NOTE: This piece was originally published at our newsletter A Public Witness.
Three days after Christians around the world gathered in churches for Easter Sunday, a Southern Baptist pastor turned a government auditorium in Washington, D.C., into an Easter worship space for employees of the U.S. Department of Labor during their workday. Rev. Caleb Morell, an assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in D.C., was the guest preacher for the DoL’s monthly worship service on Wednesday (April 8). His evangelistic message about the resurrection of Jesus stopped just short of a formal altar call as he urged government workers to follow Jesus.
“Who is Jesus to you? Is he simply a historical event or a living person? Is he just a good example from the past or is he alive and at work in your life, in our world today?” Morell asked. “A dead Jesus can’t give very much. He can inspire, he can move, he can give you something to think about, but he can’t forgive sins. A dead Jesus can’t speak into your life. A dead Jesus can’t change you, but a living Jesus changes everything.”
Screengrab as Caleb Morell preaches during a worship service at the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 8, 2026.
After recounting the biblical story of Mary Magdalene meeting the resurrected Jesus on Easter morning and not recognizing him until he said her name, Morell again pressed DoL employees to decide to follow Jesus.
“If Jesus were to ask you the same question that he asked Mary — ‘Who are you seeking?’ — what would your answer be?” the preacher said. “We live in a city where we’re seeking transient things: status, comforts, success — not bad things. But what is your answer to the question that Jesus asks Mary? Whom, not what. Whom are you seeking? Are you seeking the living Jesus? Not a dead Jesus, the risen Jesus, the all-powerful Son of God who’s reigning over all things.”
“Friends, Jesus is still calling our names. Jesus is calling your name. And the good news of Easter is not that we’re living people seeking a dead Jesus, it’s that the living Jesus is seeking dead people and giving us new life,” Morell added. “The message of the Bible is that we’ve all rebelled against God and broken his law. None of us are deserving of fellowship with God, but God didn’t keep us at a distance. He took on flesh. He sent his only son, Jesus, who bore the punishment for our sins on the cross at Calvary but rose victorious, showing that the penalty of sin has been broken, showing that the power of death has been defeated, and offering real life, resurrection life to anyone who turns to him in faith. So let me ask you one more time: Whom are you seeking? Jesus is a living Savior and he continues to call to us today.”
At the end of the March service, Kenneth Wolfe had announced this month’s service would feature a sermon by Rev. Joel Schmidgall, lead pastor at National Community Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in D.C. There was no mention during Wednesday’s service about the change in preacher. The lead pastor at Morell’s church, Rev. Mark Dever, preached last year during a monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon.
Passing Over Interfaith Efforts
Kenneth Wolfe, the director of the DoL’s Center for Faith, opened the service by attempting to frame it as both a recognition of Passover and Easter. However, despite a couple of references to Passover, it was not an interfaith service. Rather, it was a Christian service that included references to the Passover story in the biblical Book of Exodus in a manner that would fit with a Christian interpretation of the occasion. In fact, Wolfe even suggested that the lessons and themes of Passover and Easter were complementary and therefore could be celebrated together. Thus, it was a service in which a Christian could fully participate but one in which Jews would quickly find themselves excluded as the sermon, prayers, Scripture readings, and songs lifted up Jesus.
Later in the service, Wolfe quickly showed how the service wasn’t interfaith. After the Easter-centric sermon about the resurrection of Jesus, Wolfe declared, “Pastor Caleb Morell, we very much appreciate your powerful words as many here celebrate Easter and Passover. As Christians celebrated Easter Sunday, the solemnity of solemnities, just three days ago, with a Paschal season of 40 days leading to Ascension Thursday, when Christ ascends into heaven, we reflect on hope and joy following the resurrection of Jesus Christ, emphasizing victory over death.” He then introduced a song for them to all sing about the resurrection of Jesus.
Additionally, Morell made no pretense of trying to be interfaith and didn’t mention Passover. As he noted at the start of his sermon, “We’re here, as has been mentioned, because many are celebrating Easter, the time of year when billions of Christians celebrate the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Like the previous services, the prayers and liturgy showed a preference for the Catholic tradition. After his introductory remarks, Wolfe gave the same traditional Catholic prayer he started the previous three services with. Prior to joining the Trump administration in his role at DoL, Wolfe wrote for various traditionalist Catholic publications, arguing for Mass to be in Latin. The Latin Mass has proved popular among some rightwing Trumpian Catholics in recent years, including Steve Bannon, Candace Owens, and Harrison Butker.
Screengrabs as Kenneth Wolf plays the piano during worship (left) and Alberto Calimano reads Scripture (right) during a worship service at the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 8, 2026.
DoL Center for Faith Deputy Director Brent Perrin led those present Wednesday in saying the “Our Father,” which is not only a Christian prayer that Jesus taught his followers to say but is also the Catholic name for it (instead of the more common Protestant terminology of “the Lord’s Prayer”). As with the previous DoL services, the version printed in the program matched how Catholics say the prayer and not how many Protestant traditions do.
Perrin also led those present in reading the Passover story in Exodus 12:13, 26-27. Later, Alberto Calimano, a Catholic anti-abortion activist and senior advisor for the DoL Center for Faith, led those present in reading about the resurrection of Jesus in Matthew 28:5-7 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-22.
The service also included three songs that those present were invited to join in singing, including “For the Beauty of the Earth” and “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today.” As usual, the DoL service ended with the singing of “God Bless America.” Calimano urged that they sing the song as a prayer “for our troops in the Middle East and around the world, for law enforcement personnel and for our leaders.”
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Laboring for Christianity
Wednesday’s service, the fifth monthly prayer service at the Department of Labor, comes amid a recent effort throughout the Trump administration to push Christianity over other faiths.
Over Easter weekend, several federal agencies posted sectarian messages even though most had ignored other recent religious holidays like Passover and Ramadan. Compared to more explicit and problematic posts by the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and others, DoL’s Easter post was mild. But it still stood in contrast to their silence on other recent holy days. The DoL account on Elon Musk’s X platform expressed that they were “wishing everyone a Happy Easter” while sharing a White House post that proclaimed, “This Easter Sunday, Christians across our nation and around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — His triumph over sin and death brings redemption, hope, and eternal life. He is risen. Happy Easter!”
Additionally, on Good Friday, DoL Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer sent an email informing all employees that they could leave two hours early that day for “holiday observances.” She didn’t name the holiday, instead saying in her message that it was “in recognition of spring holidays and observances.” But the time off was set for Good Friday and presumably wasn’t intended to also honor National Chocolate Mousse Day or National Tweed Day, which both fall on April 3.
The DoL monthly services, which Chavez-DeRemer started after attending a monthly worship service at the Pentagon, have been Christian worship services with a preference shown for Catholic prayers and Scripture readings. They have also all featured Christian worship songs. While the first one included remarks from a Trump-backing rabbi, it was framed as a service to “celebrate the season of Advent with Scripture and song” and then to “commemorate” Hanukkah “with a guest faith leader.” All of the other services had sermons from conservative Christian preachers and activists.
The entrance to the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters is seen near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Meanwhile, Chavez-DeRemer is embroiled in scandals, leading some to speculate her tenure could be cut short. After President Donald Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chavez-DeRemer has been among those most mentioned as a possible next target in an administration shakeup. Trump has reportedly expressed his frustration with her in private conversations, though publicly the White House insists he’s pleased with her performance.
The allegations against Chavez-DeRemer include that she’s been having an affair with a member of her security team and that she’s used department resources for personal trips. Two of her top aides resigned last month during an investigation into her conduct and how they assisted her. Additionally, Chavez-DeRemer’s husband has been barred from the DoL headquarters in D.C. after at least two female DoL employees claimed he acted improperly toward them. For the second month in a row, Chavez-DeRemer was present at the service but did not speak.
Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve as vice chair of the national board of trustees) filed lawsuits against the DoL and the Department of Defense for not handing over records about the planning and hosting of government worship services. As AU President and CEO Rachel Laser said about the services: “The federal government’s role is to serve the public, not to proselytize.”
At the end of Wednesday’s service, Wolfe announced that next month’s service will feature a sermon by Father James Searby of the Basilica of St Mary in Alexandria, Virginia.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
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