Trump administration says federal employees can encourage co-workers to "re-think" their religious beliefs

CBS News

5 days ago

The Trump administration on Monday told federal workers they can talk about religion at work, including by trying to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views."
In a memo to the heads of federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management — the government's human resources arm — said public employees have the right to religious expression in the workplace, citing civil rights law and the First Amendment. That includes the right to discuss religion, engage in "communal religious expressions" and display items such as bibles, crucifixes and mezuzahs on their desks, the memo states.
"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," it states. "However, if the non-adherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request."
The five-page memo listed out other examples of religious expression that federal workers shouldn't be punished for. OPM said in its memo that employees can invite co-workers who belong to other religions to their church or put up invitations to Easter services on communal bulletin boards; staff can display religious posters, Veterans Affairs doctors can pray over their patients, and park rangers for the National Park Service can join their tour groups in prayer.
According to the memo, agencies can still broadly limit staffers' speech — for example, they can "require that employees perform official work while on duty," and they can ban employees from putting up posters of any kind, both religious and non-religious. It also said attempts to persuade co-workers about religion can't be "harassing in nature."
Still, staff "must be allowed to engage in private religious expression in work areas to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious private expression," the office said.
The policy isn't entirely new. In 1997, the Clinton administration said federal employees can "discuss their religious views with one another" and "may even attempt to persuade fellow employees of the correctness of their religious views" — but they "must refrain from such expression when a fellow employee asks that it stop."
For years, 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."
"Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career," OPM Director Scott Kupor said Monday in a statement. "This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths."
Monday's memo comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration to let federal workers express religious beliefs. Earlier this month, OPM said federal agencies should "adopt a generous approach" when staffers ask for permission to work from home or change their schedules for religious reasons, citing a 2023 Supreme Court case in which a mail carrier requested Sundays off for religious reasons.
In early February, shortly after returning to office, President Trump signed an executive order accusing the Biden administration of pervasive "anti-Christian weaponization of government." The order set up a task force to look into alleged anti-Christian bias. Months later, the State Department encouraged staff to report any allegations of bias.
The moves have drawn pushback. The Freedom From Religion Foundation called Monday's memo "outrageous and unconstitutional," arguing the guidance "purports to protect religious expression in the federal workplace but encourages outright proselytizing."
"These shocking changes essentially permit workplace evangelizing, but worse still, allow supervisors to evangelize underlings and federal workers to proselytize the public they serve," the group's co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, said in a statement.