According to WAVY.com, the sheriff’s office in Poquosan-York, Virginia has decided to put “In God We Trust” decals on all its police cars; the decals cost $1480, paid for personally by Sheriff J. D. “Danny” Diggs. The report:
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.” Diggs said. “It honors God. God has been good to me and this agency.”
Diggs says he has been thinking about putting the decals on the cars for almost two years.
In Monday’s post, Diggs stated:
“Having ‘In God We Trust’ on our vehicles does not injure or threaten anyone. It is not an attempt to urge anyone to support or convert to any one religion. God has blessed me and the Sheriff’s Office. This is one way of honoring God by acknowledging Him for His blessings upon us and it shows our patriotism by displaying our national motto.”
. . . Diggs also stated Monday, “The legislatures and courts approve, and God is most certainly approving of this.”
From God’s mouth to Diggs’s ear!
The decals:
There’s also this:
Diggs also said Monday, “Based on the experience of others who have done this, there will certainly be a very small minority that will criticize.”
Really—only a small minority?? Well, we shall see, for there’s a public poll on that page (access the site by clicking on the screenshot below and scroll down the page to see the poll):
And right now the First Amendment is losing! The latest results:
So go over there and vote your conscience. But if I wake up tomorrow morning and the vote is still 2/3 in favor of God decal, I’ll be sorely disappointed. All I know is that we have 38,000+ subscribers to this site.
Plus, I think there’s a Himalayan cat somewhere in Colorado who won’t like the way the votes are going. . .
h/t: jsp
> Having ‘In God We Trust’ on our vehicles does not injure or threaten anyone.
Wrong. It creeps me out, and I don’t even live in America.
I agree completely!
When I voted it was up to 48.22% against. I’ve put it on a couple of NZ Atheist Facebook groups – maybe NZ can help fix the US! 🙂
It has been argued that this is “ceremonial deism” and thus not a First Amendment problem since it does not “establish” a religion. But this grates on police cars a lot more than on money because of an indirect implication that the police are acting on behalf of God.
In god we trust, everyone else, keep your hands where we can see them.
They’ll be throwing their firearms away then, I guess.
Well, if I am mistaken, please let me know. I’m pretty sure those police cars are government property and only available by spending your tax money to purchase them.
Therefore, this is just as illegal as pasting a g*d promoting sign on the county court house or the state house. FFRF should be able to take care of this in short order.
If the vote was 100 to 1 in favor of the thing it should make no difference.
I doubt very much anyone will sound objections to it to the officer when they get stopped. Or make any religious comment indicative of an alternate religion, now. That’s the point: having it on the government vehicle makes people fear to express different religious ideas to government officials, for fear that they will be punished by that government agent for doing so. It subtly coerces assent to the standard popular form of monotheism, the same way having your boss ask you out on a date is subtly coercive of a “yes” answer.
I voted for our secular Constitution!
The comments there are illuminating, if still disappointing. Quite numerous are those who profess their impatience with these attacks on Christianity. Sadly, none of these people read any comments other than their own.
A big “No thanks,” to police who flaunt their disregard of the gods of others.
Diggs also stated Monday, “The legislatures and courts approve, and God is most certainly approving of this.”
Clearly not one of those suffisticated types who thinks that God is ineffable.
Isn’t it strange how the religious always know what God wants until something bad happens then what he wants is a mystery?
+1
If I were a police driver of one of those cars then I would argue that it breached my right to freedom from religion. And if I were a Muslim, or of another faith, I would argue that the God in question is clearly intended to be the Christian God, so again my rights are breached.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this particular department wouldn’t hire you if you were indeed a muslim. Which in itself would be a great basis for a lawsuit.
And would they hire an atheist?
Only for target practice.
cr
I wonder if this sheriff will hold a press conference to acknowledge God’s responsibility when one of his deputies is shot, injured, killed, etc., in the line of duty? Will he gather the deputy’s family together for the press conference and tell them it was God and not the criminal, or lack of body armor, or that the perp had armor piercing ammo, or that the deputy lost control of his vehicle, etc., that was responsible for their loss? Will his office make faith-based arrests using the power of prayer rather than weapons, handcuffs, calling for backup, etc.? Will the taxpayers no longer have to pay taxes to run the Sherriff’s Department since God takes care of them and is good to them? Or could this be yet another example of a grandstanding right-wing Christian using the power of their position to impose their faith-based worldview on others in violation of our secular Constitution?
Isn’t “In God We Trust” just American for “Allahu Akbar”?
I will have to go to a library to try this. I refuse to contaminate my home computer with Facebook.
So God took two years to respond with the high-sign for Hizzoner the Sheriff to go forward with the stickers? She sure likes to mull things over before committing, doesn’t She? (And what’s with Sheriff Danny needing a plebiscite to confirm the word of the Lord?)
I voted. (Nay, natch.)
I couldn’t find the part of the page that lets me vote.
Are you going to the right place?: http://wavy.com/2016/02/08/sheriffs-office-puts-in-god-we-trust-on-its-patrol-cars/
Scroll down a bit and the poll is there.
I didn’t see it either until I turned off all my Flash-blocking, ad-blocking utilities. If you don’t get around to voting, don’t worry, I voted on behalf of a good many WEIT lurkers!
It’s evening up – about 59% for and 41% nay the last time (out of five times)I voted.
They keep spelling “Gold” wrong.
Down to 54.23% in favor of violating the First Amendment. Funny how people who want to do these things never see why people would have a problem with it. But let’s put up an option that says “In Allah We Trust,” and suddenly the whole question would go away.
Or ‘Hail Satan’!
Looking about neck and neck now.
A very fair point but not one, I am afraid, that Sheriff Diggs and his supporters would understand. They wouldn’t see the equivalence; they are convinced they know the one true god and that’s all that matters to them.
If one wants to shift the results of this online poll, it would make sense to pass this along to other atheist / freethinker bloggers to assist.
After all, there’s a reason the word “pharyngulate” is on the Urban Dictionary web site (it means “to skew results of an online poll, usually having to do with religion, science, or politics, in order to reflect a more rational result”).
I also observe that it seems that one can vote again each time the page is refreshed.
I tested it about 20 times just to make sure.
Scott — thanks, I’ve got to try that right now.
I may be mistaken….even though the poll resets, it does flash a message saying my vote has already been recorded. Hard to tell if the count increases because of my new vote or someone else voting.
We send this to every sheriff and city that we find adding this to government property.
It has come to our attention that it is the intention of this government agency to prominently display the motto In God We Trust. We would like to make our dissent known and offer an alternative. First, however, let us introduce ourselves.
We are The Original Motto Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the prominent display of the Latin motto E Pluribus Unum (From Many, One) as one that represents the truly inclusive nature of American society. Our message is one of inclusiveness: it takes all points of view, and sometimes the quarrels between those competing viewpoints, to make America the richly pluralistic society that it is.
In God We Trust, though it is currently enshrined by law as the official motto of the United States, is inherently divisive. Not only does it exclude a significant minority – i.e. the nonreligious – but it also excludes those religions that believe in multiple gods, as well as those that believe in none (like Buddhists). Furthermore, it is an unfortunate fact that many government agents and agencies who display the motto believe it to be an overt endorsement of Christian belief. When used in such a context, In God We Trust violates the most sacred of American principles: the separation of church and state.
E Pluribus Unum, we believe, is a motto that encapsulates the variety of experience and belief in this great country. It first appeared on the proposal for the seal of the United States in 1776, where it represented the union of colonies, who, despite deeply rooted differences amongst themselves, united to throw off the shackles of oppressive and arbitrary governance. The seal prominently displaying E Pluribus Unum, was approved by congress in 1782.
While you may still choose, of course, to display the motto In God We Trust, we here at The Original Motto Project humbly ask that you consider a compromise that can satisfy both viewpoints on this issue: mount E Pluribus Unum (or its English equivalent) in an equally prominent and honorable place alongside In God We Trust.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
—
Robert Ray
The Original Motto Project
Originalmotto.us
As our Founding Fathers Intended!
Excellent!
Well done! I saw your comment on the site, and copied it to post here, but glad to see you beat me to it.
Love it!
It’s always puzzling to me when I see people who might consider themselves “manly men” so willing to abase themselves before something with no demonstrable power.
The point is : If only the smallest minority do not agree, then it is an abrogation of the minority’s rights.
It is NOT a majority rule issue!
I don’t see anything wrong with it. As long as they allow anyone with any belief whatsoever to proselytize the heck out of it. Satan and the Spaghetti Monster should get equal space. Americans for Separation of Church and State get at least a bumper sticker. WEIT can have one square foot on the hood. This could become quite a thing.
“the decals cost $1480, paid for personally by Sheriff J. D. “Danny” Diggs.”
That sounds bloody expensive. How many cars has this hick town got?
cr
56% NO when I voted just now. Hooray!
This is the clearly the department’s best way to outsource responsibility for cold case investigations.
Meanwhile, they’re putting crosses on the police cars in Texas and the Governor supports it! Last year he supported putting “In God We Trust” on the cars and now it’s crosses. He tries to weasel around the First Amendment by saying, “In addition to its religious significance, the cross has a long history in America and elsewhere as a symbol of service and sacrifice”. Fortunately, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is on the case, but the issue hasn’t been settled yet.
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/02/gov-greg-abbott-says-cross-on-patrol-vehicles-are-ok-too.html/
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-cross-idUSKCN0VE2E6
The cross also has a long history in America as a symbol of racial subjugation and white supremacy.
He’s right, it’s the official motto of the US so hard to argue against it. On the other hand, what gives him the right to deface public property. I’d imagine, therefore, that anyone should have the right to deface a police car so citizens should insist on putting their own decals on the cars, I’d start with appending “All others pay cash” to the sheriff’s decal, just to mock it.
Does anyone else wonder about the general competence level of a law enforcement officer whose primary concern over the past two years has been decals?
60% No, 40% Yes!
Now 61.5/38.5 % out of ~ 6000 votes. The CC will grant us a ceilingly victory!
“Now 61.5/38.5 % out of ~ 6000 votes.” Yep. But if the sheriff still wants to put some decal on police cars, maybe we could support better ones: “In First Amendment we trust” or “In taxpayers’ money we trust”.
Did God drop him an email voicing his approval ?
I wanted to ask how he knew what god is/was thinking. Maybe he has a special band on his police radio, or if he is hearing voices from elsewhere he definitely should not be in the law enforcement business.
If they trust in God, why do they wear bullet proof vests and carry guns?