Church State and Toll

Maryland’s Transp Auth (MDTA) is inducting three chaplains into a new MDTA police chaplain program, according to a press release Oct 25. At a MDTA ceremony Oct 19 three chaplains were signed up, with responsibilities to notify families of fatal accident victims and provide comfort, support and “spiritual guidance.” The three are already fulltime members of the MDTA Police unit, which consists of 385 officers (If you rob a Baltimore toll booth, there’s a force about the size of New Zealand’s armed forces that’ll come after you!) They won’t get any special pay for their accident counselling. The officers inducted as MDTA chaplains represent three protestant groups, the Church of Annunciation, the Evangelical Union Church, and the Church of God.

Aren’t there a bunch of Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the occasional Bhuddist, Mormon, Methodist, Quaker, Episcopalian or Hindu out there on MD toll facilities suffering the occasional unfortunate fatal accident? Aren’t they entitled to a MDTA priest, rabbi, minister or whatnot, we asked MDTA? They’d have to think about that. Before long the MDTA police will all be men and women of the cloth representing the multitude of America’s different religious orders so the right brand of spiritual guidance is available to those struck by tragedy on MD’s tollways. And at some point won’t someone ask if a state toll agency inducting chaplains officially doesn’t create a problem with the first amendment of the US Constitution barring “establishment of religion.”

Sounds a well-intentioned program, but one that could reap a heap of trouble for the MDTA. We’d guess the ACLU may already be considering a court case. [Incidentally the MDTA police force of 385 provides security services to the port of Baltimore and to the Baltimore-Washington Airport as well as to the 7 toll bridges, tunnels and the Kennedy Turnpike (I-95) of the state.]