Report them all

The Grand Inquisitor returns:

The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying “anti-Christian bias” as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government.

I wonder how they are defining “anti-Christian” and “bias.”

The department, according to a copy of an internal cable obtained by POLITICO, will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration” and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms.

Well those are two very different things. Religious believers can be extremely hostile to rival religions, far more hostile than the relaxed kind of non-believer who just doesn’t sign up to any of it but doesn’t quarrel with any of it either.

The cable was sent out to embassies around the world under Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s name. The instructions also were released in a department-wide notice.

That’s good. It’s very helpful to have a secretary of state who picks sides in religious brawls.

The cable encourages State Department employees to report on one another through a tip form that can be anonymous. “Reports should be as detailed as possible, including names, dates, locations (e.g. post or domestic office where the incident occurred,” the cable reads.

Some State Department officials reacted to the cable with shock and alarm, saying that even if well-intentioned, it is based on the flawed premise that the department harbors anti-Christian bias to begin with, and warning it could create a culture of fear as the administration pushes employees to report on one another.

Spoiler: it’s not well-intentioned.

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