MCPHERSON – You may have heard about the controversy over whether the City of McPherson should be allowed to develop a chaplain program with the police department in that city.

McPherson Mayor Thomas A. Brown received a letter last week from Andrew Seidel, staff attorney for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, challenging the appropriateness of the McPherson Police Department Chaplaincy program and requesting assurances “in writing, that McPherson and its police will cease this program.”

The mayor says he requested that McPherson Police Chief Robert McClarty start the process to create a Police Chaplaincy program and the program is in the developmental stage as policies are being reviewed and modified. He says the program is based upon similar programs in other major Kansas police departments.

However, the Freedom from Religion Foundation challenges the appropriateness of a chaplaincy program altogether as a violation of the United States Constitution.

The mayor says based on a legal review, he’s confident that the city is constitutionally permitted to establish a Police Chaplaincy program. He says similar programs exist throughout the nation and have been legally approved in the past.

The program allows two Christian ministers to ride along with McPherson police officers, to counsel officers and be present when officers inform families of deaths.

He goes on to say that the fact that the chaplains in this program are volunteers and not on the city’s payroll, but would be under the control of Chief McClarty and his staff and not under the control of their denomination or churches, if any.