WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner told his thousands of federal employees that they can leave work early Friday in honor of Easter and Passover, sending them a brazenly religious message declaring “all men are endowed by their creator” with certain rights and referencing a time when “Jesus broke bread and drank wine with his disciples showing that sacrifice can truly change the world.”
Turner informed HUD workers in an internal email Wednesday night that they can leave work four hours early Friday to begin their religious rituals.
“America’s founding fathers proclaimed that all men are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — this declaration rang true as the Jews fled Egypt and found freedom in the Holy Land, and it rang true once again when Jesus broke bread and drank wine with his disciples showing that sacrifice can truly change the world,” reads the email sent on behalf of Turner via his chief of staff, Andrew Hughes.
He encourages government employees to head into the “holy weekend” reflecting on the freedoms they have “that the world has never known.”
“I hope that everyone at HUD takes a moment to recognize what a privilege it is to live in a country that puts her citizens first,” reads Turner’s message.
Not only does the HUD secretary’s message blur the line between church and state, but his call on staff to reflect on how how lucky they are to live in a country that “puts her citizens first” is wildly disconnected from the reality that President Donald Trump is actively looking for ways to deport U.S. citizens, arresting and detaining U.S. citizens, deporting U.S. citizen children with parents who are undocumented and, most alarmingly, defying a Supreme Court order to bring back a Maryland man who was in the country legally but deported to El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”
A HUD spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on why Turner sent a message to government employees openly celebrating Jesus and Christian beliefs. Instead, they criticized HuffPost for asking the question at all and started talking about unrelated stuff like gangs.
“Huffington Post’s Trump Derangement Syndrome is so severe it is standing up for criminal gang members while standing against the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on,” said the HUD spokesperson. “Our constitution says that we were endowed by our creator. Every coin minted and dollar printed is minted with America’s motto ‘In God We Trust.’ HUD will continue to follow President Trump’s leadership in protecting our first amendment right to freedom of religion.”
(The U.S. Constitution does not say we were endowed by our creator.)
HuffPost obtained a screenshot of Turner’s email to HUD employees, but the image is pretty crappy, so here’s a transcript of the full email:
Early Release for Easter and Passover
HUD Staff,
On behalf of Secretary Scott Turner, I’m excited to announce there will be a four-hour early release on Friday, April 18, 2025 in recognition of Easter and Passover this weekend.
Secretary Turner encourages our HUD workforce to reflect with family and friends as they break bread and celebrate the gift of freedom.
America’s founding fathers proclaimed that all men are endowed by their creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — this declaration rang true as the Jews fled Egypt and found freedom in the Holy Land, and it rang true once again when Jesus broke bread and drank wine with his disciples showing that sacrifice can truly change the world.
We go into this holy weekend with freedoms that the world has never known, and I hope that everyone at HUD takes a moment to recognize what a privilege it is to live in a country that puts her citizens first.
Please see the attached Staff Bulletin with important information on time keeping and instructions for early dismissal. Please note, this early release allows employees to end their workday four hours prior to the end of their scheduled tour of duty.
Thank you for your service and God Bless,
Andrew Hughes
Chief of Staff
Turner’s email was so overtly religious that some HUD employees contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit organization focused on protecting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. On Thursday, the group filed a complaint urging the HUD secretary to rescind his message.
This email “has made staff extremely uncomfortable,” reads the complaint from FFRF staff attorney Samantha Lawrence.
“We ask that HUD reverse this decision and refrain from officially observing religious holidays going forward,” Lawrence said. “Easter and Passover are not federal holidays, and these holidays hold significance only for people who practice Christianity or Judaism. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for a government agency to close in observance of a Christian or Jewish holy day and use official communications channels to promote religion to employees.”
Turner’s message to HUD employees to “celebrate the gift of freedom” also comes at a time when Trump is assaulting Americans’ freedoms on multiple fronts. The president is trying to suppress people’s freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, women’s freedom to choose whether to have an abortion, transgender people’s freedom to exist at all, and the freedoms of a healthy American democracy itself, to name some.
HuffPost heard from one Jewish HUD employee who noted the “break bread” reference in Turner’s email landed with a thud, as people explicitly do not eat bread during Passover. The Jewish holiday commemorates Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt, and Jews traditionally eat matzah in place of bread, as a symbol of how hastily Israelites fled Egypt.
Other HUD staffers made sad jokes on social media about how getting to leave early Friday might mean they’ll never come back, as Trump has directed mass firings at HUD. Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire buddy and head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has called for firing at least 50% of HUD workers, in some cases illegally. These cuts will disproportionately hurt low-income and elderly Americans.
“Please diligently check your email all Friday night for your RIF notice,” wrote one user on Reddit in a thread about the HUD email. RIF is an acronym for reduction in force.
“Jesus would never have sent RIF notices on the holy weekend,” wrote another user.
Still another responded, “What about the Antichrist?”