The Trump administration has greenlit workplace religious harassment with a shocking new policy that allows federal employees to pester their colleagues with conversion attempts and fire-and-brimstone sermons—all while crying “persecution” if anyone objects, a columnist wrote Friday.
The Office of Personnel Management’s guidance, issued this week, explicitly permits federal workers to “engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,” wrote Amanda Marcotte for Salon.
Even more disturbing, bosses can now use work hours to pressure subordinates with religious appeals, creating a nightmare scenario where job security depends on feigning Christian devotion, she wrote.
“Under this regime, it’s easy to imagine the Christian Nationalists Trump has appointed proselytizing employees in the workplace — who then get reported and disciplined for anti-Christian animus when they object to this harassment,” warned Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, according to Marotte.
The policy weaponizes Trump’s so-called “anti-Christian bias task force” to punish employees who dare refuse evangelical browbeating,” the columnist went on.
“As the Freedom from Religion Foundation noted, “when someone’s job security and promotions are at stake, employees will feel they must go along with the religious conversation.”
“One terrifying example of the topsy-turvy logic in action is the Christian nationalist apologetics of Russell Vought, one of Trump’s most powerful appointees,” Marcotte wrote.
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget chief and Project 2025 architect argues that forcing his religion on Americans counters supposed “oppression” of his faith, she wrote.
“American Christians are the most privileged group to exist in the country,” observed Tim Whitaker of The New Evangelicals. “But when you’re afraid of losing the power and privilege you have, you become paranoid that any attempt to give others the same rights as you is an attack on your freedom.”
The policy transforms basic workplace courtesy into “discrimination,” giving evangelical extremists government-sanctioned permission to terrorize colleagues with religious coercion while painting themselves as victims when told to stop, Marcotte concluded.