Sheriff department proclaims ‘In God We Trust’

The recent addition of stickers on the sheriff department patrol cars has caused some to argue it is a violation of ‘separation of church and state’. However, Sheriff John Doolen said it is not a violation and he stands by the decision to add them to the cars.
Stickers on the bumper below the license plate of each patrol car reads ‘In God We Trust’, the identical phrase found on the U.S. currency and the approved National Motto since 1956 (as approved by President Dwight Eisenhower).
“With everything going on in the world right now, God is the only thing we can trust,” Doolen said.
Doolen said the phrase does not specify which God it is referring to and does not infringe on anyone’s rights.
“It can be your God, my God or whatever God you choose,” Doolen said.
Hardeman County is not the first to put the motto on patrol cars. Stone County, Missouri Sheriff Doug Rader placed the motto stickers on his patrol cars in July of this year. The trend has been spreading since it began in Greene County, Missouri. Now, stickers with the motto are found in Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and now in Tennessee.
The ‘separation of church and state’ argument (sometimes referred to ‘wall of separation between church and state’) is a phrase that was used by founding father Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut and published in a Massachusetts newspaper.

To view more, please log in or subscribe to the digital edition.