By now, you’ve probably seen a few versions of the cop lip sync challenge that has been circulating the Internet.
For the last couple of weeks, cops have been reinventing and recording popular hits from the likes of Bruno Mars to Macklemore and challenging other precincts to do the same.
But one police department in Texas is now facing backlash for doing their lip sync to the popular Christian song “God’s Not Dead.”
The video also features other references to God like “In God We Trust” stickers and a sign that reads “For God’s Glory.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has since released a complaint saying that the “God’s Not Dead” video violates the U.S. Constitution.
“It may seem like fun and games for Crandall cops to put together this music video, but the consequences are serious,” said Co-President of the FFRF, Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Just imagine the reaction if they were promoting atheism or Islam. This is equally inappropriate.”
An FFRF Associate Counsel, Sam Grover, added, “The Supreme Court has long held that the Establishment Clause ‘mandates government neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion,’ The Crandall Police Department’s video conveys a message to non-Christians that they are not ‘favored members of the community.’”
Read a brief snippet from their statement to the Crandall Police Department below:
“Government employees can worship, pray, or read any religious text they wish when acting in their personal capacities. But they are not permitted to provide prestige to their personal religion through the machinery of a government office. The police department belongs to ‘We the people,’ not the department’s temporary occupants … Not long ago the sheriff’s office in Bradley County, Tenn., agreed to pay more than $40,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees after promoting religion on social media and ignoring objections to the practice.”
The FFRF has asked that the video be taken down, but thus far, Police Chief Dean Winters seems to be unconcerned with the complaint.
According to The Christian Post, “When asked for his response to the FFRF’s request that the video be removed, Winters simply commented with a symbol: a colon and parenthesis that formed a smiley face.”
