(Washington, DC) The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty is encouraging the Navy to reconsider its recent decision to remove Bibles from Navy lodges and guest quarters after it received a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“A Bible in a hotel room is no more illegal than a chaplain in the military. They are there for those who want them,” said Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews, USAR retired, executive director of 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.”
“It’s tiresome to see senior military leaders needlessly cave in to activist groups offended by anything Christian,” Crews added. “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.”
The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty is an organization of chaplain endorsers, the faith groups that provide chaplains for the U.S. military and other agencies needing chaplains. The endorsers in the Chaplain Alliance speak for more than 2,600 chaplains serving the Armed Forces.