Federal Workers Can Try to Convert Colleagues’ Religion (1)

Federal employees may pray at work and persuade colleagues to adopt their religious beliefs, according to guidance issued by the Office of Personnel Management.

The guidance, issued by new OPM Director Scott Kupor, expands the presence of religion in federal workplaces, giving employees wide latitude to express their beliefs.

Employees are permitted to display religious icons, pray in groups, and discuss religious topics with coworkers, according to the Monday memo. That includes “attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.”

Workers may also encourage colleagues to participate in religious expressions, the memo says, as long as it doesn’t turn into harassment.

“The Federal workforce should be a welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith,” Kupor wrote. “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.”

The memo states that federal workers may engage in religious expression to the same extent they would in non-religious expression, and that employers may limit religious activities to non-working time. It provides several hypothetical scenarios, mainly Christian, where employees should be allowed to practice their beliefs without reprisal.

“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. However, if the non-adherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request,” the memo states.

Employees won’t be punished for directing religious expressions at members of the public, such as a park ranger praying with a tour group in a national park, or a Veterans Affairs doctor praying over a patient.

A worker’s religious rights as a private citizen “are not limited by the venue or hearer, or merely because the employee is a government employee, and therefore may not be suppressed due to the religious nature of the expression,” the memo says.

It also says that employees may display Bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religious messages, or “other indica of religion,” such as crucifixes or mezuzahs, in their workspaces. For example, a security guard stationed at the front desk of a federal office building may display a Bible or rosary beads, the memo states.

Federal workers can also participate in religious demonstrations in public spaces, such as a receptionist in a VA medical center praying with a coworker in the waiting room, the guidance says.

Group prayer and similar expressions may occur on off-duty time, and any objections—such as a worker disagreeing with colleagues using an empty conference room for group prayer—should be “politely” dismissed.