OPINION (ETH) – Atheists are fuming once again. This time “The Freedom From Religion Foundation” is reportedly furious over the Federal Bureau of Investigations having a chaplain who offers prayers at FBI events.
According to the report, The FFRF, which is a radical gang of atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers, recently wrote a threatening letter demanding the FBI provide a complete list of anything remotely related to the Christian faith. “The FBI reportedly has a chaplain offer a Christian invocation at FBI graduation ceremonies and allows religious figures into the VIP section during FBI Academy events,” the FFRF said in a statement.
The group has also targeted an FBI supervisor after he reportedly “forwarded an email from the Academy chaplain to all employees reminding them ‘that there is a divine power in charge of all things. You are all very much appreciated and I have been praying for you and your loved ones each week. . . .
I have restocked the chapel with Bibles, MP3 sticks and tracts for all.’” Of course, prayers were also one of the sources of outrage to the atheists after they found out that prayers were made at FBI Academy graduation ceremonies. “It is a fundamental constitutional principle that publicly funded institutions cannot support, promote or otherwise endorse religion or engage in religious exercises,”
FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line wrote in a letter. “Therefore, it is inappropriate for a public institution such as the FBI Academy to schedule an invocation as part of a secular graduation ceremony.” The report detailed that the FBI Academy’s chaplain program and chapel, regularly stocked Bibles and other Christian materials – as one would expect in any Christian chapel.
“The FBI is meant to be setting a standard for the entire country in constitutional matters, including secularism,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Instead, it is engaging in practices that are alienating to its non-Christian trainees — and to the nation’s non-Christian population at large.”
