It’s about time that Christians in the federal workforce felt just as protected in their beliefs as other religious colleagues do.
Indeed, according to a report from Politico, the current presidential administration is taking any instances of biases against Christian federal workers seriously.
Specifically, the administration has empowered the State Department to intervene in cases of discrimination against a federal employee for his or her Christian beliefs.
“The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying ‘anti-Christian bias’ as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government,” Politico detailed.
Considering that conservative parents concerned about transgender “fiction” in school libraries were apparently the target of Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, it is safe to say that the shift in focus to protecting Christians from religious discrimination is long overdue.
Indeed, in many ways, Christian federal employees are already subjected to an array of different forms of discrimination, including implicit and explicit discrimination.
Just consider the definition of discrimination given by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) itself.
“Religious discrimination involves treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs. Religious discrimination can also involve treating someone differently because that person is married to (or associated with) an individual of a particular religion,” the EEOC proclaims, making it rather clear that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists should be afforded religious protections that are equivalent in nature, which means that all groups should be protected equally.
Clearly, the intent is to protect Christian federal employees, who were arguably subjected to a higher degree of anti-Christian bias under the last administration, according to the White House.
Indeed, per an internal cable seen by Politico, the State Department “will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information ‘involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration’ and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms,” suggesting the preexistence of anti-Christian bias.
“Reports should be as detailed as possible, including names, dates, locations (e.g. post or domestic office where the incident occurred),” Politico added.
But of course. Detail is important, no?
One State Department official has certainly drummed up more fear than necessary.
“It’s very ‘Handmaid’s Tale’-esque,” the official intoned.
The Interfaith Alliance, an NGO, made it very clear that they are oddly not in favor of the federal government’s apparent movement in favor of curbing anti-Christian bias, in part because they also appear to have serious trust issues.
“This effort may appear to address certain forms of stigma against Christians, particularly against Catholics. In reality, it will weaponize a narrow understanding of religious freedom to legitimize discrimination against marginalized groups like the LGBTQ community,” the official detailed.
Are the official’s fears justified? Time will tell, though it’s clearly indisputable that major change is afoot now.
Author: Ofelia Thornton
