I have a question for the Rosenberg Police Department in Texas: How the hell is it okay to post this on your official Facebook page?

Despite asking if people agree with the sentiment, it’s still a weird thing for a police department to post.

But what’s worse is that it’s edited. The original version was the same image with the the word “AMEN…,” a clear indication they endorsed the idea. It looks like once they started getting backlash within the comment thread, they changed it to a more neutral-sounding question. But they seem unaware that Facebook tracks your edits and the public can see them:

Someone should tell them to change their Twitter feed, too:

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. No one ever took God out of public schools. Students and teachers are allowed to pray (privately) all they want. They can even read the Bible during their free time. What’s not allowed is teacher-led prayer, school-promoted Bible readings, and the like.

Anyway, Chelsea Hoffman picked up on this story and summarizes the concern:

Since this Texas police department is a government body, it had absolutely no business — legally — encouraging and promoting the Christian god in public schools. This clearly deteriorated trust that non-Christian members of this community had in their police to some degree.

She’s right. It’s not just about separation of church and state. There’s a genuine worry here: If the police department doesn’t take the First Amendment seriously, how can they be trusted to protect the law in other instances?



