A new government memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management says that federal employees can now proselytize at work - including to those they supervise.
The memo, “Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace” sent earlier this week by OPM head Scott Kupor, issues new guidelines on how government employees can express their faith at work. Specifically, the memo takes down guardrails preventing employees from openly proselytizing their beliefs at work, including trying to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views."
Should government workers be allowed to preach on the clock?
What’s in the Memo?
“The Federal workforce should be a welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith,” read the memo. “Allowing religious discrimination in the Federal workplace violates the law. It also threatens to adversely impact recruitment and retention of highly-qualified employees of faith.”
When it comes to sharing one’s faith… suddenly everything is on the table - including trying to persuade a colleague that “they should re-think” their current beliefs.
Other behaviors which are now acceptable include:
- Inviting co-workers of other faiths to their church
- Displaying items like Bibles on their desks
- Advertising religious services like Easter on public bulletin boards
- VA doctors may now pray over patients
- Park rangers may now join groups in prayer while touring national parks
Additionally, supervisors may engage in all of the above behavior, which critics argued could create an unfair power dynamic. Employees, they say, may even feel compelled to convert to their supervisor’s faith in the hopes of receiving a promotion.
Secular advocates lambasted the new ruling, arguing it’s little more than a thinly-veiled attempt to promote Christianity at the federal level.
Secular Activists Respond
“These shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing, but worse still, allow supervisors to evangelize underlings and federal workers to proselytize the public they serve,” says Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This is the implementation of Christian nationalism in our federal government.”
Secular advocates argue the new ruling privileges Christianity above all other faiths, and will create a hostile work environment for non-Christians. What happens, they asked, if a Christian employee put up anti-gay Bible verses in their office? What if a religious colleague tells an agnostic one they’re going to hell? And will Satanists be extended the same legal protections to proselytize at work?
Secular advocates imagine a scenario where promotions in the federal workforce end up being based less on performance and more on prayer.
On the other hand, the Trump administration says these are simply common sense guidelines, consistent with the Constitution, which will benefit recruitment and retention by making work a “welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith.”
What is your response? Does faith belong at work, and are these new guidelines taking things too far? Are these new guidelines simply protecting the religious rights of the faithful - or privileging Christianity in the federal government?
17 comments
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Bishop William Dusenberry, DD
I’ve found, that after I came out of retirement, then subsequently obtained my “missionary” recognition from my Mother church (the ULC, of course) that ordaining more ministers for the ULC, (especially, because I wear my ULC minister’s shirt, and identify myself as a missionary) that ordaining new ULC ministers, is “ a piece of cake.” Proselytizing while peddling the reality, that Nature is a God everyone easily understands, and the more one studies Nature, the more about science-based reality makes more sense, than praising and worshipping an ineffable God, who murdered his only son, and drowned everyone on Earth, except Noah and his family (guesstimated to have been, 12,638,833 — back in 1985, by ULC founder, Rev. Kirby J Hensley, who was an apprentice ULC Minister at the time he made this guesstimate)
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Robert Gagnon
Didn't see where only the bible is approved, only religious texts like the bible. That leaves the Koran, Nature of personal Reality, Book of Mormon etc. You would think that the dept. of efficiency might need to interfere with this concept since it encourages employees to compete for recruitment rather than do their jobs. It's only fair to distribute prayer rugs in the event of a conversion.
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Clay Serenbetz
Also, given the time it takes to proselytize so many Gods, when will Jimmy do his job? How will he be able to complete his tasks "meritoriously"?
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Melinda Fulk
I disagree with this on so many levels - especially the inviting and proselytizing in the workplace. I think you should be able to discretely display something that could be connected to your faith on your desk. And I totally think that if they're going to open the floodgates, then open them all the way. They're thinking Christian when they did this, but it just protected EVERY faith in the workplace. Go ahead and invite your evangelical coworker to that Satanic sabbath on Friday night. And think of they fun they'll have at a traditional Beltain service! Or maybe offer to bring them along to that Humanist lecture you're headed to on Sunday morning!
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Elizabeth Jane Erbe Wilcox
As long as my sincerely held religious beliefs about religion are allowed I’m game. And what a game it will be.
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Jimmy Moon
GOD was not welcomed in the biden regime. Trump might not be a Christian but he will respect others right to witness about JESUS. Praise the LORD.
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Elizabeth Jane Erbe Wilcox
So good to know that I can witness to you about the 40K+ “gods” that exist. Hopefully you’ve got many hours of free time because it’s going to take many hours!
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Clay Serenbetz
Also, the time it takes to.proselytizing so many Gods. When will Jimmy do his job? How will he earn "merit."
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Larry Michael Damato
Comment removed by user.
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Rev. BH
Can I run a Ganja get together? Cool!
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Najah P Tamargo
Najah Tamargo-USA
With all the firing of Federal employees, the ones left are overwhelmed and are not able to DO THE WORK. They don't have the time to be preached at or to. I was taught that when you go to work, you check EVERTHING personal AT THE DOOR!!!! You are getting paid to do the WORK......and NOTHING ELSE.
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Reverend Paula Copp
This regime only works if you’re a male WASP(White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. It will come back to sting them. I hope they’re allergic to bees.
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James Mounts
Shouldn't that be "ASP?" I don't know of any non-white Anglo-Saxons. Just seems redundant.
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Michael Bernard Wolf
Ridiculous comment. I won't bother to say anymore.
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Clay Serenbetz
"Merit", which is supposedly Trump's big push and the reason that he's dumping DEI initiatives, have only to to with completing your assigned job-related tasks promptly and well. Proselytizing at work will only distract from completing tasks at work. Such activity will, likely, distract your co-workers from completing their tasks too. This directive obviously belies Trump's intent to eliminate DEI initiatives and exposes them as racist lies. Again, proselytizing is completely unrelated to any government job description, especially considering the separation of Church and State. Such faith based activity can only distract from merit-based government job performance and, thus defeat Trump's anti-DEI initiatives.
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Jimmy Moon
dei is racist. Don’t fool yourself.
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Michael Hunt
What's racist about making sure that poor communities and minority communities have the same opportunities as white men? That seems like the exact opposite of racism to me. It's not racist to enact policies to undo racism.
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I can only imagine how hostile that will make the work environment. Seems that the hostile work environment move made by the Biden cluster (c'voodoo shots and thst whole dance) is to be outdone by this new move.
I've long held a view, introduced to me decades ago, that our ruling elites laugh as they pit us against one another and pat each other on the backs to have put over another even bigger whopper.
Can we fire government yet? Claim our individual, personal sovereignty, and reject all who would of try to rule orhers?
This probably won't--and it shouldn't--get past scrutiny in the courts.