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By Alec Rooney, news editor, Christian Action Network
A North Carolina sheriff is unapologetic about having the name of Jesus prominently inscribed on the wall of his offices in Whiteville, N.C., even with a national atheist group calling him out and hinting at legal action.
What was the crime?
Stating faith in God and Jesus while wearing a law-enforcement uniform, of course. Because this amounts to a police officer “imposing his morality” on the public.
Sheriff Greene sat in on the Christian Action Network’s Shout Out Patriots podcast on Jan. 4, talking about the challenges of police work in 2022 with CAN President Martin Mawyer, Pastor Jason Binder, attorney David Carroll, CAN News Editor Alec Rooney and producer Michael Mawyer.
The challenges aren’t just the epidemic of drug use, overdoses, domestic strife and crime poisoning every state in the nation. There are also people like the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wis. who are standing ready to attack people of faith for the things they lean on for strength, focus and calm.
The verse Sheriff Jody Greene had inscribed in big, black letters on the wall of his department in Columbus County, N.C. – which is not coming down – is:
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)
Had someone who works in Greene’s office complained about the inscription?
“Absolutely not. They love it. They always take pictures in front of it. … I mean, it’s motivation for all of us.”
Greene said he had the words put up on the office wall shortly after being elected, in a place where only staffers see them on a daily basis. The trouble started, as it often does, with social media. And a gift to a local pastor.
“On Facebook,” the sheriff said. “I donated him some money, and we took a picture and shook hands in front of the sign.”
The picture went viral enough for someone to see it, and see a way to attack the first Republican ever to elected sheriff in a “theoretically Democratic county,” as Greene put it.
“It’s a political attack,” he said in the Shout Out Patriots episode.
He soon heard from the FFRF, which makes a practice of targeting anyone in a taxpayer-supported job who dares express their faith. Only as soon as people found out about the threat, the offers of help began pouring in.
“Folks, we’ve had the most outreach. From our state all across the United States actually. People wanting to do a GoFundMe page; I had one of them, a gentleman say he would foot the bill to have an attorney. He’d have an attorney here the next day. Which is a humbling experience.”
Greene, who is a former North Carolina state trooper, said the United States faces much, much larger problems in 2022 than words on a sheriff’s office wall. Drug use is rampant in his area near Myrtle Beach, he said, and relentless left-wing, media, Democratic and defund-the-police attacks are actually turning good people away from law enforcement careers.
“It’s already happening. They’re breeding manhood out of our society. A child gets in a fight at school now. What happens to them? They’re expelled, they’re charged or whatever. They don’t learn how to be men, so the first thing you want to do is grab a gun. They don’t know how to be men anymore. Guns don’t fix the problems, and it’s not the guns hurting people. It’s the gentleman or lady holding the gun. … You don’t let children become men and women.
“ … So if they’re held to that standard, and all they want to do is play video games, how are they going to be productive?”
Being in law enforcement means being a force for good, Sheriff Greene told Shout Out Patriots, and that takes strength: the kind of strength that can come only from God.
“You have to be in your community. You have to be at these schools talking. You have to be at these churches talking. I’m not talking politics either. I’m talking about ways to fix things and not where the next vote’s coming from. You better be involved in all facets of your community. You need to know your people in your community.”
Listen to and watch the entire discussion on the Jan. 4 edition of Shout Out Patriots.
