When Crandall Police Department chief Dean Winters decided to produce a lip-sync video of the Newsboys worship track “God’s Not Dead” along with his fellow officers, he could have never imagined just how widespread the response would be.
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The video went viral, garnering 8 million views and over 200,000 shares on Facebook. And while most of the reaction was positive, the performance gained the attention of the atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation. FFRF released a statement on the video, claiming that it violates the U.S. Constitution and urging the Texas department to take it down.
“FFRF is asking the Crandall Police Department to refrain from promoting religion on social media and take down its video tribute to the personal religious beliefs of some of its officers,” the statement read.
Winters, however, did not seem to be hugely concerned by the small amount of backlash.
“Of course there are always detractors,” he said in an email to Pure Flix Insider. “But in this case, a little bit of darkness is making His light shine even brighter.”
“Our community has come together and posted pictures and videos in support of the police department’s ‘God’s Not Dead’ video,” the police chief added. “We’ve also received numerous emails and letters from citizens and officers from all over the nation and people from a handful of other countries, expressing their gratitude to the officers in our department.”
Winters also took the opportunity to discuss his Christian faith, explaining that it “enhances” his ability to carry out his policing duties.
“My faith in Jesus gives me the strength to deal with so many different aspects of life,” the officer explained. “First and foremost, in my most important role as a husband and father, but also in my role as an officer and chief of police.”
“I don’t believe faith interferes with the ability to serve, but instead it enhances it,” he said.
Winters noted that there are many people of faith currently serving their local communities as police officers.
“Though it’s often not spoken about, there are many officers who are men and women of faith,” he said. “It’s exciting to see how God has taken something so simple and turned it into something so meaningful in a much larger capacity than any of us could have ever imagined.”
PureFlix was so impressed with the department’s performance that it decided to present the people of Crandall with a special gift: a FREE three-month subscription for 100 residents. Read more about that here.
(H/T: Pure Flix Insider)