Fresh directives unveiled by the second Donald Trump administration have sparked alarm amongst organisations championing the division of church and state, as Trump continues to embrace religious expression within government.
The new directives, released by the Office of Personnel Management on Monday, will permit public servants to pray and openly discuss religion, including to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,” whilst prohibiting the endorsement of any particular faith.
The mandate will additionally permit supervisors to encourage employees to participate in expressions of faith, including prayer. “Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career,” Scott Kupor declared.
“This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths,” he continued. “Under President Trumpʼs leadership, we are restoring constitutional freedoms and making government a place where people of faith are respected, not sidelined.”
The wording bore striking resemblance to a memorandum issued during the Clinton administration in 1997. “The following Guidelines, addressing religious exercise and religious expression, shall apply to all civilian executive branch agencies, officials, and employees in the Federal workplace,” the 1997 memo stated, reports the Mirror US.
“These Guidelines principally address employees’ religious exercise and religious expression when the employees are acting in their personal capacity within the Federal workplace and the public does not have regular exposure to the workplace,” it stated. “The Guidelines do not comprehensively address whether and when the government and its employees may engage in religious speech directed at the public.”
Despite the apparent similarities, numerous advocates expressed concern about the potential erosion of the separation between church and state.
Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, voiced a stark warning: “If your supervisor decides to sit down and make it very clear that it’s important to her or him, that you accept this weaponized version of the gospel of Jesus Christ, what do you think your chances are for advancement?”.
Weinstein argues that the memo is at odds with the Constitution and workers’ rights, and he’s not alone in his concerns.
One critic sarcastically remarked, “What could possibly go wrong? He’s not thinking things through again,” and questioned, “Does this include fundamentalist Muslims, Jews, Atheists, Rastafarians?”.
Another pointed out the broader implications for religious freedom, saying, “Also ignores the rights of people of other religions as well. A ‘memo’ is not a change of law – it is not even an Executive Order,” and queried, “So what standing does it have?”.
Andrew Walker, the associate dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has voiced his support for Trump’s latest policy, suggesting it merely “resets” the rules. “I have no problem with it whatsoever,” he affirmed.
“To me, that’s simply reaffirming the First Amendment, that has proper caveats if you’re not engaging in harassing behavior,” Walker elaborated. “I think this is just reiterating basic principles of the First Amendment.”
Trump’s administration continues to intertwine religion with politics, as evidenced by his recent actions. Shortly after beginning his second term, Trump launched the White House Faith Office, staffed by State Department officials, with a mandate to identify and report any anti-Christian bias encountered by employees.