Protecting Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace

This memorandum creates a government-wide policy that "agencies should allow personal religious expression by Federal employees to the greatest extent possible unless such expression would impose an undue hardship on business operations." It also asks agencies to update their internal policies as necessary so that they "appropriately protect religious expression." The memorandum provides that employees, including supervisors, may "encourage their coworkers to participate in religious expressions of faith, such as prayer, to the same extent that they would be permitted to encourage coworkers participate in other personal activities" and that employees may attempt to "persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature." Finally, it provides an appendix that lists permissive religious expression in the workplace that should not be grounds for discipline. These examples include: keeping a Bible, tefillin, or rosary beads on the employee's desk and using them to pray while on breaks; wearing a cross; holding a prayer group while off-duty; encouraging "a non-adherent [to] re-think his religious beliefs;" and that a "security guard stationed at the front desk of a federal office building may display and use a crucifix, Bible, or use rosary beads."