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About Us & RulesIn Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
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In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Fri Apr 14, 2017 5:52 pm
The state senate is allowing a megachurch in Alabama its own police force. What’s next? A mosque getting its own police force? Uh, not likely.
How do you think the GOP-controlled Alabama Senate would respond to a mega mosque asking to form its own armed police force? Keep in mind Alabama is where Republicans pushed for an anti-Sharia amendment to its state’s constitution that easily passed in 2014. And just imagine what you would see on Fox News, Breitbart.com, and the other media outlets that profit off stoking hate against Muslims if such a request were made by the head of a U.S. mosque? They would be calling this not only an attempt to impose Sharia but also likely claim it’s an attempt to establish “religious morality police” like we see in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But when the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, a megachurch in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, asked for special permission to create our nation’s first ever church-run police force, it sailed right through Alabama’s GOP-dominated Senate on Tuesday. It’s expected that the bill will pass the Republican-controlled House and become law, empowering the Briarwood Church to hire actual police officers in the name of the church.
The Briarwood Church police officers would be required to be certified by the Alabama Peace Officer Training Commission. Consequently, they will be armed and fully empowered as police officers in Alabama, although church officials explained that its “officers would be restricted to the church’s campuses and be able to respond to emergency situations while coordinating with local authorities.” No word yet if the church’s police officers would wear large crosses on their uniforms that conjure up Christian crusaders, but since they are church employees that could be part of the uniform.
Why does this 4,100-member church that also operates a school with 2,000 students want its very own police force? The head of the church cited the 2012 horrific Sandy Hook massacre as the primary reason. Of course, there has been no call to revise Alabama gun laws, which currently get an F rating from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence because they are so dangerously lax.
Will this church-owned and operated police force go beyond secular law and also enforce biblical law, which I call Christian Sharia law? It’s unclear. But I would imagine that Robert Bentley, the former Republican governor of Alabama who resigned earlier this week because of an extramarital affair and crimes connected to its cover up, must hope not. As Bentley has to know, considering he loved to quote Bible verses while a member of the Alabama Legislature to enhance his arguments, the penalty for having an affair with a married woman is that “both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.”
To be clear, the people of this church—just like every person attending any place of worship—has the absolute right to be safe. These are truly scary times. We have seen countless threats lately against Jewish temples and even seen mosques burned to the ground. And in 2015 there was the horrific murder of nine African Americans by white supremacist Dylann Roof at a church in South Carolina, and in 2012 six Sikhs were brutally killed at their Wisconsin temple by another man with ties to white supremacist groups.
But do you think if Muslims in Alabama asked to create their own police force to protect their mosque we would see the GOP members of the Alabama Legislature be as supportive as they are to the Briarwood church? And in reality the Muslims in Alabama have good reason to be concerned for their safety. In February an email was to sent to the head of a mosque in Birmingham with the subject line: “Your one warning.” The email then contained this misspelled threat:
“…MUZLIMS MEXICANS BLACKS WE WILL HUNTED NATION WIDE UNTIL ARE ARE DEAD OR GONE…PLAN TO RUN OR DIE, THIS IS A KINDNESS THAT WE GIVE YOU ALL WARNING, TAKE IT AND GO.”
Thankfully the local police swiftly provided the Muslim community with extra protection.
While GOP politicians are on board with Briarwood church’s push for their own police force, the ACLU believes it’s unconstitutional. A memo drafted by the ACLU contends that “vesting state police powers in a church police force violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” It adds: “These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations.”
The ACLU has also raised questions about the possible lack of transparency with the church employing its own police force. Will the church cover up crimes that occur at its school or by church employees to protect the reputation of the institution? And some have cited as a cautionary tale the volunteer police force run by the ultra orthodox Jewish community in New York that is currently being investigated for bribery and corruption.
My hope is that if Jews or Muslims needed protection from a threat, the Republicans in Alabama would be just as quick to protect them as they are to help those who attend the Briarwood church. But deep down I worry they won’t be.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/13/in-alabama-shocker-a-church-is-getting-its-own-police-force.html
How do you think the GOP-controlled Alabama Senate would respond to a mega mosque asking to form its own armed police force? Keep in mind Alabama is where Republicans pushed for an anti-Sharia amendment to its state’s constitution that easily passed in 2014. And just imagine what you would see on Fox News, Breitbart.com, and the other media outlets that profit off stoking hate against Muslims if such a request were made by the head of a U.S. mosque? They would be calling this not only an attempt to impose Sharia but also likely claim it’s an attempt to establish “religious morality police” like we see in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.
But when the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, a megachurch in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama, asked for special permission to create our nation’s first ever church-run police force, it sailed right through Alabama’s GOP-dominated Senate on Tuesday. It’s expected that the bill will pass the Republican-controlled House and become law, empowering the Briarwood Church to hire actual police officers in the name of the church.
The Briarwood Church police officers would be required to be certified by the Alabama Peace Officer Training Commission. Consequently, they will be armed and fully empowered as police officers in Alabama, although church officials explained that its “officers would be restricted to the church’s campuses and be able to respond to emergency situations while coordinating with local authorities.” No word yet if the church’s police officers would wear large crosses on their uniforms that conjure up Christian crusaders, but since they are church employees that could be part of the uniform.
Why does this 4,100-member church that also operates a school with 2,000 students want its very own police force? The head of the church cited the 2012 horrific Sandy Hook massacre as the primary reason. Of course, there has been no call to revise Alabama gun laws, which currently get an F rating from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence because they are so dangerously lax.
Will this church-owned and operated police force go beyond secular law and also enforce biblical law, which I call Christian Sharia law? It’s unclear. But I would imagine that Robert Bentley, the former Republican governor of Alabama who resigned earlier this week because of an extramarital affair and crimes connected to its cover up, must hope not. As Bentley has to know, considering he loved to quote Bible verses while a member of the Alabama Legislature to enhance his arguments, the penalty for having an affair with a married woman is that “both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.”
To be clear, the people of this church—just like every person attending any place of worship—has the absolute right to be safe. These are truly scary times. We have seen countless threats lately against Jewish temples and even seen mosques burned to the ground. And in 2015 there was the horrific murder of nine African Americans by white supremacist Dylann Roof at a church in South Carolina, and in 2012 six Sikhs were brutally killed at their Wisconsin temple by another man with ties to white supremacist groups.
But do you think if Muslims in Alabama asked to create their own police force to protect their mosque we would see the GOP members of the Alabama Legislature be as supportive as they are to the Briarwood church? And in reality the Muslims in Alabama have good reason to be concerned for their safety. In February an email was to sent to the head of a mosque in Birmingham with the subject line: “Your one warning.” The email then contained this misspelled threat:
“…MUZLIMS MEXICANS BLACKS WE WILL HUNTED NATION WIDE UNTIL ARE ARE DEAD OR GONE…PLAN TO RUN OR DIE, THIS IS A KINDNESS THAT WE GIVE YOU ALL WARNING, TAKE IT AND GO.”
Thankfully the local police swiftly provided the Muslim community with extra protection.
While GOP politicians are on board with Briarwood church’s push for their own police force, the ACLU believes it’s unconstitutional. A memo drafted by the ACLU contends that “vesting state police powers in a church police force violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” It adds: “These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations.”
The ACLU has also raised questions about the possible lack of transparency with the church employing its own police force. Will the church cover up crimes that occur at its school or by church employees to protect the reputation of the institution? And some have cited as a cautionary tale the volunteer police force run by the ultra orthodox Jewish community in New York that is currently being investigated for bribery and corruption.
My hope is that if Jews or Muslims needed protection from a threat, the Republicans in Alabama would be just as quick to protect them as they are to help those who attend the Briarwood church. But deep down I worry they won’t be.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/13/in-alabama-shocker-a-church-is-getting-its-own-police-force.html
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:09 pm
I don't object to privatizing the military. Cost is another disincentive to wars. If we disassemble the Department of Defense, and substitute privately funded armies, then no one can go to war but that he pays for it. It will make people think twice before rushing to judgment like they did in Iraq.
Sometimes the federal government is too remote for the ordinary citizen to feel the reality. This would be a fine way to put him back in touch.
Sometimes the federal government is too remote for the ordinary citizen to feel the reality. This would be a fine way to put him back in touch.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:11 pm
Original Quill wrote:I don't object to privatizing the military. Cost is another disincentive to wars. If we disassemble the Department of Defense, and substitute privately funded armies, then no one can go to war but that he pays for it. It will make people think twice before rushing to judgment like they did in Iraq.
Sometimes the federal government is too remote for the ordinary citizen to feel the reality. This would be a fine way to put him back in touch.
This is a private Church based Police force and not the military.
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:40 pm
Thorin wrote:Original Quill wrote:I don't object to privatizing the military. Cost is another disincentive to wars. If we disassemble the Department of Defense, and substitute privately funded armies, then no one can go to war but that he pays for it. It will make people think twice before rushing to judgment like they did in Iraq.
Sometimes the federal government is too remote for the ordinary citizen to feel the reality. This would be a fine way to put him back in touch.
This is a private Church based Police force and not the military.
Police. Military. That's a distinction without a difference. Both are a form of martial organization.
The important thing is not to argue over semantics, but to grasp the point. Privatizing something introduces a market disincentive. Again, the use of force in this country (America) is too easily done, because it is removed from the individual. Look at what happened on that United Airlines plane in Chicago. Call the cops...and of course, the cops are always going to respect property rights over human rights, corporate rights over individual rights.
All I'm suggesting is to introduce market forces, to hold back the indiscriminate use of force. We've seen the effect of Tea Party members of Congress...hold down costs so we don't run up a huge deficit. It's a basic human urge. The same motivation works anywhere...we add taxes to cigarettes to make it more painful to smoke. You make someone pay for it--anything--they're going to think twice before spending the money. Easy-peasy...the same motivation could be brought to bear on conflict.
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:45 pm
I will wait for someone to actually comment on the topic at hand.
Sorry Quill, but I dozed off after reading your first paragraph that was off topic.
Military and Police spending are totally different
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/current_spending
Sorry Quill, but I dozed off after reading your first paragraph that was off topic.
Military and Police spending are totally different
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/current_spending
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:03 pm
Thorin wrote:I will wait for someone to actually comment on the topic at hand.
Sorry Quill, but I dozed off after reading your first paragraph that was off topic.
Military and Police spending are totally different
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/current_spending
Nonsense. You just can't reason.
You appear to be lacking in your self-confidence to debate. You have more ways of getting into a hate-fit than anyone. It's amazing.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:13 pm
Original Quill wrote:Thorin wrote:I will wait for someone to actually comment on the topic at hand.
Sorry Quill, but I dozed off after reading your first paragraph that was off topic.
Military and Police spending are totally different
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/current_spending
Nonsense. You just can't reason.
You appear to be lacking in your self-confidence to debate. You have more ways of getting into a hate-fit than anyone. It's amazing.
So yet more misdirection and if anyone, you are the one sounding angry.
Happy to help and council you over this
I can reason and will reason on the topic at hand.
Not your attempts to misdirect the thread.
So anything on the actual article itself?
Take your time
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Sat Apr 15, 2017 1:23 am
Thorin wrote:Original Quill wrote:
Nonsense. You just can't reason.
You appear to be lacking in your self-confidence to debate. You have more ways of getting into a hate-fit than anyone. It's amazing.
So yet more misdirection and if anyone, you are the one sounding angry.
Happy to help and council you over this
I can reason and will reason on the topic at hand.
Not your attempts to misdirect the thread.
So anything on the actual article itself?
Take your time
I love it when your searching for answers...
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Sat Apr 15, 2017 2:54 am
So nothing on the actual topic then by Quill.
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:36 am
Thorin wrote:So nothing on the actual topic then by Quill.
I've already successfully made my points. There's other threads...I'm moving on. I suggest you do the same.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Guest Sat Apr 15, 2017 11:37 am
Original Quill wrote:Thorin wrote:So nothing on the actual topic then by Quill.
I've already successfully made my points. There's other threads...I'm moving on. I suggest you do the same.
No thanks, I would rather await for someone to actually debate the topic
Guest- Guest
Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by Original Quill Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:16 pm
Thorin wrote:Original Quill wrote:
I've already successfully made my points. There's other threads...I'm moving on. I suggest you do the same.
No thanks, I would rather await for someone to actually debate the topic
Here's someone to accompany you.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
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Re: In Alabama, a Church Is Getting Its Own Police Force
by veya_victaous Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:31 am
Surely this is unconstitutional and breaks the separation of church and state.
the USA is going down the toilet so fast they should connect a generator to the founding fathers corpses Since they would be spinning in their graves fast enough to power half the nation.
the USA is going down the toilet so fast they should connect a generator to the founding fathers corpses Since they would be spinning in their graves fast enough to power half the nation.
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