The atheist group that is fighting the clergy housing allowance tax break and defending a Satanic monument’s placement in a Minnesota veterans park has made its way to Alabama.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nonprofit that says its goal is to protect the First Amendment, recently alleged that the Wetumpka Police Department (WPD) and the City of Wetumpka have violated the constitution by promoting religious activities.
To make its claim, the FFRF pointed at several issues — a prayer program started by WPD’s chaplain, a dinner hosted by churches at the police department, photos posted on Facebook of an officer leading Bible studies in uniform and a summer deputy program for kids that was advertised as including daily devotionals.
“We write to ensure that the City of Wetumpka does not let the Wetumpka Police Department proselytize, endorse specific religions or host religious events,” wrote Christopher Line of the FFRF in a June 7 letter to Regina Edwards, Wetumpka’s city attorney.
Establishment Clause
The WPD’s actions violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by favoring a specific religion over others, Line wrote. “These violations must be stopped and the Facebook posts promoting them should be removed.”
The FFRF contacted the City of Wetumpka more than five months after sending a letter to Police Chief Danny Billingsley asking him to write back and say that the WPD had stopped all religious activities. Line wrote to Edwards that Billingsley never responded.
Just before the letter to Billingsley, the WPD chaplain had reportedly started a new program called the 1:1 Prayer Project, which pairs participants with a first responder so they can pray for them and send them encouraging notes.
Line called the program “problematic” and called the department’s chaplain position problematic in and of itself, saying the WPD shouldn’t even have one since churches abound in Alabama, unlike when military are deployed overseas.
“There is no need, and therefore no legitimate legal reason, to provide chaplains for them (the WPD),” Line wrote.
Another activity Line called a problem was the department’s monthly P.E.C.K. dinners, which stands for “People Extending Christian Kindness.” The event is operated largely by local churches, which volunteer to sponsor the dinners. These are promoted on the WPD’s Facebook page, along with other posts the FFRF called violations of the First Amendment.
One such post mentioned in the letter was a photo that appeared on a Blue Lives Matter Facebook page and showed an officer in full uniform leaning on the back of her squad car surrounded by children. “Officer Dailey of the Wetumpka Police Department having bible study with some kids on her beat,” the caption read. “Awesome job officer!”
Edwards told The Wetumpka Herald the mayor also had been contacted by the American Atheists Legal Center. In the article she said she was working with Billingsley to resolve at least one item from the list of issues submitted by the FFRF letter.
Edwards also noted that the chief had been told officers must be off work and out of uniform to engage in religious activities.
“So there’s no appearance that the city is endorsing any particular type of religion,” Edwards said, according to the Herald.
She also said the P.E.C.K. dinners were not restricted to Christian organizations but anyone who wished to be involved in providing meals for the homeless. The meals are served in an unused room at the old WPD facilities and are not sponsored by the department.
“The police department does not endorse any specific religion or host any religious events,” Edwards told the Herald. “We do support the community and we do support the citizens in this community.”
Using social media
She added that she would need to investigate the social media posts further before responding.
The WPD has Baptist employees and Baptist churches have participated in the P.E.C.K. dinners in the past.
The full text of the letters to the WPD and City of Wetumpka can be found at ffrf.org. The FFRF has 26,000 members across the country, including in Alabama, according to the organization.
The Herald also reported that, while corresponding with the WPD, the FFRF is engaged with a school in Opp over reports of prayers at a graduation ceremony that allegedly involved both administration and students. (TAB)
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