East TN Conservative

Chaplains step down over prayer decision

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

If there’s no place for Jesus, it’s no place for Senior Trooper Rex Carter.
Carter, a Smyth County resident who works out of the Virginia State Police’s Division Four headquarters in Wytheville, resigned his role as a police chaplain when the department issued a new policy asking prayers offered at VSP-sponsored public events to be nondenominational.
Regular gatherings covered by the new policy include graduations and an annual state police memorial service. The policy doesn’t apply to private funerals or prayers said with individuals or families.
“The recent policy dealing with the prayer at state police public events is a policy that just by my own convictions I could not agree with and therefore decided to leave the chaplaincy program,” Carter said, explaining that his faith requires him to pray specifically to Jesus Christ.
Six out of the 17 chaplains around the state have resigned, said Corinne Geller, VSP public relations manager.
Two other chaplains that Carter said also resigned, 1st Sgt. Mike Honaker of the Pulaski County office and Trooper Greg Barnett of the Buchanan County office, could not be reached for comment.
The chaplain position is a volunteer role taken on by troopers in addition to their regular law enforcement duties. Carter and the other chaplains who tenured their resignations therefore remain employed with the department in other capacities.
According to a VSP news release, the new policy instituted by Col. Steven Flaherty, VSP superintendent, came in response to a July ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Turner vs. City Council of Fredericksburg.