For Women's History Month, a TN police department shared Bible verses

The women in the Jackson Police Department all have a "Favorite scripture"

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March is Women’s History Month and the Jackson Police Department in Tennessee is honoring the women on their force by… sharing their favorite Bible verses.

Here’s just a glimpse of what the department has posted on Facebook over the past few weeks:

It’s irrelevant that these women are Christian. The problem is that the police department appears to have sent out a form for the women to fill out where they could write in their “Favorite scripture,” then posted those answers on social media. It’s an underhanded way for the department to promote Christianity under the guise of celebrating women. It would have been just as bizarre—and inappropriate—to ask everyone who they voted for in the last election and share those details with the public.

You have to wonder what they would’ve done if the women on staff were Muslims, atheists, or Christians who just didn’t feel comfortable promoting their faith on company time.

Or maybe those kinds of women just aren’t hired in Jackson.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has now sent Chief of Police Thom Corley a letter warning the top cop about how the law works. FFRF Legal Fellow Samantha F. Lawrence asked him to “remove these references to religious scripture from the Department’s official Facebook page and refrain from using official social media pages to promote religion in the future.”

While it is laudable that the Department wants to honor its female officers on social media, it should seek to do so in ways that are inclusive and do not needlessly include the often exclusionary topic of religion.

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… We hope you will agree that the police department must be even-handed and avoid any appearance of bias toward some citizens or hostility toward others. Promoting Christianity through the Department’s official social media suggests that your office prefers Christianity over all other religions and nonreligion. This alienates Jackson citizens who are part of the 35 percent of Americans who are non-Christians.

It’s not a huge ask! The department could easily share the same images without the biblical references. There’s plenty to highlight!

While I suspect some critics will whine about this being anti-religious, it’s simply a request for the police to follow the laws they swore to uphold. They have no business endorsing religion, much less one particular faith. This is nothing more than a request for the cops to do their damn jobs—on social media and everywhere else.

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