Atheist Group: Montgomery Taxes Pay For Pastors At Crime Scenes
States in the Confederacy American south have for decades worked to erode, if not outright ignore, separation of church and state spelled out in the Constitution’s establishment clause and two centuries of federal court rulings. One Atheist group has come up with a novel way to push back: use the tried-and-true conservative anti-tax, government-waste, and public safety tropes against the Bible-thumpers:
American Atheists — the group the erected the country’s first atheist monument on government property — has sent a letter advising the Montgomery, AL police that their “Operation Good Shepherd” program, which uses public funds to place Evangelical Christian pastors at crime scenes, is unconstitutional. … “Operation Good Shepherd is a taxpayer-funded program that sends Christian pastors to crime scenes in order to preach Christianity to the victims of crimes and the surrounding people,” Muscato explained. …
“These pastors have access to the crime scenes, which isn’t appropriate for someone who isn’t involved in legal work or crime scene investigation or isn’t a police officer,” Muscato said.
“And this is blatantly unconstitutional,” he said, “having someone there to preach who is provided by the police.”
Muscato said that for public monies to go to this kind of effort aimed at citizens at times when they are in crisis and at their most vulnerable is a violation of U.S. Constitution.
