Not everyone has the same beliefs, nor does everyone believe in prayer. This was the message relayed in a letter written by The Freedom From Religion Foundation to Nick Smith, the sheriff of Walker County. The non profit group was concerned about the sheriff’s department using their official Facebook page to make religious references. Many of the posts on the web page called for prayer after such tragedies as the shooting of Sheriff Williams of Lowndes County, and the one involving a deputy and a little boy. Although the sheriff’s department was doing a good job of giving support to those in mourning, The Freedom from Religious Foundation requested that the sheriff be more inclusive as many of the residents in the county are not religious.

Nick Smith was asked by the organization to stop making these references on social media. This seemed to show a lack of consideration for those in the community who did not observe the same beliefs as the members of the sheriff’s department, or those within the department who may have been offended by the remarks. Sam Grover who is the Associate Counsel for The Freedom of Religious Foundation issued a statement that said, “The issue here is that the sheriff’s office has a pattern of using tragedy to promote the idea of prayer and our letter reminds the sheriff, not everyone in Walker County prayers or believes in the same religion”.

Social media like Facebook allows people to express their sentiments without editing them, but sometimes, written words can be cause of differences between people. To ask all residents of a community to pray can be considered distasteful by some of the people who live in the community of reference. Finding another way of expressing support for those who are going through a tragic event would be more appropriate. This could be construed as a reason for a lawsuit, but The Freedom from Religion Organization decided that they would not file a lawsuit.

The only thing that the Freedom from Religion Organization wanted was for Nick Smith and his Sheriff’s department to stop making future references to religion on social media. Sheriff Nick Smith adamantly replied that he would not stop now or in the future. He made this statement on a local broadcast station for all to hear. The Freedom from Religion Organization has hopes that the future would bring about a change of heart for the Sheriff, but in the meantime, they would still make requests for Nick Smith to cease.

Promoting prayer and religion is not usually the job of the local sheriff’s department, but in Walker County, the sheriff is doing this as part of his lawful duty, and evidently sees no harm in doing so. Maybe the sheriff and The Freedom from Religion Organization can meet on mutual terms, and develop another way to show concern and support to the residents who suffer a tragedy in their life. They do appreciate the concern from their local sheriff’s department.