Trump administration reminds federal employees they can proselytize in the office

Federal workers can hold prayer circles with members of the public and tell colleagues to rethink their religious beliefs, according to new guidance the Trump administration released on Monday. 

Civil servants can seek to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,” the Office of Personnel Management said in the memorandum to federal agencies, adding employees must ensure their efforts are “not harassing in nature.” OPM issued the guidance to restore constitutional freedoms and enable feds to practice their religious practices without fear of retaliation, the agency said. 

“Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths.” 

As an example of the new policy, OPM said that during a break one employee can engage another “in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should rethink his religious beliefs." The employee should stop if the “nonadherent” colleague asks him to, according to the guidance. 

The guidance is not entirely a departure from existing federal policy. The Labor Department has for at least several years maintained guidance that suggests “employees who seek to proselytize in the workplace should cease doing so with respect to any individual who indicates that the communications are unwelcome.”

The new OPM policy creates new venues for religious expression, however. It notes that supervisors can post invitations to employees to join his church for Easter on an agency bulletin board. Rangers in the National Park Service leading a public tour can join the group in prayer, OPM said, and a Veterans Affairs Department doctor may pray over a patient. 

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined,” Kupor said. 

Monday’s guidance was the second such memo on religious freedom from OPM this month. In his first public memo since winning Senate confirmation, Kupor encouraged agencies to adopt a “generous approach” to evaluating federal workers who request telework and other workplace flexibilities due to religious observances.

OPM said its new guidance is necessary to ensure federal employees are not discriminated against for their religious beliefs or practices. The memo said agencies should be "robustly protecting and enforcing" every employee's right to freely engage in religious expression in the federal workplace. 

As affirmed in the 2023 Supreme Court case Groff v. DeJoy, agencies—and all employers—must allow staff to practice their religion to the greatest extent possible unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on business operations. 

Under the new guidance, agencies must allow employees to display religious items such as bibles, artwork, jewelry, posters, crosses, crucifixes and mezuzahs. They should only intervene when displays or proselytizing causes specific complaints and not “based merely on hypothetical or potential concerns.” 

OPM encouraged all agencies to review their religious freedom policies to ensure they are in compliance with the new guidance.