Navy under fire for removing Bibles from guest rooms

An advocacy group for chaplains is demanding the Navy reverse decision and let Bibles back into guest rooms that are run by the military branch.

“A Bible in a hotel room is no more illegal than a chaplain in the military,” said former chaplain Col. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“There is nothing wrong with allowing the Gideons to place Bibles in Navy lodges, which it has done for decades at no cost to the Navy. Our service men and women are often away from home, sometimes for long periods of time. It’s perfectly constitutional and legal to allow the Gideons to provide, at their own expense, this source of comfort for service men and women of faith.”

The statement comes in response to a fight brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in March to remove all Bibles from Navy lodges. The Bibles were mostly donated by Christian charities, including Gideons International.

FFRF said of the Bibles, on a widely reported statement: “Providing Bibles to guests in Navy-run hotels amounts to a government endorsement of that religious text.”

The Navy’s top brass then ordered the Lodge General Manager to “remove religious material currently in the guest rooms,” The Daily Caller reported.

But outrage over the Navy’s new policy is coming from Christian corners, and many are petitioning for military officials to turn back the ban.

“It’s tiresome to see senior military leaders needlessly cave in to activist groups offended by anything Christian,” said Mr. Crews, The Daily Caller reported. “We sincerely hope that the Navy will reverse its decision as the Air Force did in 2012 after the public spoke loudly and clearly against this sort of censorship.”