Video: Bay Minette, Alabama Says Go to Church or Go to Jail
Starting this week, Bay Minette, Alabama will begin Operation Restore Our Community (ROC), which will give misdemeanor offenders a choice between fines and jail or a year of Sunday church services.
Bay Minette Police Chief Mike Rowland told the Alabama Press-Register: "Operation ROC resulted from meetings with church leaders. It was agreed by all the pastors that at the core of the crime problem was the erosion of family values and morals. We have children raising children and parents not instilling values in young people."
However, critics say the program is unfair to minority religious groups because no mosques or synagogues are participating and atheists would have no choice but to compromise their beliefs or go to jail.
Pastor Robert Gates assurred WRKG-TV that the church solution would work: "You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society."
From a biblical standpoint, Gates didn't mention that Jesus was a huge problem for society and was executed by Roman authorities. In fact, most of his disciples were executed by the law enforcement of the day.
ACLU of Alabama director Olivia Turner stated: "It violates one basic tenet of the Constitution, namely that government can't force participation in religious activity."
She added that the ACLU is "considering options for response."
This type of punishment has been tried before. Earlier this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court suspended Mississippi Justice Court Judge Theresa Dearman for 30 days for forcing people charged with crimes to attend church as a condition of bail.
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter
Sign-Up Now for the Opposing Views Daily Newsletter
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter
Fantastic! I get to quote the first amendment in 2 posts within 2 minutes! "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This policy is clearly making a law respecting establishment of religion. Even if they allowed you to go to a church (mosque, synagogue etc) of any faith it would be a violation of the first amendment but especially since it's mandating attendance at Christian churches. Oh, and just a very brief search easily disproves the idea of "You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I'll show you a person who won't be a problem to society." http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Search?cx=018412283168992679552%3Ayvxwdz723au&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=youth+pastor+watch
Of course, a lot of people will react on this and we can't blame them if they would think that it's ridiculous. As for me, I am greatly disappointed with this program because this would mean increase in the number of crime.
If a person (irrespective of being convicted or not) is being forced to attend church or jail time, and is not given free choice of what religious institution or no religious institution to attend, the entire premise for this Operation Restore Our Community (ROC)is simply unconstitutional. It is mind boggling to me in this day and age, residents in Alabama would be so blatantly ignorant of the First Amendment to our US Constitution. This is going to make international headlines much to the embarrassment of the City of Minette.
This is one lawsuit away from irrelevancy.
Cool! They made me laugh. Well one could argue that if a person rejects the life of a conservative church and the Bible they could be headed for a life on crime, a bit harsh though. But quite funny.