After having an extremely long work week with two more days to go, I have come across a frightening article. While there are some very funny lines in it:

"Then, much the way some companies go green, DOJ under Ashcroft went Pentecostal. In correspondence, use of the word "pride" was forbidden because the Bible calls pride a sin; employees were also asked to never use the phrase "no higher calling than public service." Ashcroft instituted prayer meetings, leading a Bible study at 8 a.m. sharp each day, some days even in his office, on others in a conference room at Main Justice. All department employees, regardless of their religious affiliation, were invited to attend, but in reality few did."

and

"After 9/11, the DOJ staff also received copies of the lyrics to a jingoistic song that Ashcroft had penned himself, "Let the Eagle Soar." He asked staff to sing it at the beginning of the work day at his prayer meetings."

Okay, I know I feel prayer should be separate from work. Kind of like an old boss of mine should not say in management meetings to hire women because they work at 25% less, thus increasing our profit margin. Or management staff using the C word to describe women in the office when the accountant leaves the room. These are unnecessary and discriminatory. Prayer is cool, but if you need to do it, do it quietly and to yourself. It is not a group activity, and should not be a cheerleading activity that does count when raises and advancement are concerned. Just like institutionalized prejudice and degradation of women may cause high employee turnover in traditional female clerical staff roles. (Can't understand why we can't keep women on our office staff?, duh! Yet six of my last hires have been women and there have been no "continual cat-fighting" among women.)

Set up a culture that cares little about justice and works from an agenda -- to lower the boundaries between religion and government and you have a very unappealing monoculture that doesn't see the irony of claiming that anyone can swear on the Koran to serve in public and be a citizen in a Christian country.

rojo