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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / Atheist Shrewds
No. of Recommendations: 6
Yesterday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a memo stating, among other things, that federal employees “may engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature.”
So if I go back to work at the federal job I retired from 3 months ago, I am free to convert all to atheism. 😆
Trump administration to allow federal workers to talk religion at work - The Washington Post
https://share.google/Nnpa0hsPger86IdAD
No. of Recommendations: 1
...may engage in conversations regarding religious topics with fellow employees, including attempting to persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views, provided that such efforts are not harassing in nature...
First, would atheism be considered a "religious view" for purposes of this memo? Isn't atheism the lack of a religious view?
Second, who gets to interpret whether an "effort" to persuade is harassing or not?
Seems rife for an unbalanced employment environment when it comes to which religious views are allowed and which are not.
Pete
No. of Recommendations: 1
Good questions!
It's rife alright! A few examples jump to mind:
If I were in a Veterans Affairs hospital, I might have to watch the surgeon pray over my body before surgery, in a religion I don't believe in. And if I asked him to please stop praying, could I expect him to do his best after he opened me up?
Or, think of how easy it would be to claim that any personnel decision is retaliatory, if everyone is trying to convert you and you don’t go along.
Or, how loud will all the Christians bitch and moan when Muslims and others try to convert them?
But if I go back to work, I could create DOSE, the Department of Satan Enthusiasts, and infiltrate the entire "sanctimonious federal bureaucracy." So there's that.
Regarding your first question, atheism is definitely a religious topic. I might also say that my religious view is that there is no god. But we could quibble over definitions.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Regarding your first question, atheism is definitely a religious topic. I might also say that my religious view is that there is no god. But we could quibble over definitions.
I agree that "religion" as a word or concept has multiple meanings and that one could broadly say that it includes atheism under one definition, although my emphasis is on the memo's language and how it is interpreted. We can argue that atheism is meant as a religion so far as "religious view" is described there, but what the people who promulgated the memo think (and agree to) is likely how that definition would be interpreted. If the definition and the acts permitted go the way they don't like, do we expect them to interpret it in our favor or theirs?
Pete
No. of Recommendations: 1
If the definition and the acts permitted go the way they don't like, do we expect them to interpret it in our favor or theirs?
Haha, great question! With this administration, it virtually answers itself! 😉
No. of Recommendations: 4
You don't have to be a genius to understand who is behind this and why. The Christian far right. Even examples given in the guidance are biased towards Christians and Jews.
But I like your idea of going all in on enlightening people about atheism. Of course in many organizations that might cost you your job.
It's funny that Trump, who clearly only uses religion to manipulate people (it's obvious he has no religious beliefs), is all in on this sort of nonsense because it endears him to a large portion of his base. And the christo-fascists who want to turn our country into a theocracy are thrilled.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Looking forward to the first complaints about people touting Baphamet. (Hopefully the Satanists are already hatching a scheme...)
No. of Recommendations: 4
I might also say that my religious view is that there is no god. But we could quibble over definitions.
My view is that god is a placeholder for ignorance, or a lack of understanding.
Tom
