"I Called This Meeting to Talk About Our Lord and Savior!"

The federal workplace is becoming the next victim of U.S. Christian supremacy

On Monday, July 28th, the Trump administration Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo, in conjunction with the White House Faith Office (established in February) stating that federal employees can attempt to persuade other employees of the “correctness” of their religious beliefs in the workplace, provided that this proselytizing is not “harassing in nature.” Employees may also, according to the memo, display bibles, religious artwork, jewelry, posters displaying religions messages and other religious items including, but not limited to, crosses, crucifixes and mezuzah.

Having been a federal employee for over 10 years and a federal contractor for 14 months prior to becoming a permanent, full-time equivalent employee, I have seen numerous expressions of faith in the workplace that were treated as no big deal by everyone, as far as I’m aware. I read books during any down time I might manage at work. If someone’s reading the bible in the workplace, it’s really none of my business. I’ve seen crosses and crucifixes displayed in cubicles (we call them pods) and on necklaces and chains. I’ve seen religious quotes on calendars and items on desks that are religious in nature. I couldn’t care less.

Where I draw the line as an outspoken atheist Humanist is with proselytizing. There’s no excuse for it in any workplace. This memo allowing for proselytization is opening a Pandora’s Box and the authors of this guidance know it. The goal here, as with all the Project 2025 and DOGE and other shenanigans this regime is pulling, is to sow dysfunction in the federal workforce, at least that the part of the federal workforce that has not already been coerced into resignation or early retirement and has not (yet) faced a reduction-in-force (RIF). The more infighting and internal discord this creates, the better for the sick minds behind this memo.

They also want this litigated. They know this is going to inspire legal action when employees start facing evangelistic harassment and start trying to deal with it through HR, only to have this memo shoved in their faces and told how a high a bar they have to reach to prove actual harassment. They want a case challenging this memo in front of the six megalomaniacal Christian theocrats currently in control of the Supreme Court so they can remove some more bricks from the wall of separation between church and state.

Photo by Cody Otto on Unsplash

In 2018, myself and a co-plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the City of Parkersburg, WV for the City Council’s unconstitutional prayer invocation practice at public meetings. The Council was leading the uniquely-Christian Lord’s Prayer from the dais at the commencement of meetings. In 2022, a federal district court judge for the Southern District of West Virginia ruled in our favor and permanently enjoined the Council from leading the prayer.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the appropriate appellate court of jurisdiction for West Virginia, had already ruled in a prior case out of North Carolina, Lund v. Rowan County, North Carolina No. 15-1591 (4th Cir. 2017), in virtually the same way the judge in our case did and the Supreme Court had refused to take that case up on appeal prior to our filing our case with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). The city knew it would be no use to appeal and our church-state separation victory remains in place. Each of us received a 2022 Freethinker of the Year Award from FFRF.

I’ve also worked as Assistant State Director for West Virginia with the national organization American Atheists on church-state separation issues, with a particular focus on the WV State Legislature during sessions. Around Christmas time every year, I make sure that the facilities folks responsible for the WV State Capitol grounds display an American Atheists holiday banner to go along with the nativity scene displayed by the Christian theocrats at the WV Family Policy Council.

There is no freedom of religion without freedom from religion. It’s really that simple. My goal is not the political or cultural eradication of Christianity or of any other faith; it is simply secular government at all levels and a religiously pluralistic society for people of all faiths and no faith at all. If the founders—who established an aristocratic Republic serving the interests of only white, male landowners (many slaveholders) and created systemic minority tyranny to protect it via the U.S. Constitution—could understand the need for secular government and religious pluralism, it can’t really be that tough to comprehend.

In the seven Articles of and the first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights) to the Constitution, the founders made no mention of a god (not even the so-called “Judeo-Christian” deity) or of Jesus or of Christianity. They saw fit to mention religion in our founding document only three times: Article VI, Section 3, Clause II reads “but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States;” the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion;” and, finally, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment reads, immediately following the Establishment Clause, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Despite the performative piety and culture wars-motivated bullshit of the religious right in this country, this has never been a Christian nation. Ours is a secular constitutional democratic republic. The weaponization of the Constitution in the interests of Christian nationalism by the majority on the Roberts Court and the intentional failure of extremists in both the executive and legislative branches to uphold our secular Constitution in statutes and administrative (e.g. regulatory and rulemaking) law notwithstanding, the imposition of faith and coercion to practice any religion is always and everywhere a recipe for disaster.

This latest OPM memo is just more proof, were any needed, of the vacuous, hollow, selfish, greedy, impetuous and power-hungry nature of authoritarian right-wing Christianity in the United States. It is a theology of hate, willful ignorance, arrogance, licentiousness, avarice, cruelty and malice. Should I be confronted with this newly-permitted aggression for “saving souls” in the workplace (though I doubt I will in my work area), I’ll take the opportunity to provide a much-needed civics lesson for the perpetrator(s). I’ll also be happy to share the Ten Commitments of Humanism with them.