WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Federal employees must be allowed to display their faith at work, according to a new directive issued Monday by the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Fox News obtained a copy of the memo, which declares that the “Federal workforce should be a welcoming place for Federal employees who practice a religious faith. 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.”
“Employees must be allowed to engage in private religious expression in work areas to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious private expression,” OPM says. “Agencies may, however, reasonably regulate the time, place and manner of all employee speech, provided such regulations do not discriminate based on content or viewpoint (including religious viewpoints). Agencies may require that employees perform official work while on duty, as opposed to engaging in personal religious observances.”
Examples of protected expression include but are not limited to “bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religious messages, and other indicia of religion (such as crosses, crucifixes and mezuzahs) on their desks, on their person, and in their assigned workspaces”; and “individual or communal religious expressions.”
Federal workers must also be allowed to engage in “conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature”; and to “make religious expressions in their personal capacities in areas accessible to the public.” At the same time, however, when “public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline.”
Earlier this month, recently-appointed OPM chief Scott Kupor issued another memo directing agencies to “adopt a generous approach to approving religious accommodations, prioritizing employee needs while maintaining operational efficiency” in matters of religious leave requests and recognizing religious holidays.
“Religious liberty is foundational,” Kupor declared. “No federal employee should be forced to choose between their faith and their federal service.”
The Trump administration has also established a White House Religious Liberty Commission, tasked with “produc[ing] a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, the impact of religious liberty on American society, current threats to domestic religious liberty, strategies to preserve and enhance religious liberty protections for future generations, and programs to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism”; and “advis[ing] the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies of the United States.”
