{"id":12889,"date":"2018-08-20T15:46:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=12889"},"modified":"2018-08-20T15:46:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:46:34","slug":"atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches","title":{"rendered":"Atheist Group Wants Sheriff\u2019s Office to Remove \u2018For God and Country\u2019 Patches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2018\/08\/christian-bible-on-flag.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12891 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2018\/08\/christian-bible-on-flag.jpg\" alt=\"christian-bible-on-flag\" width=\"315\" height=\"236\" \/><\/a>The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a well-known atheist organization, has sent a letter to Shelby County, Ohio, Sheriff\u2019s Office urging them remove \u201cFor God and Country\u201d patches from officer uniforms, asserting they are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the Shelby County Sheriff\u2019s Office to promote or endorse religion,\u201d the letter from FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor reads. \u201cAnyone viewing these patches would understand the Sheriff\u2019s Office to be endorsing religion and belief in a god. We request that these patches be removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDisplaying \u2018For God and Country\u2019 on sheriff\u2019s deputy uniforms demonstrates a preference for religion over non-religion on behalf of the sheriff\u2019s office,\u201d she continues. \u201cThese religious patches convey a message to non-religious citizens that they are not favored members of the political community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The patches display an American flag with the words \u201cFor God\u201d at the top and \u201cAnd Country\u201d at the bottom.<\/p>\n<p>A FFRF press release said \u201cgovernment employees can worship, pray, or read any religious text they wish when acting in their personal capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they are not permitted to provide prestige to their personal religion through the machinery of a government office,\u201d the press release added. \u201cSheriffs and deputies take an oath to uphold our godless and entirely secular constitution and must keep their personal religious views out of law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FFRF also contended that deputies who might not believe shouldn\u2019t have to wear a message they don\u2019t agree with, or stick out as an unbeliever by not wearing one.<\/p>\n<p>It is not yet known whether or not if the Sheriff&#8217;s office plans to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a well-known atheist organization, has sent a letter to Shelby County, Ohio, Sheriff\u2019s Office urging them remove \u201cFor God and Country\u201d patches from officer uniforms, asserting they are unconstitutional. \u201cIt is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the Shelby County Sheriff\u2019s Office to promote or endorse religion,\u201d the letter from FFRF&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[674,8,2392],"tags":[2393,449,2394],"class_list":["post-12889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheist","category-news","category-police","tag-atheist-group","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation","tag-sheriff-office"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Atheist Group Wants Sheriff\u2019s Office to Remove \u2018For God and Country\u2019 Patches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Shelby County Sheriff\u2019s Office to request that the patches be removed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atheist Group Wants Sheriff\u2019s Office to Remove \u2018For God and Country\u2019 Patches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Shelby County Sheriff\u2019s Office to request that the patches be removed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-20T19:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" 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Patches","og_description":"The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Shelby County Sheriff\u2019s Office to request that the patches be removed.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2018-08-20T19:46:34+00:00","author":"Megan Bailey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/christian-bible-on-flag.jpg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2018\/08\/atheist-group-wants-sheriffs-office-remove-god-country-patches","name":"Atheist Group Wants Sheriff\u2019s Office to Remove \u2018For God and Country\u2019 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