New White House guidance means federal employees could be hearing more religious talk at work

If you are a federal employee, you might notice more religious conversations at work. That's because these discussions are now sanctioned by the government. The Trump administration has announced new guidance for religious tolerance in federal workplaces, as part of what it calls an effort to stop religious persecution at job sites. The guidance dictates a series of religious actions that should be allowed without any discipline occurring, and it marks the latest attempt by the White House to increase the role of religion in daily life.

What does this new guidance allow?

The new guidance was established in a memo from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which runs the country's federal civil services. It provides a guideline for "protecting and enforcing each federal employee's right to engage in religious expression in the federal workplace," the memo said. Federal agencies should "allow personal religious expression by federal employees to the greatest extent possible" unless it would "impose an undue hardship on business operations."

Categories of religious expression that should be allowed include the "display and use of items used for religious purposes or religious icons," said the memo, including the display of religious items such as crosses and mezuzahs on desks. The most notable part of the memo, though, was guidance for religious talk and proselytizing at work. Federal employees "may engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views." These employees can also "encourage others to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent that they would be permitted to encourage co-workers to participate in other personal activities."

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What has the response been?

While the OPM has provided religious guidance in prior presidential administrations, the Trump memo "presents a substantial shift in that it encourages employees to express their religious beliefs in the workplace," said Stefanie Camfield, the associate general counsel and director of human resource services at Engage PEO, to The Washington Post. Employers have generally been "advised to keep religious conversation to work at a minimum," as the "more religion is allowed into the workplace, the more likely it is that differences of opinion are raised."

The types of conversations around religion "have a way of turning into arguments," Camfield said to the Post. Sometimes, this "leads to outright hostility, which makes it more likely that an employee will feel singled out and discriminated against for their beliefs."

This is all part of the "latest effort of the six-month-old Republican Trump administration to expand the role of religion in the federal workplace," said Reuters, with President Donald Trump himself decrying 'anti-Christian discrimination.' It is unclear what legal recourse federal employees could have to push back, as "courts have long held that employers cannot suppress all religious expression in the workplace but can lawfully curb conduct that is disruptive or imposes an undue hardship as long as it applies equally to members of any religion."

Critics of the White House have "accused the Trump administration of pursuing policies that corrode the separation of church and state in the U.S., while elevating Christianity over other religions," said Al Jazeera. Other actions taken by the Trump administration include the creation of a Religious Liberty Commission, which included a "fact sheet that only directly referenced Christianity, despite vowing to promote 'America's peaceful religious pluralism.'" Trump has also signed an executive order aimed at "eradicating anti-Christian bias."