Trump unleashes the evangelists

The Trump administration issued a memo Monday saying that federal workers are openly allowed to express religious beliefs in the workplace “to the greatest extent possible unless such expression would impose an undue hardship on business operations.” This means that they can display Bibles, religious artwork and items “such as crosses, crucifixes and mezuzah,” among other religious symbols.

But that’s not all. Workers are also allowed to talk about how their own faith is “correct” and how others should “re-think” their beliefs. “During a break, an employee may engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the nonadherent should re-think his religious beliefs. However, if the nonadherent requests such attempts to stop, the employee should honor the request,” says the memo. “An employee may invite another to worship at her church despite being belonging to a different faith.”

On the one hand, freedom of worship is a fundamental pillar of the US Constitution, alongside freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom do what you want, any old time. But let’s also be clear what this is really about. Hint: It’s not Scientology.

Despite the mention of “mezuzah,” this order isn’t about Judaism, either. If Jews proselytized in the workplace, or anywhere, there would be a lot more of us in the world, and the kinds of Jews who do seek converts generally aren’t working in federal office buildings. Maybe the administration’s definition of “highly-qualified employees of faith” include Hindu and Muslim employees, but they would be a distinct minority. Mormons love converting people, but they have a well-oiled youth-preaching machine already in place. You’re not going to be hearing, “Hello, my name is Elder Undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture, and I am here to tell you about the most amazing book.” 

No, this is a purely evangelical Christian play, to go along with a recent White House order about anti-Christian bias in the government, a problem that, institutionally, simply doesn’t exist. Many of the US’s early settlers were Christian dissidents. We’re a place where all different faiths can live in peace. That’s because religious tolerance is baked into the founding documents. But so is separation of church and state, which this memorandum takes a major step toward eroding. There is already a preponderance of Christians in the nation, and, we can assume, in the government. Why do they need to talk about their religious beliefs at work?

Without a doubt, this memorandum is all part of a larger push about spreading the good news. How, precisely, do you define the “break” during which an employee is entitled to discuss these matters? Is it a lunch break? A coffee break? A bathroom break? Are emboldened, federally employed Promise Keepers going to start sliding pamphlets under the bathroom stall or handing them out in the lunch line? The memo allows uninterested parties to reject the offerings but also allows for the faithful to keep the full-court press going.

Religion should be a private affair, or at least a family and neighborhood affair. It doesn’t belong in the workplace, unless that workplace is a house of worship or at least a business affiliated with a denomination. The idea that Christians are a persecuted class in the USA is absurd. This isn’t Syria or Lebanon. There are as many churches lining our highways as there are self-storage units and combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bells.

In his first term, Trump largely kept the evangelical portion of his base at bay. But he’s much more in tune with their needs and interests since the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. He truly believes God saved his life that day. And, who knows? Maybe God did. When he bombed Iran, Trump wanted to thank everyone, “but, in particular, God.”

That was Trump’s basically harmless way of adding a little juice to “God bless America.” But if God is really blessing America, we don’t need people telling us that at work. It should be implied. Instead, federal employees, whether they want to or not, are going to have to hear that He Is Risen, even if they’re only trying to grab a snack from the vending machine.