Trump admin bolsters religious freedom for federal workers

In another win for religious freedom, the Trump administration has issued a memo declaring that federal employees may express their religious beliefs at work – and even share their faith with others.

The Office of Personnel Management wrote Monday that the Founding Fathers intended people to practice their religion “without fear of discrimination or retaliation by their government,” and that discriminating against people of faith in the workforce violates the Constitution.

“The federal workforce should be a welcoming place for federal employees who practice a religious faith,” states the document, which was crafted in conjunction with the White House Faith Office, established by President Trump at the start of his second term.

“President Trump is committed to reaffirming ‘America’s unique and beautiful tradition of religious liberty,’ including by directing ‘the executive branch to vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in federal law.’” 

Protected actions in the workplace include: 

• Displaying religious items and icons, such as Bibles, artwork, jewelry and posters with religious messages. 

• Talking about faith with coworkers, including attempts “to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature.” 

• Inviting coworkers to join in religious activities, such as prayer or attending a religious service. Supervisors also have that right, although they cannot discipline employees who decline to participate. 

• Expressing faith to members of the public and in areas accessible to the public, because of employees’ free speech rights. 

• Forming religious affiliation groups to engage in religious expression outside of work time. 

The memo said the changes will help recruit and retain “highly qualified employees of faith.” 

“The U.S. Supreme Court has clarified that the Free Exercise Clause ‘protects not only the right to harbor religious beliefs inwardly and secretly,’ but also ‘protect[s] the ability of those who hold religious beliefs of all kinds to live out their faiths in daily life.’” 

Andrew T. Walker, ethics and public theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the memo “quite robust” and said it “upholds the obvious: religious Americans are full citizens – even at work.” 

While the secular Freedom From Religion Foundation criticized the guidance, Walker said its reaction betrays ideological bias. 

“They’ve imbibed secularism as the default mode of public discourse – functionally treating it as the established religion of the federal government. This memo challenges that unspoken orthodoxy by tearing down the secularist wall they’ve erected between church and work,” he said.