Alabama legislature may give fundamentalist church its own police force: What could go wrong?
Alabama legislature may give fundamentalist church its own police force: What could go wrong?
What separation of church and state? Birmingham megachurch wants to hire its own cops, claims innocent motives
Amanda Marcotte Wednesday, Mar 22, 2017 06:59 AM CST
Donald Trump’s election didn’t just empower the alt-right troops with their #MAGA hats and Pepe the Frog avatars. The religious right is also more quietly making moves to consolidate power on a state and local level, aided by Trump’s promises to appoint conservative-friendly judges and to strike down legal limits on church-based politicking.
But even in the current environment, it’s startling to learn that the Alabama legislature is considering a bill to give a Birmingham-based church its own police force. The bill, SB 193, would specifically authorize the Briarwood Presbyterian Church, which has more than 4,000 members, to hire its own police force that would be “invested with all of the powers of law enforcement officers in this state.”
“This proposed legislation seems like a clear violation of church-state separation, and a clear violation of the Constitution,” said Alex Luchenitser, the associate director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a phone call. “Government bodies must not delegate official power to religious entities.”
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/22/alabama-legislature-may-give-fundamentalist-church-its-own-police-force-what-could-go-wrong/
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