US Army Chaplain
Just last week, the U.S. navy decided to remove Bibles from navy lodges and other guests’ quarters after receiving a complaint from an atheist group. In response to this decision, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty expressed that there is nothing politically incorrect about having Bibles in military quarters.
The Navy Exchange Service Command had sent an email to a Navy chaplain that they will be removing any kind of religiously affiliated material from all quarters and lodges. Part of the email went as follows: "For those Navy Lodges with religious materials currently in guest rooms, the Navy Lodge general manager will contact the Installation Chaplain's office who will provide guidance on the removal procedure disposition of these materials."
Col. Ron Crews, the now retired executive director of the Chaplain Alliance had this to say on the matter: "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 Bibles that were present in military quarters that brought about the issue were placed there by members of Gideons International who put them there free of charge. The ministry is known to hand out Bibles to people free of charge in diverse environment including streets and college campuses. However, the FFRF had filed a complaint regarding this practice. They stated that the presence of the Bible within military quarters represents a “government endorsement of that religious text.”
The Navy decided to take the atheist group’s complaint seriously and remove all the Bibles in order to prevent guests from receiving the wrong idea that “Christians are favored over guests with other religious guests”.
Col. Crews complained about the Navy’s decision and referenced a similar incident in 2012 when the U.S. Air Force reversed their decision to remove religiously affiliated material from their quarters. The USAF had ended up not abiding by the opinions of the Military Association of Atheists and Free Thinkers.
