Good news for us atheists — we can now deny god publicly in the classroom!
Civil servants can seek to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views,” the Office of Personnel Management said in the memorandum to federal agencies, adding employees must ensure their efforts are “not harassing in nature.” OPM issued the guidance to restore constitutional freedoms and enable feds to practice their religious practices without fear of retaliation, the agency said.
“Federal employees should never have to choose between their faith and their career,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said. “This guidance ensures the federal workplace is not just compliant with the law but welcoming to Americans of all faiths.”
I know, if you’re a “glass half-empty” kind of person, you might think this is another step in the erosion of secularism and the separation of church and state, but I’m an optimistic “glass half-full” kind of guy. I’ve always been careful to not introduce my anti-religious sentiments in the classroom, or to make dismissive comments about gods to my colleagues, and when students tell me about their religious holidays, I make accommodations for them. But no more! I don’t have to conceal my fervent secular beliefs any more!
I get to be the kind of stereotypical atheist asshole portrayed in the God’s Not Dead movies. First day of class, the lecture is on why Jesus is stupid. First exam will have a question, “50 points: God exists, true or false” and the only answer I’ll accept is “false!” Religious students will be told they fail the class unless they can prove the existence of their god in a public debate in the classroom. Creationists in my evolution class? Not on my watch, they aren’t.
It’ll be such a relief to not have to throttle myself anymore.
I wonder if it will be a distraction from the scientific subject matter of my courses to bring up contentious issues like that? Nah. If probing the private, personal beliefs of their coworkers is considered a protected behavior in the federal government, why shouldn’t I poke deeply into these wacky ideas that some people at the university hold? It’s only fair.
Anyone want to take bets on whether the author(s) of that memorandum were atheists, or even considered the existence of atheist employees?
Now, now, we all know that these rules will only apply to Christians, especially after the SCOTUS declares it so.
“Inshallah” is harassment in 3…2…1…
OH, can you keep a lit censorium in your cubical and incense the fundigelicals’ as they drop by??
fusilier
James 2:24
Release the Kraken…Satanists!
Wait until someone brings the Quran to work. Or worse, to school.
I suspect the key that someone can use is the “not harassing in nature” clause. What PZ described doing could be deemed “harassment” in a court while doing exactly the same thing for their so-called Christianity would be an expression of their right to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views”.
Only allowed to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views”, not tell them they’re wrong. Check mate, atheists!
Coming soon: the First Amalgamated Church.
Project 2025 right on track. The blueprint for Christian nationalism. Unleash the thumpers!
My religion is “Drewish”. All y’all are welcome to subscribe to my newsletter. Bonus points if your name is actually Andrew, because you get the super-secret bonus name of Jeremy.
Sorry, anyone who would get that 10 year old inside joke doesn’t read this blog, because it is a very stupid joke that gets funnier every year.
Point being, to be Drewish, there are only two principles to uphold…
The Golden Rule is:
“Thou shalt do thy damnedness to not inflict unintentional harm on others.”
The only commandment is the 11th… “Thou shalt not get caught”.
I think that about covers it. Live your life, don’t be stupid, and do your best to not harm other people unnecessarily by being stupid.
It will be ensured that only Trump-supporting “conservative” fundagelicals are in supervisory positions. Any contrary or contradictory message to exclusively fundagelical preaching will be deemed “creating a hostile workplace environment” and result in termination of employment.
Colbert had a good twist on thsi new allow religious bigots to try to harrass er persuade others in his monologue tonight(~ish) here – 8 mins 17 secs mark in 11 mins total lenght clip.
I tend to think that proselytizing in the workplace is pretty harassing by its nature. It basically involves telling people that their current worldview is wrong and evil, and for some religious groups includes threats that one will be tortured forever after death if one does not change their beliefs. That sounds pretty harassing to me. Best to keep proselytizing out of the workplace.
Yeah, your boss can now try to sell you his religion and while he has to stop proselytizing if you say no enough times, there’s nothing to keep him from firing you, instead.
Yeah, your boss can try to sell you his religion and while he has to stop proselytizing is you say no enough times, there’s nothing to keep you from firing you instead.
According to David Graeber & David Wengrow in their book, The Dawn of Everything, in some of the indigenous languages of the coastal Pacific Northwest, the word translated as “ritual” can also be translated as “fraud” or “illusion.”
Anyway, should I find myself in a situation where someone with some authority over me starts trying to persuade me of the correctness of their religious views, perhaps I’ll demand that they provide rigorous proof using empirical evidence of their claims. Otherwise, it’s just fraudulent gibberish.
there are three types of people in the world. some look at a half glass of water and say “it’s half full.” some look at the glass and say “it’s half empty.” the others say “Hey!!!! I didn’t order this!!!!!”
Pastafarianism teaches us that there will be strippers and beer volcanoes for everyone. But I don’t know if it specifies the gender of the strippers? Can I sign up for say a trans man to be the one stripping for me in heaven! Praise the educators for telling us about this!
Meanwhile back in Oklahoma, the happless Superintendent Ryan Walters is accusing Oklahoma Governor Stitt of trying to destroy him by lying about the porn on his office TV. The two board members who saw the porn on his TV are lying. And he has been cleared of wrong doing by the Police department. They reply that is not so. This is quickly becoming bizarre and cannot end gracefully. Grab a big bag of popcorn and watch this weird Christian Nationalist clown show. Entertainment like this you cannot buy.
What @robro #5 says. The mere existence of atheists is considered harassment by some people.
@15 Robbo: there are three types of people in the world. some look at a half glass of water and say “it’s half full.” some look at the glass and say “it’s half empty.” the others say “Hey!!!! I didn’t order this!!!!!”
…and the engineers say “This glass is twice as big as it optimally needs to be.”
@jimf #19:
And the chemists say, “Why are you all ignoring the presence of air?”
This opens a window for me to praise Ukko, Finland’s god of thunderstorms at work.
The news already landed at some federal agencies. Given that a large percentage of my local work campus is gamer/SFF, this should be… entertaining.
BLOOD AND SOULS FOR MY LORD ARIOCH!