ROSENBERG, Texas – Atheists nationwide are riled up after a Texas police department recently posted a picture on its Facebook page that seemed to endorse prayer and Bible-reading in public schools.

According to the Friendly Atheist, the Rosenberg Police Department’s Facebook page late last week shared a photo of children standing in front of a chalkboard with the caption: “Let’s let God back in our schools! Share if you agree!”

When the post was originally made on Friday, Aug. 1, someone within the police department added the comment “Amen …,” according to a screenshot obtained by the Friendly Atheist.

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The police department’s Twitter page carried a similar message.

However, sometime over the weekend, the “Amen” comment was deleted and replaced with a neutral message: “Tell us what you think? Agree or Disagree? RPD is not making a statement regarding religion or governmental control. This is meant to be an opinion poll.”

OpposingViews.com reports that “when people started questioning the apparent endorsement of religion by the police department,” the entire post – picture and all – was taken down.

Critics still aren’t satisfied.

“Since this Texas police department is a government body, it had absolutely no business – legally – encouraging and promoting the Christian god in public schools,” writes Chelsea Hoffman on AllVoices.com. “This clearly deteriorated trust that non-Christian members of this community had in their police to some degree.”

(It’s not clear how Hoffman knows the post only referred to the “Christian god,” but why let facts get in the way of self-righteous rant?)

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The Friendly Atheist adds, “There’s a genuine worry here: If the police department doesn’t take the First Amendment seriously, how can they be trusted to protect the law in other instances?”

Who knew that an obnoxious social media item – which all of those “share if you agree” posts are – could trigger a constitutional crisis? The real reason rabid secularists are flipping out over this harmless incident is because they want all mention of God and religion scrubbed from the public square – even all the way down to trivial Facebook posts.

They misrepresent the separation of church and state principle to mean that anyone receiving a government paycheck may not mention God in the course of performing their public duties. That’s not what the Founding Fathers had in mind at all.

Come to think of it, maybe it’s the angry and intolerant atheists who pose more of a threat to our national heritage and cohesion than the Rosenberg Police Department.

Share if you agree!