Federal agencies are now required to protect religious expression and practice in the workplace, under a new government memo that builds on the Trump administration's focus on religious freedom and expression.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent out the guidance on Monday, detailing the new requirements which protect federal workers' ability to display Bibles, crucifixes, or mezuzahs on their desks, invite colleagues to worship or pray with them, and to speak openly about their religious beliefs in public spaces.
"Allowing religious discrimination in the Federal workplace violates the law," said the memorandum. "It also threatens to adversely impact recruitment and retention of highly-qualified employees of faith. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution robustly protects expressions of religious faith by all Americans—including Federal employees."
The memo, titled "Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace," was sent to federal agencies by OPM Director Scott Kupor.
"Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career," said OPM Director Scott Kupor, according to Fox News Digital. "This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law, but welcoming to Americans of all faiths."
Kupor noted in the memorandum that religious expression is already protected under federal statutes, which prohibit the federal government from discriminating against an employee because of their religion or religious expression.
"This memorandum provides guidance to agencies on robustly protecting and enforcing each Federal employee’s right to engage in religious expression in the Federal workplace consistent with the U.S. Constitution, Title VII, and other applicable sources of law," reads the memo. "Agencies should allow personal religious expression by Federal employees to the greatest extent possible unless such expression would impose an undue hardship on business operations."
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The memo details other examples of protected religious expression, including religious jewelry and clothing, open discussions of faith in the workplace, and expressions of faith directed towards the public, such as praying over a patient in a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital.
"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," said Kupor in the memo. "An employee may invite another to worship at her church despite being belonging to a different faith."
Kupor specified that these new guidelines for religious expression should be understood in conjunction with a previous memo his department issued on July 16, titled "Reasonable Accommodations for Religious Purposes."
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