Have you even seen your coworkers pray at work?
In a memorandum issued this week, President Donald Trump’s administration established its guidance regarding religion in the workplace for federal staff. It said the president is “committed to reaffirming ‘America’s unique and beautiful tradition of religious liberty,’” by enforcing protections for religious liberty in federal workplaces.
“The Federal workforce should be a welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith,” the memo said. “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.”
Roger Williams, a minister, lawyer, merchant and founder of Rhode Island, is known for the phrase “the separation of church and state,” and advocated for keeping human institutions out of religious affairs, according to the National Park Service. In the U.S., early lawmakers were also concerned about a country establishing its own religion, like the Church of England.
Religious freedom was laid out in the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” the document reads.
Additionally, the memo from U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor noted that the U.S. Supreme Court “clarified that the Free Exercise Clause ‘protect[s] the ability of those who hold religious beliefs of all kinds to live out their faiths in daily life.’” It also said that freedom of religion is protected through other statutes and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Guidelines outlined in the memo covered the display and use of religious items such as the Bible and the Star of David; expressions by groups, such as a prayer group; conversations between employees and expressions directed at the public.
“During a break, an employee may engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs,” said the memo. “However, if the nonadherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.”
That seems to fall in line with previous policies cited by CBS News. Per the outlet, former President Bill Clinton’s administration said federal employees could “discuss their religious views with one another” and “may even attempt to persuade fellow employees of the correctness of their religious views” but “must refrain from such expression when a fellow employee asks that it stop.”
CBS said that the Department of Labor’s online religious discrimination guidelines have said staffers “who seek to proselytize in the workplace should cease doing so with respect to any individual who indicates that the communications are unwelcome,” for years.
Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order called “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” that claimed the administration of former President Joe Biden, a Catholic who openly talked about his own faith, of “anti-Christian weaponization of government.” CNN noted that Trump also created a Religious Liberty Commission this May.
“We’re bringing religion back to our country,” Trump said during prayer breakfast in Washington when he announced plans for that commission.
Kupor said in a statement that the new guidance “ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths,” and that “under President Trumpʼs leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined.”
There has been some backlash to the memo.
“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 Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “This is the implementation of Christian nationalism in our federal government.”
Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation also said the guidelines appeared to be in conflict with the Constitution and the rights of workers, according to POLITICO.
“If your supervisor decides to sit down and make it very clear that it’s important to her or him, that you accept this weaponized version of the gospel of Jesus Christ, what do you think your chances are for advancement?” Weinstein asked.
On the other hand, Andrew Walker, an associate dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary also quoted by POLITICO said the new policy just “resets” the rules back to neutrality.
“I have no problem with it whatsoever,” Walker said. “To me, that’s simply reaffirming the First Amendment, that has proper caveats if you’re not engaging in harassing behavior. I think this is just reiterating basic principles of the First Amendment.”