Federal employees now have the green light to participate in religious discussions and practices under new rules handed down by Scott Kupor, the Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management, on July 16, 2025.
New Rules
“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,” the memorandum explained.
Catholic federal government employees need no longer worry about letting their faith inform their conduct in the workplace. They may wear their scapulars, display a small crucifix on their desks, pin a holy card to the wall of their cubicles, and describe the reasons for their trust in God in the lunchroom. They can meet in an unused space to offer a group prayer at the beginning of the workday. They can say a decade of the Rosary openly during their coffee break. If they wish to pass inspirational messages over social media on their own time, they need not fear that their supervisors will use their expressions of faith against them. If a Church youth group visits a national park and its leader is moved to lead a prayer offering thanks to God for the beauty of their surroundings, the ranger guiding them need no longer stand like an embarrassed mannequin on the sidelines.
Director Kupor’s new rule applies Executive Order 14202, “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” signed on February 6, 2025. That order begins with a ringing declaration. “It is the policy of the United States, and the purpose of this order, to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government.”
“Federal employees, a press release from the Director explained, “should never have to choose between their faith and their career.”
These are small victories, but have eternal significance.
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Dismay on the Left
The left attests to the importance of these actions by the chorus they raise against them. Throughout the press, trepidation is the governing emotion. Unable to grasp the fact of their defeat, they spill out their concerns about in-office religious conversations in every federal office building lunchroom. Once, leftists were livid whenever anyone urged restraint against “free speech.” However, their anxieties suddenly manifest themselves when it comes to espousing – or even tolerating – religion.
CBS News began its post with the sentence, “The Trump administration on Monday told federal workers they can talk about religion at work, including by trying to ‘persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.’”
That fixture in every Congressional office, The Hill, began its coverage worrying about office decorum. “The Trump administration released a memo Monday that aims to protect religious expression among federal workers, outlining that employees can attempt to persuade co-workers about why their religious beliefs are ‘correct.’”
Visions of Rampaging Evangelists
Politico shared that concern. “Federal employees can preach in the workplace under new guidelines issued Monday by the Trump administration that have alarmed advocates for the separation of church and state.” A couple paragraphs later, they gasp that “Supervisors are also allowed to encourage workers to engage in expressions of faith, including prayer.”
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Turning to academia, USA Today cited University of Houston law professor James Nelson. “But experts, including Nelson, said the memo is less attentive to the potential for religious coercion and harassment in the workplace than previous guidance.” Similarly, the New York Times laments that Director Kupor’s directive “protects employees and supervisors seeking to recruit fellow federal workers to their religion.” Their reporter then turned to Douglas Laycock, a retired law professor at the University of Texas. He feared that “the new memo appeared to have left out cautions about supervisors behaving in a way that subordinates could interpret as coercive.”
Of course, the professor couldn’t avoid getting in an extra bit of snide criticism of any administration that would go so far as to protect religious rights. “Compared to so much of what the Trump administration has done, this isn’t bad,” Professor Laycock said. “But the failure to caution supervisors about how their comments can easily be misunderstood (or correctly understood) as demanding compliance—that’s the most troubling thing I see here.”
What a Difference a Decade Makes
Of course, it is easy to understand the despair that the “freedom from religion” crowd tries to conceal. It has not been a good decade for them. A quick summary of developments since 2015 should explain the reasons behind their fears.
Ten years ago, the liberals saw only brighter days ahead. Barack Obama’s leftist sentiments ruled the day. The Supreme Court had recently imposed homosexual “marriage” on the entire nation. Roe v. Wade was considered “settled law,” unlikely ever to be shaken. “Dear Colleague” letters from the Department of Education threatened dire consequences for any school that would not comply with the demands of the transsexual lobby. The entire national news media—except for the occasionally troublesome Fox News—were safely in the liberal camp. Any remaining conservatives on the nation’s college campuses were quickly retiring or dying. In their minds, Mr. Obama had been too willing to compromise on healthcare and other issues, but they felt certain that true-believer Hilary Clinton would take his place soon.
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The certainty they felt ten years ago must taste like ashes today. A complete list of reasons for their decline would be far too lengthy for this space. However, among them would be the decline in the prestige of academics, bureaucratic “experts” and the media. At precisely the time that the left most needed the government to patch up their foundering ideological dinghies, the American voter decapitated their navigators.
The argument over religion in the federal workplace is only one skirmish in a protracted ideological war. It is, however, a clear sign that ten commandments Christianity is no longer anathema.
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First published on TFP.org.
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Author: Edwin Benson
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