Atheists Want Police Chaplains Fired. Why, Are They Jealous?

I remember when I was a boy we went on a trip to New York City. One afternoon while we sitting on a park bench, I saw a man yelling and shaking his fist as though he was mad at someone, except no one was there.

I think about that man every time I hear about atheists protesting against someone or something. Their venting is nothing more than a cry for attention by stirring up trouble. Otherwise, why would they get so upset over something they profess to not believe in?

Think about that. Atheism, in the broadest sense, is often described as an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.

Some would argue that atheism is not a disbelief in gods or a denial of gods; it is a lack of belief in gods.

Whatever.

In East Hartford, Connecticut the police department added five volunteer chaplains. Apparently, one person that has no life and is in a perpetual state of discontent, reached out to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).

The FFRF is located in Madison Wisconsin. They are an atheist activist group that among other things, believes that “police chaplaincies are unconstitutional.” Now they are threatening to sue the town if the chaplains are not fired.

“Nonreligious citizens, as well as non-Christians, should not be made to feel excluded or like outsiders in their own community,” FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said. “Belief in a deity is not universal, and as we like to point out at FFRF: Nothing fails like prayer.”

Wow, Annie thinks she has a cute tag line there. Nothing fails like prayer, huh? Maybe you need to be reintroduced to your parents.

What apparently poked the nest of these spiritual skeptics, is a message the police department posted on their social media page.

“How do you remake a town into a community? Well, you start by carefully adding four reverends and one pastor as East Hartford Police Department chaplains, bringing the face of God to the community through prayer and religious devotion. God and acceptance is universal, so we support all religions. Please join me in congratulating the newest volunteer members of the EHPD! Goodness knows we need their prayers!”

East Hartford Police Department

The FFRF wants the city to, “remove all divisive social media posts to respect the diversity of its citizens. The best approach for the East Hartford Police Department would be to provide secular support services and to leave determinations on religious support to individuals.”

Last July, this same group put the Mansfield Ohio police department in their unholy crosshairs. Once again, one person complained and that was all it took for these disbelieving jackals to arrive on the scene.

“The Mansfield [Ohio] police department needs to get rid of its chaplaincy program at once. FFRF is asking the Mansfield Police Division to discontinue the chaplaincy program and to provide secular support services instead.”

(Sound Familiar?)

FFRF Legal Fellow, Karen Heineman, then wrote a letter to the Mansfield Police Chief Keith Porch detailing the organization’s grievances and arguing government agencies, like police, can’t promote religion.

“Government chaplains may only exist as an accommodation of a public employee’s religious beliefs when the government makes it difficult or impossible to seek out private ministries. For instance, it may be difficult for military service members to find a place of worship while on mission in a foreign country or for an inmate in a prison to find a way to worship. Chaplains are meant to lighten a government-imposed burden on religious exercise.”

In other words, the FFRF believes police officers should not need a spiritual counselor as part of the force. That’s their opinion, but obviously the majority of police departments disagree.

The real question is why should they care? This is a classic case of an organization trying to justify its existence by becoming newsworthy. The spiritual needs of a police force are not forced upon the public at large. In fact, spirituality isn’t even forced on the officers. The chaplain within a police force is there as a safeguard. A person that can be sought out for guidance on many varied issues. A chaplain is a safe space for men and women that have difficult jobs often accomplished in pressurized situations.

The FFRF reminds me of a jealous little kid who has the mindset that if they can’t have something, they don’t want anyone else to have it either. What drives them crazy is that what everyone else has …. They claim doesn’t exist.

Keep screaming at the air.