RFK Jr. is very worried about anti-Christian bias at HHS...under Biden

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While Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. oversees a historic dismantling of the American scientific and medical communities' norms and hollowing out of their life-saving research, he’s focusing on what’s really important: Anti-Christian bias.

All employees at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received an email late Monday with the subject “Action Requested: HHS Anti-Religious Bias Survey.” The email—multiple copies of which The Handbasket has received and reviewed from agency sources—says this endeavor is headed up the the HHS Office of Civil Rights and is meant “to collect input from our workforce on any instances or patterns of anti-Christian or anti-religious bias and other discriminatory religious conduct, so we can address them promptly and strengthen protections moving forward.” The time frame of such imagined transgressions, however, is specific: the four years of the Biden presidency. 

Back in March, Marco Rubio’s Department of State sent out a similar survey asking employees to snitch on one another for perceived “anti-Christian bias” in the agency. The following month, the Department of Veterans Affairs sent out an email soliciting similar information. Both were done in response to the same executive order that prompted this latest HHS survey, and which created an intra-agency “task force,” of which RFK Jr. is a part. Other members of the group include Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez DeRemer, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

The HHS email sent out on Tuesday claimed to be about anti-religious bias, but Christianity was the only religion mentioned by name. Paula M. Stannard, Director of the HHS Office of Civil rights, informed employees that the survey was soliciting “Information regarding any HHS-wide or individual Division policies, practices, or conduct involving anti-Christian or anti-religious bias during the previous administration (2021-2025)” and “Recommendations to remedy any anti-Christian or anti-religious bias at HHS, including suggested changes to policies, guidance, or workplace practices.”

Stannard was sure to assure HHS employees the agency “strictly prohibits retaliation for participating in this survey or reporting concerns in good faith.” (There’s no amount of prayer that could make that true.)

In the email a link to the “optional” survey was provided, and employees were instructed to only fill it out from their work laptop or while connected to the VPN. The first question asks the respondent to state the nature of their input by selecting one of the following: “I personally experienced bias with respect to religion at HHS (2021-2025)”; “I observed. bias with respect to religion toward others at HHS (2021-2025)”; “Both experienced and observed”; “I did not experience/observe bias, but I have a recommendation”; and “I did not experience/observe bias and I have no recommendations.” In order to view the next question, an answer was required. Understandably, none of the employees who shared the email were interested in participating, and therefore The Handbasket was unable to review what came next. Suffice it to say, probably nothing good.

In other unsettling-creep-of-religion-in-the-federal-government news, employees at the Department of Labor received an email Tuesday letting them know about the “Inaugural Secretary's Prayer Service,” per a copy of the notice shared directly with The Handbasket. All staff were invited to participate in the event, which will take place on Wednesday, December 10th in the department's Cesar Chavez Memorial Auditorium. The email included a giant image of praying hands, one assumes, to demonstrate the act of praying. 

Back in May, Secretary Pete Hegseth invited all Department of Defense employees to a “Christian prayer and worship service,” which has continued to take place monthly. The most recent one was on November 19th, per a DoD source. At the first one he invited his own pastor, Brooks Potteiger of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship church in Tennessee, as the main speaker. 

“Knowing that there’s an author in heaven overseeing all of this, who’s underwritten all of it, for us, on the cross, gives me the strength to proceed,” Hegseth told the audience at the initial event. And proceed he has: Specifically with an alleged order to “kill everybody” who survived a US military bombing on a Venezuelan drug trafficking boat off the coast of Trinidad in early September, as well as multiple other illegal strikes that have killed more than 80 people.  (On Tuesday, the ever-repentant Christian told reporters: "We've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narcoterrorists at the bottom of the ocean.”)

Days after the strikes began, Trump unveiled his “America Prays” initiative in anticipation of the United State’s 250th anniversary next year. Trump dared to ask “What if one million Americans dedicated one hour a week to praying for our country and our people?” and invited everyone to bring together 10 people every week for prayer “to rededicate ourselves to the principles that gave birth to this land of liberty.” While Christianity is not explicitly mentioned, the suggested resources only link to Christian themes and ideas. 

As a Jewish person in this country, Christianity has always been the dominant religious influence. I’m not one to complain about Christmas music in Walgreens, and a good light display sets my heart aflutter. But there is a difference between being surrounded by a religion and having it foisted upon you. The efforts of the Trump administration fall squarely in the latter camp, creating uncomfortable and unsafe working conditions for federal employees who either practice a religion that is not Christianity—or no religion at all.

The separation of church and state was always a bit of a wink wink, nudge nudge situation because Christians have held most positions of power in the US government since the country’s founding. But to pipe Christianity through the vents of federal office buildings and to encourage all Americans to imbue their days with a dose of Jesus is another thing entirely.