There’s a war on Christianity
We’re martyrs for a cause!
The seculars are making sure
We’re following the laws!
That’s simply unacceptable,
And so we scream and fuss—
The laws are for the baddies,
So they don’t apply to us!
But Christians in this country
Are oppressed at every turn!
From a lack of state religion,
To the science that we learn!
To the bibles in hotel rooms
So that heathens might be saved—
Watch the power of the atheists…
Wait, what? The Navy caved?
Well, that didn’t last long. The Stars And Stripes reports that bibles are going back into hotel room drawers:
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.”
My favorite bit, though, is the ending quote:
“It’s tiresome to see senior military leaders needlessly cave in to activist groups offended by anything Christian,” Ron Crews, a retired colonel and chaplain who is the executive director of the group, said in a released statement.
I gotta say, I feel your pain–It is indeed tiiresome to see senior military leaders needlessly cave in to activist groups offended by anything non-Christian.
And really, honestly… I am biased, but I think I explain it just fine here. There is no version of the bible (let alone the Gideon one) that is the holy book of all Christians. Even something so iconic as the Ten Commandments varies by which bible you read (and I am not the only one to have been amused by recitations of The Lord’s Prayer where half of the crowd says “debts” and the other “trespasses”).
The presence of the Gideon bible shows favoritism for one subset of Christianity, at the expense of not only atheists, but all non-Christians, and a great many Christians as well. I thought the decision to pull the bibles was not just sound, but gobsmackingly obvious. I hope that the review agrees with me… but frankly, if the Navy brass saw it like I do, the Gideons would have been sent packing long ago. I am not placing any bets.
They must be looking forward to the porn and satanic bibles heading their way…
They still haven’t figured out that those things are too damn small to replace the Sears catalog of the outhouse?
What the ever-loving fuck?
It’s like dancing the Hokey Cokey.
In, out, in, out, shake it all about!
@2: The hotels are on-base and are used primarily by personnel who are being relocated; in fact, they’re apparently required to use them when relocating unless there’s no room. (Yes, they have to pay for their rooms, though I wasn’t curious enough to find out what the rates are.)
You-all have to realize that the Navy, like the other armed services, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Evangelical Christian Churches of America. Don’t believe me? just attend any naval ceremony such as a change of command…
Your mention of Bible discrepancies brought back some long repressed memories from when we kid girl scout troops attended different churches. Whether we were to stand or kneel or sit there mute, was another conundrum. Nice never to have to deal with that again..Ah, except there are the funerals. At my age, they are legion.
Reflections of a former Protestant kid fish out of water:
The Kingdom and the Power and the Glory….
We haven’t reached the pinnacle of Christian ecumenical
And I would be the last one to belittle
But when all recite the prayer,
There’s some real discomfort there
When the Catholics just end it in the middle.
If it is God’s holy word there is more than one I’ve heard.
It seems each sect feels they’ve the right to piddle.
Is it “trespasses” or “debts?”
Did the Papists hedge their bets?
Cause the Catholic prayer just ends right in the middle.
‘Bout that extra ending there, did old Luther add the spare?
To me it is a real annoying riddle
Cause when Catholics think it’s done
Then it’s on and on we run
After Catholics have finished in the middle.
Was “the kingdom and the glory “added to an older story?
Are they playing first, and are we second fiddle?
So I sit there in the pews,
Pondering our different views
Lucky, Catholics! They’re finished at the middle.
Good grief, you could fit any version of the Bible you like on your computer, tablet or smartphone! And if it really, really, really means that much to you, shouldn’t you take a hard copy with you everywhere you go (or at least the highlights)? Next they’ll say the Bibles should be in those hotel rooms for “historical reasons”.