A megachurch in Alabama could soon begin hiring its own cops.
Approved by the Alabama Senate on April 11, civil liberties experts are warning that the move will mark a major escalation in the growth of the American police state if, as expected, it’s also approved by the House and Governor Kay Ivey.
Briarwood Presbyterian Church, located near Birmingham, isn’t just one of those oversized churches with a bunch of giant flat screen TVs and its own coffee shop. With 4,100 members, and 2,000 students in its own K-12 school, church officials claim neither deputies from two nearby communities nor private security are enough to keep their religious community safe.
The Alabama chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are among the groups raising the alarm about this dangerous development, which they say threatens the separation of church and state guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“What the bill attempts to do is to take what is a quintessential governmental power—law enforcement—and vest that police power in the hands of a religious institution,” said Randall Marshall, legal director at the ACLU of Alabama, in an April 12 interview with Newsweek.
Briarwood Presbyterian is notably conservative and notoriously anti-choice, which means the proposal is also causing concern for local advocates of women’s rights, according to Rewire, a nonprofit focused on sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice.
Who Would Jesus Arrest? Conservative Alabama Megachurch Could Get Its Own Police
April 18, 2017 By Kit O’Connell A megachurch in Alabama could soon begin hiring its own cops. Approved by the Alabama Senate on April 11, civil liberties experts are warning that the move will mark a major escalation in the growth of the American police state if, as expected, it’s also approved by the House and Governor Kay Ivey.
