Navy Says it Will Rescind Bible Ban at Walter Reed Hospital
After Friday's bombshell, Walter Reed Military Medical Center was inundated with calls about the hospital's Bible ban. In case you missed it, FRC broke the news that the Navy had issued new guidelines for the friends and family of wounded soldiers. In a stunning attack on faith, Walter Reed specifically outlawed "religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts" from being "used or given away" during patient visits.
As soon as the memo was in FRC's hands, we brought it to the Hill's attention. After working with concerned leaders like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and talking with staff at Walter Reed, we were assured that the Navy was rescinding the policy. Todd Starnes at Fox News also contacted hospital officials and was told by a public affairs officer that the Bible ban was "in no way meant to prohibit family members from providing religious items to their loved ones at all." If that's the case, Starnes pressed, then why bother rescinding the policy? "We don't want there to be any misinterpretation of what we're trying to say," Sandy Dean said.
As of this afternoon, there is no written proof that the policy change has taken place. All we have are the verbal assurances from Walter Reed that the problem is being corrected. Until then, leaders continue to shake their heads at open hostility toward faith in Obama's military.
While we appreciate that the Navy is trying to right this wrong, it speaks to the effectiveness of the President's three-year war on Christianity. Apparently, this administration will do whatever it takes to wipe faith off the military's map. With your help, they won't succeed any time soon. Log on to frc.org and speak out against the Walter Reed Bible ban. Click here to add your name to our petition.
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Walter Reed was an Army Hospital, not Naval.
It closed on September 15, 2011
This is more like an excuse for the christian fundamentalists to take advantage of a poorly-crafted ban.. People are disgusted by endless proselytizing .....
Unfortunately, a story like this gives ammunation for the mythical "war on on Christianity" that Obama supposedly is leading. No, this was a dumb policy, or a very badly written one. The intent of it probably had something to do third parties at the hospital pushing bibles on recovering patients. There is a case of a fundamentalist Christian nurse demanding to a gay female soldier, to "accept Christ." See, those are the kinds of things that secularists or atheists like me are concerned about. Chaplains preaching and advocating their own personal religious views at mandatory military meetings and formations.
If someone wants to bring a bible to their loved one, those who are atheists, don't oppose it. We oppose the orchastrated war against atheists and less than devout Christians, that the religious rightwing have led in the military, for the last several decades. We oppose commanders pushing prayer and religious lectures on those under them. To oppose these things is not a "war on Christianity." What if a humanist officer pushed humanism on the soldiers under him? FRC would be outraged, with justification.
Jerome McCollom
I completely agree...
Took me a lot of googling to find anything but shrill and overwrought bloviating from the right wing echo chamber, but here's the PDF .......... http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF11L05.pdf ............ From reading the text, it looks like the military wanted third party organizations to be kept from proselytizing to patients. Unfortunately, they put the language in the "Partners in Care" section which also governs family visitors. At best, this is very bad writing and needs to be revised. Section (8f) needs to be moved to (6j2).
I am not 100% sure what the bible ban means. It sounds like the hospital decided to no longer use government funds to provide religious materials. It did not seem that the hospital required patients and families to leave their bibles at the door. Please clarify.
Everything I do, I do it for you.