The U.S. Navy has instructed housekeepers to remove Gideon-placed Bibles from every hotel room on its military bases after it received a letter from the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).
“We were told today, June 23, 2014, that due to a new policy by the CEO of NEXCOM, Rear Admiral Robert J. Bianchi, we were to remove the Bibles from the rooms,” a housekeeper told AFA in an email. “They told us to put them in boxes, where they would be taken to a donation center somewhere.”
NEXCOM (Navy Exchange Service Command) issued the directive to bases offering hotel accommodations, ordering them to impound Bibles from 34 Navy Lodge locations and 24,000 Navy Gateway Inns & Suites guest rooms on Navy bases worldwide.
The directive orders lodge managers to contact base commanders and Chaplains and facilitate removing the Bibles and other “religious material currently in the guest rooms.”
Apparently the Navy attempted this back in 2012, but after public outcry they caved and put them back.
So let's see if we have progressed enough to make it stick this time.
My favorite story about bibles in hotel rooms is the one told by actor Ian McKellen who tears Leviticus 18:22 out of every bible he finds in his hotel room.
Good for him.
I had to travel for business, and stayed in Pennsylvania. I decided to skip the generic hotel in the town and instead stayed in a B&B. Not only did it have a bible in the room, but there were tons of religious magazines all over the place. Lots of the shops in town had the 10 Commandments posted in their windows. I didn't spend any money in those shops. It was astounding how aggressively they shoved Christianity down everyone's throats.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link to Ian Mclellen's interview. What a great way to start the day. I know what I'll be looking for the next motel I stay at!
ReplyDeleteA bit off thread, is the "sea o pee" still alive? I just checked over there.... the last "article update" was five days ago. The comment threads are way down from what they used to be and most appear to be written in parody.
I'm thinking Sarah's rant against Elizabeth Warren was the final straw in exposing Sara's total lack of intelligence and reasoning to the entire thinking world..
We have a Gideon here in town who speaks at my church once a year. Really nice guy, and has travelled to other countries to pass out Bibles. I always wonder where their zeal comes from. How can you not respect people's religion enough to hand them a testament and insist that your belief trumps their's? The local schools have stopped them from standing outside our middle schools in the spring and handing out New Testaments too. I mean, how would people feel if Jews were handing out Torahs, or Muslims were handing out Korans? They never stop to think about anyone else.
ReplyDeleteWell, of course they don't stop to think about anyone else. Everyone else is WRONG, doncha know!
DeleteThe best thing that could happen is for schools either to drop religious studies entirely, OR to include every other widespread religion in the course. For some students, they would stop and think "What makes mine right?" That's what stopped me from "believing", especially when my minister AND my parents had no good answer to that!
GOOD. Yeah, I hope they stick to it this time, too. You want to read the Bible on a trip, bring your own, like everyone else has to bring their own reading material.
ReplyDeleteThey're trying to stop it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.afa.net/action-alerts/navy-orders-bibles-removed-from-base-hotels/
I don't have a problem with a bible in a hotel room, as long as it's in a drawer in a nightstand where I can ignore it.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time! I don't care for any form of proselytizing, and find it offensive when the ONLY reading material they have is the bible.
ReplyDelete