Trump seems to want a tent revival -- in the federal workplace [View all]

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Trump seems to want a tent revival — in the federal workplace
New guidance allows proselytizing at work and the religious right to exploit their persecution complex

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published August 1, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) For most Americans, it’s common sense: You don’t harangue your coworkers because of personal beliefs and behaviors, just because they’re different from yours. Depending on your workplace, lecturing your colleagues because they are or aren’t married, do or don’t have kids, or spend their weekends woodworking instead of surfing could be recorded as anything from a “basic etiquette violation” to an “H.R. matter.” Minding your own business is generally considered morally righteous, and also a best practice, to make life easier for everyone.

But to hear Republicans tell it, being required to leave people alone is the 21st century equivalent of feeding Christians to the lions. On Monday, the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management issued a guidance allowing federal employees to “engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.” The rule also permits federal employees to “encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer,” and explicitly allows bosses to use their work hours to pester people they’re supervising with appeals to come to Jesus, or sermons on how their sinful lifestyles will send them to hell. Some have speculated the memo opens the door to permitting religious conversion attempts offices nationwide.

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Even if the pressure isn’t coming from a boss, however, it can still be oppressive. The memo includes guidance stating that “if the non-adherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request.” But asking a coworker to pray, or attempting to persuade them to convert, could make it hard for them to say no. Their rejection could be received with politeness and respect by the evangelist. Or it could spark hostilities. Having the legal right to say “no” means little when there’s every reason to worry your coworker will try to make your work life hell for rejecting them.

The implied threat that can accompany soft coercion is bad enough. But as Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State pointed out in a statement, the Trump administration has created a separate enforcement mechanism to coerce the unwilling to participate in Christian prayer and rituals: The so-called “anti-Christian bias task force.” Using false claims that Christians in government routinely face persecution, the task force relies on an expansive definition of “bias” that could easily encompass every time a fundamentalist gets their feelings hurt because an uninterested coworker said “no” to the offer of a religious pamphlet. “Under this regime, it’s easy to imagine the Christian Nationalists Trump has appointed proselytizing employees in the workplace — who then get reported and disciplined for anti-Christian animus when they object to this harassment,” Laser said. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/01/trump-seems-to-want-a-tent-revival-in-the-federal-workplace/