Under His Eye: State Department workers ordered to report colleagues with "anti-Christian bias"

A torture chamber of the Spanish Inquisition with suspected heretics having their feet burned or being suspended with a rope from a pulley while scribes note down confessions. Engraving by B. Picart, 1722. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued an executive order instructing diplomats to rat out their colleagues for insufficient Christian fervor.

Politico reports that State Department employees received a cable ordering them "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."

In other words, the State Department, once tasked with promoting democracy abroad, now moonlights as an ecclesiastical surveillance system.

From Politico:

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.

Got a colleague who skips the office Bible study? There's an app for that. Spotted someone reading Dawkins in the break room? Better log that spiritual infraction, comrade.

One State Department official called it "very Handmaid's Tale-esque." I have to disagree — Gilead at had much better costume design than the MAGA crowd.

The Interfaith Alliance warns "this effort may appear to address certain forms of stigma against Christians, particularly against Catholics. In reality, it will weaponize a narrow understanding of religious freedom to legitimize discrimination against marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community."

But that's not a bug in the system — it's the whole blessed point.