Dulles, USA - In an auditorium on America Online's rolling campus, a glorious expanse of the heavens is projected on a big screen. Reggie Evans, a former Redskins running back turned emissary of Christ, has come to spread the Holy Word in the secular corridors of one of the biggest, richest Internet companies in the world. He has brought along some football cards and a stack of Bibles.
About 75 Christian workers listen as Evans advises them to carry out their work as if Jesus were sitting next to them. But when he suggests that they knock on a colleague's cubicle and propose, "Here's a Bible, maybe we can read this together," even the most devout among them know they will not be following his advice.
"My eyes rolled back when I heard that," said Jack Clark, a technical project manager and member of a recently formed employee group called Christians@AOL, which had invited Evans to speak. "We're not here to convert people."
Pushed primarily by evangelical Christians, faith is finding a growing presence in corporations that for years have been resistant to religious expression, including such giants as AOL Inc., Ford Motor Co., Intel Corp., American Express Co. and American Airlines Inc.
Companies are allowing employees to sing the Lord's praises only according to strict rules -- at lunch and on breaks, and only to those who want to listen -- to minimize the threat to workplace harmony. Proselytizing, which can be seen as intrusive and a possible violation of harassment laws, is not permitted.
In return, some companies let workers share Bible verses on the company listserv, advertise religious events on the company intranet and invite inspirational speakers.
Even with those limits, however, the introduction of religion is changing the workplace atmosphere. Although it frees Christians such as Clark to bring their "whole selves" to work, it troubles many.
Since the 1980s, employers have allowed workers with common interests -- including gays and lesbians, military families, and people of shared ethnic backgrounds -- to form "diversity groups." So when Christians started asking to be included in the trend, many companies saw it as an extension of an idea that had served them well.
"There are intangible benefits," said Tiane Mitchell-Gordon, AOL's director of diversity and inclusion. Companies profit, she said, when their workers are highly engaged.
Yet other companies worried about the effect on workplace comity, not to mention potential lawsuits on grounds of religious harassment. General Motors Corp. and Coca-Cola Co., among others, have refused to recognize religious employee groups, saying such groups foster divisiveness, although they allow workers to organize around race, sexual orientation and gender.
"There is a spectrum ranging from proactive corporate leaders who are saying we need to think about this and find appropriate ways to embrace it, and others who say this is a complete hornet's nest," said David W. Miller, executive director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture.
By law, employers must accommodate reasonable religious expression, but they also must protect against discrimination or harassment, including unwanted proselytizing, said Chris Anders, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Those wary of bringing faith to the workplace worry more about the potential for subtle abuses, such as the unspoken pressure to join a prayer group that a supervisor leads.
"There's a fine line to walk between sharing your values at work in a positive way and feeling the workplace would be better if everybody shared your values," said the Rev. Thomas Sullivan, director of spiritual life at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., outside Boston. "As soon as you get into the second realm, you start having uncomfortable people."