Angry Atheists Try To Remove Gideon Bibles

[bonnie]

The virulently anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is at it once again. What are these atheists so angry about this time?

Apparently, Gideon Bibles resting in hotel table drawers are just too much to bear for the self-proclaimed freethinkers, atheists, and agnostics at FFRF.

That’s right.  They are trying to ban the Bible. After losing battle after battle in courts on claims based on clearly flawed constitutional analysis ranging from attacking “In God We Trust” and college football chaplains to the National Day of Prayer and cheerleaders’ spirit banners, they have now turned their targets toward Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms.

How did this latest battle begin? On October 15, 2015, FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor spoke at Northern Illinois University on the topic, “Women Without Superstition: No Gods – No Masters.”

While in town, Ms. Gaylor and her husband, FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, stayed at the Holmes Student Center Hotel in DeKalb, Illinois. They were shocked, horrified, and dismayed to discover a copy of the Bible – placed by a Christian group, the Gideons, in their hotel room. They unbelievably claimed to be “proselytized in the privacy of their own bedrooms.” Who knew a closed Bible’s mere presence qualified as proselytizing. Yet, they called the Bible “obnoxious” and claimed that the mere presence of the Bible in a state-run lodging was “inappropriate and unconstitutional.”

Absurd.

Once again, the FFRF seems to forget not only the meaning of the Constitution, but also the meaning of words such as “proselytizing.”

Five days later, FFRF sent a letter to Northern Illinois University (NIU), stating in part:

“Providing bibles to Holmes Student Center Hotel guests sends the message that NIU endorses the religious texts. Including bibles sends the message to non-Christian and non-religious guests that they should read the bible, and specifically the version of the bible provided: the Gideon Bible. Certainly, if guests want to read this religious text during their stay, they can bring their own copy or access any of the numerous churches or libraries near the university."

No one is making any guest open the Bible. No one is making them read it. In fact, the university is not “providing bibles;” it is allowing a Christian group to place literature, the Bible, in hotel rooms much like a pizzeria may leave coupons. I’ve been arguing religious speech cases just like this one for decades at the Supreme Court.  The university is free to allow religious texts to be placed just as it is permitted to allow other literature to be placed in its hotel rooms.  It can allow all or none.

FFRF is simply wrong on the law.

FFRF claims the Bible should be banned because they find it “obnoxious.”  Yet, in reality, the Supreme Court has stated just the opposite.  It has held that adults should be able to withstand “speech they find disagreeable,” without imagining that the Establishment Clause is violated every time they “experience a sense of affront from the expression of contrary religious views.” By extension, requiring the elimination of Bibles in hotel rooms owned by public universities would, as the court has found in other contexts, “lead the law to exhibit a hostility toward religion that has no place in our Establishment Clause traditions.”

There is no coercion. There is no proselytizing happening here. Instead, it’s once again clear that those holding themselves out to be freethinkers are threatening smaller institutions with constitutional claims that would fall flat in court. FFRF is in the business of making threats because they know that any time they go to court, they always lose.

The Constitution is not on their side. And with these latest shenanigans, neither is common sense.

Yet, within a day of FFRF’s fatally flawed letter, NIU backed down from these anti-Christian bullies and announced they’d be removing all Bibles from the rooms, something they should not feel threatened and bullied to do.

According to FFRF, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa have similarly removed Bibles from hotel guest rooms after being threatened by these angry atheists.

Never missing a chance to spread their closed-mindedness, FFRF’s press release includes a link to purchase FFRF Bible Warning Labels that read, “Warning: Literal Belief in this Book May Endanger Your Health and Life” complete with the symbol for poison.

FFRF must once again be stopped from poisoning our society with their flawed legal arguments and bullying tactics. Christian groups like the Gideons have placed Bibles in hotel rooms for decades.  It doesn’t violate the law.

We at the ACLJ are sending a legal letter to these universities to protect the Bible against these attacks from angry atheists.

[Gregory Matthews]

There are differences between an institution that is supported by tax dollars and one that is a private business.

There would be a potential problem for a tax supported institution to allow Bibles (Christian religion) to  be placed in a room and not allow the Quran to also be placed.

However, with the proper protocol, that potential problem could be surmounted and Bibles could continue to be placed.

The proper protocol would be documents showing the number of people, and specific time frame, who had requested a Bible and who had requested a Quran.  A decision made on the basis of requests, and a willingness to so provide would potentially pass Constitutional muster. 

 

[bonnie]

39 minutes ago, Gregory Matthews said:

There are differences between an institution that is supported by tax dollars and one that is a private business.

There would be a potential problem for a tax supported institution to allow Bibles (Christian religion) to  be placed in a room and not allow the Quran to also be placed.

However, with the proper protocol, that potential problem could be surmounted and Bibles could continue to be placed.

The proper protocol would be documents showing the number of people, and specific time frame, who had requested a Bible and who had requested a Quran.  A decision made on the basis of requests, and a willingness to so provide would potentially pass Constitutional muster.  

I understand the difference. There isn't any indication that there has been a refusal to allow the Quran. Or any indication any religious group has been refused. 

Providing bibles to Holmes Student Center Hotel guests sends the message that NIU endorses the religious texts. Including bibles sends the message to non-Christian and non-religious guests that they should read the bible, and specifically the version of the bible provided: the Gideon Bible. Certainly, if guests want to read this religious text during their stay, they can bring their own copy or access any of the numerous churches or libraries near the university."

 

The underlined is absurd. How many people stay at a motel and assume that the Gideon bible is endorsed by the hotel management. It is simply a curtesy for guests. To claim that they  were shocked, horrified, and dismayed to discover a copy of the Bible as if they had a gun to their head and had to take it out of the drawer,read and follow.

What is the difficulty calling management and telling them they would like someone to remove it so they didn't have to be horrified all night?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Perhaps?

 

I deal with the law, often as I have experienced it.  I gave a solution as I have experienced it.

[bonnie]

15 minutes ago, Gregory Matthews said:

Perhaps?

 

I deal with the law, often as I have experienced it.  I gave a solution as I have experienced it.

If a Quran had been alongside the bible it would have spared these poor guests from being shocked and horrified?

[Gregory Matthews]

Here is the deal:  When the CEO of a hotel chain, who happens to be Mormon, decided to put a copy of THE BOOK OF MORMON, in every room, that is his right.  The hotel chain is a private business.  If the stockholders disagree, they can remove the CEO.  If people want to stop using his hotel chain, that is their business.

When an institution, supported by tax dollars, decides to put a Religious book (Such as the Bible.) in rooms that they allow others to use, they  open themselves up to a discrimination claim, if they do not allow other religious books to also be placed in the room, along with the Bible.  The Court will potentially order them to give equal placement to other religious books.

Unless they can document that a large number of people requested  the placement of the Bibles and no one has requested placement of another religious book.

E.G.  If 10,000 people requested Bibles, that will stand.  If only 10  people requested a Quran, their  decision not to place it will also likely stand.

Another defense would be to say:  We will not place a copy of the Quran in all of our rooms.  However, we will have five (5) copies at our desk to lend out to people who ask for one.  That one might stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bonnie]

Yes I understand that. The ridiculous point of the story is this poor fragile couple was "shocked and horrified" to find a bible. 

Are you assuming they would not have been shocked and horrified and  not looking for their fifteen minutes of fame as a poor victim of the trauma of finding a bible in a drawer as long as there was also a Quran?