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Eugene

(65,990 posts)
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 01:10 PM Monday

US to allow federal workers to promote religion in workplace

Source: Reuters

US to allow federal workers to promote religion in workplace

Courtney Rozen
Mon, July 28, 2025 at 12:09 PM EDT
1 min read

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. federal employees may try to recruit their coworkers to join their religion, the Trump administration said on Monday in a statement allowing workers to organize prayer groups during non-work hours.

Agency employees may seek to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views" in the office, Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. government's human resource agency, wrote in a statement.

Supervisors can attempt to recruit their employees to their religion, so long as the efforts aren’t “harassing in nature,” according to the statement. Agencies can't discipline their employees for declining to talk to their coworkers about their religious views.

The statement represents the latest effort to expand the role of religion in the federal workplace.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-allow-federal-workers-promote-160920173.html

13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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US to allow federal workers to promote religion in workplace (Original Post) Eugene Monday OP
MAGATalibangelicals, or the American Taliban, as I call them. n/t CousinIT Monday #1
Its not enough that they ring your door bell, but now at work. Historic NY Monday #2
This is going to go exceedingly well ! (I can just tell !) stopdiggin Monday #3
Can we assume that the employees who don't want to be proselytized Ocelot II Monday #4
I know I had no recourse when I worked for a contracting company slightlv Monday #12
Great Satanic Temple opportunity. Also Wicca. cbabe Monday #5
Exactly how you fight this shit Nigrum Cattus Monday #10
I was in the Navy for 20 years pfitz59 Monday #6
The decline of America edhopper Monday #7
Could you 'outJesus' them? Norrrm Monday #8
Fucking outrageous DavidDvorkin Monday #9
Can other federal workers tell them to STFU? sinkingfeeling Monday #11
So, it would appear... GiqueCee Monday #13

stopdiggin

(14,105 posts)
3. This is going to go exceedingly well ! (I can just tell !)
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 01:19 PM
Monday

Supervisors everywhere just developed a splitting headache.

Ocelot II

(126,319 posts)
4. Can we assume that the employees who don't want to be proselytized
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 01:23 PM
Monday

by their God-bothering Jesus freak co-workers are also free to tell them to fuck right off? Politely and non-harassingly, of course. At my old job (a large private corporation) there was a co-worker in my department who was into that shit, and one day he left his church propaganda pamphlets on everyone's desks. HR was immediately notified and it never happened again, which is how that should work, whether your employer is private or the government.

Will this policy translate to private employers? The way it works now is that your boss can't make you go to prayer meetings or any other such thing as a condition of your employment - raises, promotions, performance reviews, etc. If you work for the government, though, and your boss asks you to attend some sort of religious event and you decline because it's not in your belief system or the lack of one, do you have any recourse if the boss punishes you because he/she concludes you don't love Jesus?

slightlv

(6,202 posts)
12. I know I had no recourse when I worked for a contracting company
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 03:19 PM
Monday

on the Post. The event was billed as a Thanksgiving luncheon, but we were required to be there 45 minutes prior to the start of the luncheon. Most of us thought it was so we could find our seats and not digress into chaos. But no..... there were Jesus "testimonials" and long prayers by multiple people. I felt VERY uncomfortable, but there was no way out. And declining the "invitation" to the luncheon was actively discouraged as it was suppose to be a "team building" exercise. Turned out to be a great way to rip apart the team on a metric that had nothing to do with our work or mission!

We finally got the okay to have the pentacle on our gravestone in the National cemeteries. But I'd love to see how eager they are at any office to schedule a talk by a Wiccan or other Pagan about their religious path... or, even the Satanic Temple. Something tells me those would not be so readily welcomed as the First Baptist Church or the Evangelical Church of God.

It's just another way of pinning a visible label on people that says "I'm not one of you." And then you pay the price.

Nigrum Cattus

(765 posts)
10. Exactly how you fight this shit
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 02:30 PM
Monday

Since they think only in "christian" terms, that will be
necessary. There are many Wiccans in Arlington cemetery.
This the BS that the first line of the first amendment
was meant to address, they just can't handle it !

pfitz59

(11,706 posts)
6. I was in the Navy for 20 years
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 01:38 PM
Monday

The military had Chaplains. They were mostly OK. The non-ordained Jebus folk were insufferable. I had a Commander who was blatantly biased and favored folk who attended his morning prayer sessions. They were given plum jobs and higher evaluations. One of my coworkers got into it with the boss when his expected job went to a Jebus freak. He demanded a transfer or he'd spill the beans on the whole rotten situation. He got the transfer. I didn't speak out because I was not in the promotion queue. Besides the local JAG lawyer and base IG were knuckle-dragging knee- benders as well. Allowing this sort of thing in the workplace is wrong, and will lead to ill tidings and lawsuits.

Norrrm

(2,554 posts)
8. Could you 'outJesus' them?
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 02:02 PM
Monday

Proselytize them to convert to extreme religious views?

Make Westboro Baptist church look like slackers.
Emphasize put-to-death punishments as quoted in the Bible.
Emphasize divorce/remarriage/adultery consequences. That will hit home to many.
Go into great detail on some of the seamier Bible topics.

Let them start off first.
That way, you are participating in their conversation, not harassing them.

Offer/insist that you help them in their mission to convert others.

GiqueCee

(2,608 posts)
13. So, it would appear...
Mon Jul 28, 2025, 03:19 PM
Monday

... that these oily evangelists think that the separation of Church and State is just a suggestion that they feel they're free to ignore. See you in court, assholes.

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