publication The Bulwark, offered a criticism that many commentators have as she called them “uncomfortably reminiscent” of “the ‘Heroic Realism’ of Nazi propaganda posters and the similarly stylized patriotic posters later produced in the United States.”
After a couple of months of creating and posting such images, the DoL injected religion into the effort. The three most recent such posts all include a church.
First, they took an image from a 1944 ad for the now-defunct Lee Rubber & Tire Corporation. After listing things that “are fundamental” — like “homes and families,” “employment for all who want it,” and “church leadership that makes devotion to religion a spiritual inspiration” — the original ad insisted things like “ultra-streamlined motor cars” are part of “the pursuit of that happiness” that comes from the “fundamental things.” In the DoL version, this image that features a church in the center exemplifies how, as DoL argued in its caption, “Project Firewall is critical in our mission to put Americans first and restore the American dream.”
The next church image from DoL features a White family with two kids sitting in a pew near an American flag in the sanctuary. The image is by illustrator Harold Anderson, who was at the peak of his career in the 1940s and 1950s. Although the painting has been known as “Family at Church,” DoL named it “Every Sunday Morning.” They also added the words “A Dream Worth Fighting For” on the image and included a caption claiming Project Firewall proves their “commitment to ensure American workers have a fair shot at the American dream.”
The third image from DoL with a church follows the style of most of DoL’s recent posters by foregrounding a muscular, young White man. In the background, a church stands prominently along with a U.S. flag and the phrase “Restoring the American Dream!” The caption from DoL once again warns about immigrant workers: “The American dream belongs to the American people. The process is in place and the mission is set — Project Firewall will restore the American dream by ensuring American jobs go to Americans first.”
Resist
The Department of Labor’s posters create a disturbing vision of what the administration thinks the American workplace — and the nation more broadly — should look like. A nation where White men lead, women show up with the two kids, and everyone else is in the shadows or gone. The featuring of churches makes this dream even more of a nightmare.
Two of the posters, which feature churches in the background, are attempts to portray Christianity as supporting this vision of a White male-led society. The churches aren’t leading the way but expected to silently support the administration’s attacks on immigrants and support of patriarchy.
The other image from inside a church is more problematic. At first, it’s not exactly clear what this image has to do with the DoL and creating jobs. While most of the posters feature equipment in the background, this one takes a moment of Sabbath to support a message about work. Such co-opting of a sacred moment is particularly inappropriate since as the late Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann noted, Sabbath is a form of resistance. For the ancient Hebrew people, it served as an alternative to the imperial demands of Pharaoh that they build Egypt’s future and power the golden age. Sabbath today should also help us resist imperial propaganda demanding we build more bricks.
“In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative,” Brueggemann explained in Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now. “It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods. … I have come to think that the fourth commandment on Sabbath is the most difficult and most urgent of the commandments in our society, because it summons us to intent and conduct that defies the most elemental requirements of a commodity-propelled society that specializes in control and entertainment, bread and circuses — along with anxiety and violence.”
With this church poster, the DoL seeks to conscript churches in the government’s quest to build a White male-led workforce. It’s as if they’re demanding churches put the American flag in the sanctuary and uphold the “American dream.” Gone is the vision of a diverse, global community gathering to pledge allegiance to Christ over all others. In the art of the DoL, Christianity becomes just another tool to put “Americans first” and increase production.
But when Pharaoh tries to co-opt our faith to build more bricks for his empire, we must resist.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
When will we get the poster that says, "Work Makes You Free"?
Great Article!!!!! It could be very reasonably argued that the greatest example of an anti-Christian bias, in fact a living parable of such, would be good old 45-47 - obviously he is not really supportive of Christianity, since he only attends church for funerals or for a photo-op holding a bible in front of a church sign.