Tennessee Sheriff Dismisses “In God We Trust” Complaint with One-Word Response

With all the “In God We Trust” stickers being place on vehicles belonging to police departments and sheriff’s offices across the country, it’s inevitable that groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation would push back and remind government officials that, even if they claim to love the national motto, this is just pushing religion onto their communities.

The other day, I pointed out that one police chief responded to FFRF with a message ending with the suggestion to “go fly a kite.”

Turns out that’s neither the shortest nor most immature response.

In Lexington, Tennessee, Henderson County Sheriff Brian Duke responded to FFRF with just two letters.

That’s a big font there. He’s probably overcompensating for something.

(Suggestion to FFRF: You should respond with two letters of your own.)

FFRF Legal Fellow Madeline Ziegler also points out something interesting about these “rebel” law enforcement officials:

As you can see from the pictures, both also posted their responses first on social media. In fact, we haven’t even received the letter from the Childress police yet. The only reason we know about it is because it’s currently going viral on Facebook. Chief Garcia is obviously more interested in scoring points with Christians on social media than having an actual conversation with us about an important issue.

Unbelievable. These Sheriffs are spending their days trying to earn “Likes” on Facebook instead of doing what’s best for the people they serve. Maybe they’re in competition to see who’s most irresponsible.

Ziegler adds:

It is deeply troubling, if unsurprising, that these kind of flip, smug responses are the message that some law enforcement officials are only too happy to send to the nonbelievers in their communities. It’s a mark of how much further this movement has to go in convincing even people who should know better that there are nonbelievers in their communities who deserve just as much respect as the next person, and of how much can be accomplished by coming out of the closet

If these law enforcement officials cared as much about protecting atheists in their communities as their pride, we wouldn’t have this problem. Instead, they’re aligning with the bullies, willing to dismiss and laugh at people who are already marginalized.