BREAKING: KINNEY COUNTY, TX– Out-of-state atheist organization demands the police force in a tiny Texas border county remove Bible verses from their patrol cars.
Kinney County, a small Texas-Mexico border county, clocked in at a population of 3,129 people in the 2020 census report. The rural community, removed from any major Texas cities, regularly reports its largest obstacle as illegal immigration — including drug cartels.
The county is directly enroute for illegal border crossers who are headed toward San Antonio. The Kinney County Sheriff’s Department faces perilous conditions daily while trying to keep its small town and the broader state safe.
For this reason, every patrol car in the department is adorned with a Biblical scripture. These messages are precious to the police force, which leans on faith to cope with dangerous jobs.
One officer has a passage from Ephesians on his vehicle:
“Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil,” (Ephesians 6:11).
Kinney County Chief Deputy Armando Garcia told The Center Square that the verses are “important because God is our one true leader.”
“I am a Christian and I trust in God. In a lot of the dangerous situations I’ve been in, I believe he’s the only reason I’ve come out of those situations,” Garcia said.
Yet these scriptures of hope for the small sheriff’s department have recently become the target of a brutal attack by an out-of-state, Wisconsin-based organization of atheists, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).
The group claims that the religious decals are “illegal” and “unconstitutional,” and demands that the sheriff’s department remove each verse from its patrol vehicles.
“Kinney County must immediately remove the bible quotes from its official vehicles in order to respect the constitutional separation between religion and government and the diverse views of its residents and employees,” FFRF said in a statement.
“It is highly inappropriate for the county to display Bible verses on government property and to issue public statements about how residents should be Christians.”
From across the country, the atheists scrutinize the Texan police force, hinting that they would sue Kinney County if the verses aren’t removed immediately.
“The Kinney County Sheriff’s Office exists to enforce law and keep the peace, not to serve as preachers,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This is an outrageous overstep that violates freedom of conscience and constitutional dictates.”
Law enforcement officers, particularly those stationed by the border, risk their lives daily to defend their counties, states and nation. With one’s life on the line, who wouldn’t pray to the Lord?
