Five-Year Pattern of Anti-Christian and “Reverse-DEI” Persecution by the United States Department of State from April 2020 to the Present Date

Mark Pemberton
June 30, 2026

Five-Year Pattern of Anti-Christian and “Reverse-DEI” Persecution by the United States Department of State from April 2020 to the Present Date

As a Special Agent in the Diplomatic Security Service since 2015, Mark Pemberton is a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service and a sworn federal law enforcement officer. Pemberton is a white, heterosexual, Christian man, and for the past five years, he has been subjected to a continuing pattern of anti-Christian and “reverse-DEI” persecution by the U.S. State Department. This has included threats, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, adverse employment actions, formal discipline, unwarranted and abusive administrative investigations, withholding of awards and promotions, and even attempted criminal prosecution. This has caused severe financial, personal, and professional hardships and irreparable damage to Pemberton’s otherwise exemplary career in government service.

This pattern of persecution began in April 2020, when Pemberton declined to sign a “Pledge” that he would conform to “CDC guidance” outside of working hours. Pemberton objected to this on the grounds that CDC guidance at the time prohibited gathering for worship services. Pemberton clearly stated he would not waive his First Amendment rights nor violate his integrity by “pledging” something his religious convictions would not allow him to do. Despite later Department guidance that the “Pledge” was in fact optional, Pemberton’s office leadership banned him from training and verbally counseled him, stating that “following orders” was more important than his personal integrity or religious convictions. Pemberton believes this incident initiated the next five years of discrimination and harassment.

Almost simultaneously in April 2020, fellow State Department employees saw a personal social media profile in which Pemberton had posted the Orthodox Christian “Jesus Prayer” and a well-known traditional Christian symbol, the Chi Rho, which represents the name “Jesus Christ.” Pemberton had also referred to his personal interest in finding a conservative, Christian woman, from an ethnic background similar to his own, who was interested in starting a family. A State Department employee then reported Pemberton to Diplomatic Security (DS) alleging Pemberton was a “right-wing Christian” who had posted “white nationalism symbols.”

From April 2020 until May 2021, DS’s Office of Special Investigations (“OSI”), conducted a year-long administrative investigation, alleging Pemberton’s religious expressions were “associated with racially-motivated violent extremism” (RMVE). OSI even contacted the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Behavioral Analysis Unit, and National Terrorism Center and sought criminal prosecution from the Department of Justice’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section between February 2021 to April 2021. In May 2021, OSI completed a report where it classified Pemberton’s religious expressions and personal family goals as “notoriously-disgraceful behavior.” During this investigation, OSI subjected Pemberton to a compelled interrogation in April 2021, where he was personally harassed by DS OSI agents who mocked his religious expressions and personal family preferences, falsely accused him of association with RMVE groups, and stated his desire to start his own family according to his personal preferences was “identical to white nationalism.”

On February 2, 2024, three years after DS OSI completed its “investigation,” officials in the State Department’s Office of Global Talent Management relied on DS OSI’s report to propose a six-day suspension without pay, which Pemberton is still in the process of challenging. This form of discipline is significant, because any suspension longer than five days would remain in Pemberton’s personnel file until his next promotion – which would almost certainly never occur, thus effectively ending his career.

Between 2020 and the current date, Pemberton has continued to serve with distinction around the world in sensitive positions of ever-increasing responsibility. During this period, Pemberton has earned multiple Meritorious Honor Awards and Superior Honor Awards, and in 2021, 2023, and 2024, he was selected for promotion. However, the State Department has withheld those promotions due to the “ongoing personnel action,” which has now lasted nearly five years and which Pemberton believes is based on anti-Christian bias and “reverse-DEI” discrimination.