Federal workers should not face any punishment for trying to convince colleagues of the “correctness” of their personal religion, according to a new set of policies from the Trump administration.
“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,” reads one portion of the administration’s memo. “However, if the nonadherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.”
The memo, issued Monday by the Office of Personnel Management, comes as the White House has made a priority of promoting religious faith and stamping out what it sees as anti-Christian bias.
The policy, first reported by Fox News, details a variety of other permitted religious expressions for federal workers, including keeping holy books or religious instruments such as rosary beads at their desks, wearing clothing with religious messages or symbols, and inviting colleagues to religious services on personal bulletin boards.
The memo also detailed other possible examples of allowed conduct including a park ranger joining her tour group in a prayer or a Veterans Affairs doctor praying over a patient.
Trump, who claims to be a Christian, with strong support among evangelicals, has made promoting religious faith a key part of his agenda. Trump-branded Bibles were sold while on the campaign trail.
Once he took office, Trump created a task force in February to root out what he said was anti-Christian bias in the government and beyond.
During remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast laying out the idea for the effort, the president cited the example of Paulette Harlow, whom he described as having been arrested for praying outside an abortion clinic.
Harlow, who Trump pardoned along with other anti-abortion activists, was part of a group of 10 who conspired to make a fake appointment at a Washington abortion clinic in 2020, then “forcefully entered the clinic and set about blockading two clinic doors using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes,” according to the Justice Department at the time.
It resulted in an injury to a clinic nurse and forced a patient to climb through a receptionist’s window, while another “laid in the hallway outside of the clinic in physical distress, unable to gain access to the clinic,” prosecutors said.
Protecting religious liberty and stopping faith-based discrimination has also been a key theme in the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on top university campuses, which the White House has accused of tolerating antisemitism during protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
In many cases the administration has sought changes beyond reforms to religious protections at these Ivy League schools, pushing for changes including ending diversity hiring and conducting “viewpoint diversity” audits of campus faculty and students.
The president’s actions on immigration have provoked consistent criticism from Catholic Church leaders and charities.
Faith-based agencies are among the main providers of the now dramatically curtailed refugee resettlement effort in the U.S. and the Catholic Church has a large following within Latino immigrant communities.
