Rules Against Religious Harassment Supported : Civil rights: Mainline groups defend proposed federal guidelines that have been under attack by conservative religious groups.

Mainline religious groups Thursday came to the defense of proposed guidelines aimed at ending religious harassment in the workplace.

The guidelines, first proposed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in October, have been under harsh attack by conservative religious groups and are the target of a campaign by conservative-oriented radio talk shows.

“These political groups have irresponsibly abandoned an important protection against religious harassment at work,” former Rep. John Buchanan (R-Ala.) told a news conference held by more than half dozen Protestant, Jewish and civil liberties groups.

Buchanan, senior vice president of the People for the American Way Action Fund, said the guidelines “should be clarified, not eliminated.”

Religious harassment is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as is on-the-job harassment based on race, color, gender, national origin, age or disability. The EEOC, the federal agency charged with enforcing anti-bias employment legislation, prepared the guidelines to help employers understand their obligations in preventing harassment of all kinds on the job.

But conservatives have declared war on the guidelines, arguing that they would create a “religion-free” workplace where workers would be unable to share their faith with fellow workers.

In March, for example, the Christian Action Network, in a direct mail fund-raising letter, warned that under the guidelines “carrying the Bible, wearing a cross, having a calendar with religious scriptures on it, even breathing the name of our Lord Jesus--all may soon be illegal while working.”

But the mainstream groups argued that conservatives are distorting the purpose and impact of the guidelines.

“Religious harassment happens,” Oliver Thomas, special counsel for religious and civil liberties of the National Council of Churches, told the news conference. “Fortunately, it is rare, but it does happen.”

Thomas said that if religion were eliminated from the proposed guidelines, as demanded by the conservative groups, “it would signal to the American people that religious harassment is of less concern, and therefore of less significance, to the federal government than racial or sexual harassment.

“Even worse, some might mistakenly assume religious harassment is permissible,” Thomas said.

“There’s a great deal of misinformation surrounding this issue,” said Melvin Salberg, national chairman, and Abraham Foxman, national director, of the Anti-Defamation League.

“Far from limiting employees’ religious freedom as some have alleged, these guidelines make clear that religious harassment violates federal law and is comparable to other forms of prohibited discrimination, such as race, sex and national origin,” they said in a prepared statement.

Last year about 800 of the approximately 16,000 harassment complaints filed with the EEOC were related to religion.

The guidelines define harassment as conduct that “denigrates” or shows “hostility or aversion” toward someone because of his or her religion. Complaints require proof that the conduct created an “offensive work environment.”

A fact sheet circulated by the anti-bias agency sought to allay the conservatives’ concerns, noting that much of the behavior conservatives fear would be banned by guidelines would in fact be permissible, including wearing a cross or a yarmulke or expressing one’s religious beliefs.