Oklahoma police chief to cease religious posts amid backlash

Oklahoma police chief to cease religious posts amid backlash
(Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com)
MOUNDS, Okla. (AP) – A police chief south of Tulsa says he’ll stop posting to his agency’s Facebook page after receiving backlash for writing religious messages.
The Tulsa World reports the Mounds Police Department came under fire after the ACLU argued that the department violated the First Amendment because they promoted Christianity without discussing the merits of other religions.
ACLU of Oklahoma legal director Brady Henderson says the department’s posts violated the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions against government officials establishing a state religion. Critics assert that if a government agency’s official Facebook page were sharing Islamic, Jewish, or other religious messages, the violation would be obvious and contend that the rules should be no different for the sharing of Christian messages.
Mounds Police Chief Antonio Porter says such posts will be made on a page called Mounds Pastoring Devotionals. He says he decided to move the posts to “avoid any argument about the purpose of what I am doing.”
Porter says he never intended to cause conflict or put his town at risk.

Image: KOCO