“The power of Christ compels you!” … could soon be coming to a workplace near you.
The Trump administration has issued new guidance allowing federal employees to display religious items at their desks, pray in groups off the clock, and even try to convert their coworkers.
You read that right. Government employees can now “attempt to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views” and “encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent that they would be permitted to encourage coworkers participate in other personal activities,” so long as it’s not “harassing in nature.”
The problem, however, is that proselytizing in the workplace is inherently coercive.
It blurs the line between personal belief and professional conduct. It pressures coworkers, especially subordinates, to nod along, stay quiet, or risk being labeled difficult, disrespectful, or even insubordinate.
And while the policy claims to prevent “religious discrimination,” it will actually do the opposite. It opens the door to exclusion, marginalization, and retaliation against employees who decline a coworker’s or boss’s invitation to Bible study or object to being told they’re going to hell over coffee or lunch.
This policy doesn’t promote inclusion; it undermines it. And it doesn’t protect religious liberty; it weaponizes it.
Employees have the absolute right to practice the religion of their choice, or none at all, and that right is personal, private, and protected. It’s no one else’s business. The workplace is not a pulpit, and no one should ever be pressured to conform to, follow, or participate in an employer’s, supervisor’s, or coworker’s religious beliefs or practices.
Anything less violates Title VII. No matter what the Trump administration, or anyone else, says.
