Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech a week ago to the American Association of Christian Counselors at their conference in Nashville, Tennessee. In his remarks, titled “Being a Christian Leader,” Pompeo recalled his childhood, family, and time at West Point to describe how he applies his faith to his work in government.
That was all well and good. It’s not uncommon in a country with strong Judeo-Christian roots for a politician, diplomat, or government employee to align with those beliefs and boldly proclaim them. As far as I know, there was little reaction to Pompeo’s actual speech. That is, until the State Department highlighted Pompeo’s remarks on their website, posting the entire transcript.
Suddenly, the liberals in the media and prominent social media users began criticizing the promotion, saying it may have violated the establishment clause of the Constitution. The Daily Beast reports “Atheists and secular groups are up in arms” over the way the State Department promoted Pompeo’s speech. Tweets like this began to circulate:
Critics of Mike Pompeo’s speech about “Being a Christian Leader” have expressed their dismay at the remarks, and the promotion of the speech on the State Department’s homepage. https://t.co/reigEucyaU
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 15, 2019
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” – 1A pic.twitter.com/QLZSLQUjFb
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 14, 2019
Was Mike Pompeo “being a Christian leader” last week when Trump said Joe Biden was “only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass”?
And does being a Christian leader mean he gets to violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment? https://t.co/dC8qJwFvLu
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 14, 2019
The establishment clause is an important part of the First Amendment, and it certainly can be violated, but that’s not only rare, it’s just not the case here. It is normal for the State Department to highlight speeches Pompeo gives in his position as secretary of state.
And members of the government, in nearly all administrations, mention faith often. Whether it’s George W. Bush offering a prayer before an event, or Barack Obama sending out a Rosh Hashanah greeting and hosting an Eid celebration to mark the end of Ramadan, the Constitution does not prohibit government officials from engaging with religion in their official positions. It simply bars the government from establishing a formal religion.
I reported in April about a case that tested this principle, and I think it applies here. The D.C. Circuit Court ruled that prayer in Congress is constitutional and does not violate the establishment clause. The State Department posting a transcript with religious comments isn’t even as blatant as a religious prayer, and multiple federal courts and the Supreme Court have found in many cases that prayer in the public square does not violate the Constitution.
In their opinion, the D.C. Circuit Court cited a Supreme Court case that analyzed whether prayer at town meetings was unconstitutional: “Finding that neither the sectarian content of the town’s prayers nor their predominantly Christian character was inconsistent with ‘the tradition long followed in Congress and the state legislatures,’ […] the Court concluded that the prayer practice was constitutional, ‘[s]o long as the town maintains a policy of nondiscrimination.’”
Eric Baxter, a senior counsel at Becket, told me, “The Establishment Clause is not about censorship. Instead, it protects religious diversity for everyone, even government leaders. What a loss it would be if Jews, Muslims, Christians, or believers of any faith could not bring the best of their traditions into government leadership to help resolve the challenges in a world as religiously diverse as ours.”
The State Department’s promotion of Pompeo’s speech is a far cry from the government establishing a religion. People need to find something better to complain about.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.