By Kathee Baird
July 31, 2015
![Doug Rader In God We Trust]()
- Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader (r) stands in back of one of the patrol cars that was recently decaled
Galena, MO.- The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) announced they have called for seven law enforcement agencies nationwide to remove “In God We Trust” decals from their law enforcement vehicles, according to a press release. The Stone County Sheriff's Office, who recently placed the decals on patrol vehicles, is one of those agencies.
In the letters, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor points out that posting “In God We Trust” on police vehicles promotes religion, sending a message of exclusion to nearly a quarter of the U.S. population who identifies as nonreligious.
Letters were sent to to the following agencies:
“Spending taxpayer time placing religious messages on patrol cars is beyond the scope of secular government,” wrote Gaylor. “Further, in a time when citizens nationwide are increasingly distrustful of police actions, it is frightening and politically dubious to announce to citizens that law enforcement officers rely on the judgment of a deity rather than on the judgment of the law.”
FFRF has urged each of the departments to remove the messages from publicly-financed vehicles in order to “respect the rights of conscience of all citizens, including those who in good conscience reject belief in a god.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate according to their website.