Gideons Bibles are going back into Navy lodges.
The Navy on Thursday ordered the Bibles returned to rooms and said it is reviewing a decision by the Navy Exchange to remove them from its worldwide network of military hotels.
Atheists had cheered a victory after a complaint prompted the exchange to begin moving the Bibles to its lost-and-found bins this summer, but the Navy said the decision was made without consulting senior leadership.
“That decision and our religious accommodation policies with regard to the placement of religious materials are under review,” Navy spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “While that review is under way, religious materials removed from Navy Lodge rooms will be returned."
Yep they're going back in permanently, no doubt about it.
Dammit and I was so impressed with the Navy for showing some balls.
Fine put them back in, but I suggest that if that happens people need to start demanding equal time for other religious tomes such as the Koran, the Tao Te Ching, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and Dianetics just for a start.
After all if a government entity is forced to offer the opportunity for religious indoctrination in their hotel rooms for one religion, then it only seems fair to offer the same opportunity for religious indoctrination for ALL religions.
And Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree - ALL books based on specific religions should be made available, or NONE should be there. Since the Navy powers-that-be decided the Bible should be in each room, then they need to ensure that all the other books should be available also, too.
DeleteBibles and any other religious books have no place in military places or hotels and motels throughout the USA. Religion (if you are a believer in anything!) should be a private matter! The country is not as Christian as many believe.
ReplyDeleteI'm surrounded by folks that follow no faith, don't attend a church or churches, do not pray, have good families, provide community service and are law abiding! Two are also elected officials.
I think the most sensible thing for hotels to do is pull the Gideons out of the drawer. If they're too scared to do that, then keep a "reading room" somewhere near the lobby, with a full damn range of religious, spiritual, and philosophical materials available for free (and of course I mean to include atheism and Satanism and Wicca -- I mean to include everything).
ReplyDeleteThis idea works for me for sure! Religion should definitely not be totally entwined with our military.
DeleteOT - Jessie Ventura responds, skewers and disrespects Sarah the Quitter Palin!!
ReplyDeleteBefore you get your panties in a wad, Gryphen (too late?), the Gideons provide them for free. I'm guessing the other religions OR atheists haven't offered to provide free materials. No one is forced to look at it or read it. Now can we get back to issues that are actually important like the military not promoting avowed atheists? That's much more egregious than a stupid book that you don't have to look at.
ReplyDeleteright on! my thoughts, too. I'm an atheist, not an anti-religionist, so any religious material is either acceptable or not, equally for all religions. Then, the groups have to provide the materials, as 9:44 said.
DeleteBut why is there such a "NEED" to have it in the rooms...what are the so called religious people afraid of? Does faith require 24 hours of indoctrination?
DeleteDoes "free" do away with the separation of church and state? You either believe in our constitution or not, and by your response you sound like some religious idiot that doesn't.
DeleteTo Anonymous @10:27 -- if we're talking about hotels accepting Bibles to put in the rooms, there's no church vs state problem since the hotel is a private enterprise. However, the Navy or any other government entity... well, that's a problem.
Delete10:58, it's a "worldwide network of MILITARY hotels." Thus, the Navy, by allowing these "free" Bibles, is, at best, reinforcing the mindset that Christianity is the One True Religion and that if you're not a Christian, you are defective. At worst, the Navy is tacitly approving Christianity and Christian proselytizing.
DeleteSpeaking just for myself, I don't think any group--ANY group--should be able to "give" materials to hotels for free advertising in their rooms and I want those god damn fucking bibles out of all hotel rooms. If I need to consult scripture, I can use the free wifi. :-)
What's truly ironic about this is that Gideon Bibles are New Testaments. They are the stories of a peaceful man trying to get people to love each other. I would think the military would be all over getting such books out of their hotels. After all, if we all love each other, help each other, and respect each other, who needs a military?
Delete11;30
DeleteThat's complete bullshit. The military contracts with the corporations who own the hotels. The hotels make the decisions about what is in the drawers and on the beds, not the military. Who the fuck really cares? The hotels aren't implying anything nor is the military. They put them there because they are FREE. Why don't you try donating some Korans and see if they get accepted before you make assumptions. Also, the military isn't promoting Christianity by this (other ways maybe). These Bibles are in every hotel everywhere that I have been. It isn't peculiar to the military. It isn't this big conspiracy. Now back to the news...
No, 12:22, it's not bullshit. The hotels are Navy Lodges, located on Navy installations and what materials are in the hotel rooms is subject to the determination of the commanding officer for the Naval--military--installation where the Navel Lodge is located.
DeleteA lot of us care. As so succinctly stated in the complaint, allowing these bibles in the Naval Lodge rooms "demonstrates the Navy’s preference for Christianity over all other religions and nonreligious sects."
This is not a trivial issue as it is just fueling our domestic terrorisms who are using Christianity as a shield.
I'm pretty certain that our military and christianity are rather heavily intertwined. I was a but surprised when I heard that the navy was considering this in the first place. Oh well, onward christian soldiers, go do your thing, in the name of whatever, and get your paycheck and then expect me to pay for your PTSD treatment with my tax dollars. Why not ask your god for help instead of asking me to pay for your wars and your broken brains when you come back from slaughtering people? Seems to me any job would be better than taking a job that allows your to kill for pay and then makes you crazy because of it.
Delete@2:13
DeleteIt is extremely trivial. We have a plethora of bigger issues to be concerned about. It's a book. Read it, don't read it, throw it away, or steal it. Don't care. Sheesh.
The U.S. military is a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Christianity®
ReplyDeleteYou betcha! Onward christian soldiers...
Delete;-)
If I encounter bibles in my hotel rooms, I retitle them "Book of Bullshit." You know, truth in advertising.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha!
Delete"Fairy Tales to Give You Nightmares"
Completely O/T, but very much worth a posting:
ReplyDeleteGail Collins' editorial column in today's New York Times on Alaska, Joe Miller, and Sarah Palin. She's right on the money, and hilarious.
No link for us lazy ones?
DeleteHere's the best quote from the article: "And Palin’s 18-minute monologue in support of her signature reform — broadcast on her SarahPalin channel — has the overall effect of being trapped in an airplane with a seatmate who has inhaled helium."
DeleteNorthern Exposure
DeleteAlaska’s Senate Primary and Sarah Palin’s Passion
...Grass-roots opponents collected enough signatures to get a vote on restoring the old system. Unfortunately, the roots are being outspent about 100 to 1 by the oil companies. And Palin’s 18-minute monologue in support of her signature reform — broadcast on her SarahPalin channel — has the overall effect of being trapped in an airplane with a seatmate who has inhaled helium.
“Look them in the eye and say: ‘You’d better look Big Oil in the eye!’ ” Palin said. As only she can.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/opinion/gail-collins-alaskas-senate-primary-and-sarah-palins-passion.html
Palin will be the kiss of the death to the side she took on the issue. I'll wager there are Alaskans up there that are pissed she stepped in w/her uneducated opinion.
DeleteRemember, even though McCain said she was an energy expert (!), she was the furthest thing from it! Ask her resource questions on Alaska and she'd flunk (w/o prepared answers and a teleprompter!).
How about Aleister Crowley's "Book of Lies"
ReplyDeleteI don't care what people put in their hotel rooms, free or not. I care that the Navy, by providing one religion and one religion only's "holy book" in their rooms is proselytizing while supporting the tenets of one religion over the tenets of others, who most certainly ARE part of the Navy and deserve equal treatment.
ReplyDeleteBy using the lines “That decision and our religious accommodation policies with regard to the placement of religious materials are under review,” it's elevated to a lie, or they would NEVER have published and article stating they were no longer allowing the practice. Are we to believe they let that happen without reviewing it FIRST?
I like another poster's idea, instead of having them in each room, have holy books in a reading room so those inclined can read to their hearts content.
I don't even notice them anymore. I have a life. But if it really bothers you, you know ......BENGHAZI!!
DeleteEvery time I've ever found a bible in my hotel room I've thrown it in the refuse, not the waste can in the room but the receptacle outside of the facility, however I've no illusion that the help staff isn't required to replace them if they see them gone.
ReplyDeleteGranted, it's only when I've stayed in chain motels and budget airport lodgings where one is forced to crash after a long flight or during layovers, that I've ever found a bible in my room.
Most independent or boutique hotels seem to not presume to proselytize to their clientele. However, if you find one in your room, simply toss the bible in the rubbish, and yes, the help will most likely replace it, but that is their job.