The Freedom From Religion Foundation has ensured that the Tennessee-based Chester County Sheriff’s Office will keep religious iconography off of its website.
A concerned community member informed the national state/church watchdog that the main page of the sheriff’s website, which lists names, photos and titles of staff, also displayed a “Thin Blue Line” flag with a New Testament quote. The bible quote is from Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” That image, reproduced above, has now been removed from the official website.
FFRF took action, urging the sheriff’s office to remove the religious iconography from the website.
“Use of religious imagery by important government offices risks unnecessarily isolating dissidents and undermining confidence in those offices’ function,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to Sheriff Blair Weaver.
Citizens interact with and rely on law enforcement officers during some of the most urgent and vulnerable times of their lives. These citizens should not be made to feel alienated, like political outsiders, because their local government they support with their taxes oversteps its power by placing a religious statement on government property. Nor should the Sheriff’s Office privilege Christian citizens. Such a show of religious preference undermines the credibility of the police department and causes religious minorities — including the nonreligious — to question the impartiality of law enforcement officials. At least 20 percent of Tennesseeans have no religious affiliation and another 3 percent belong to non-Christian religions, according to PRRI. Overall, almost 3-in-10 adults in America today are atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular,” according to Pew Research Center.
FFRF informed the sheriff’s office that other police departments have removed the same bible citation from department property after receiving letters from FFRF. Failing to respect the constitutional separation of state and church cost the Brewster County, Texas Sheriff’s Office approximately $20,000 after ignoring FFRF’s warnings about unconstitutional crosses on police vehicles.
FFRF heard back from Chief Deputy Mark Griffin, reporting that “[t]he website referenced in your letter dated July 16, 2024 is not administered by this office, but rather by Chester County. I have directed the administrators of this website to remove the image in question.”
FFRF is glad the constitutional violation is fixed.
“An open profession of Christianity or any religion from an entity sworn to serve and protect is unconstitutional and divisive,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Law enforcement must remain secular in all communications, including the main page of their websites.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation serves as the nation’s largest association of freethinkers, with 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including almost 500 members and a chapter in Tennessee, and works as a state/church watchdog to safeguard the constitutional principle of separation between state and church.
