Military Bible ban rescinded

The Bible is back in, at least in Military hospitals.  The new "hate-theists" I am sure will not be too pleased.  So what!  Freedom in religon, freedom of religion is the Constitutional way.  Let freedom ring! - RL

 

Associated Press - 12/9/2011 7:40:00 AM

BETHESDA, MD (AP) - The Walter Reed military hospital says it has rescinded a ban on Bibles or other religious materials being used or given away during visits to wounded troops.

The ban was issued in September but only came to light last week. It said, "No religious items, i.e. Bibles, reading material and/or artifacts are allowed to be given away or used during a visit."

Iowa Congressman Steve King's office says that when he demanded an explanation, the hospital's senior officers told him the memo was improperly worded and would be rewritten to affirm that religious items are "welcome in the hospital, if they are welcomed by the patient."

On its website, Walter Reed now apologizes and says the visitation policy has been rescinded, that patients' families may bring religious materials and that religious groups won't be barred from visiting.

Question: What drove the ban in the first place?

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow

After the ban came to light, Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) tells OneNewsNow he wanted some answers from the Walter Reed military hospital -- so Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) joined him in a meeting with two admirals overseeing the facility during which the two lawmakers were told the memo was worded improperly, it will be rescinded, and a new memo will be drafted. The memo has "caused damage," says King.

"And whatever kind of militant atheist-ism [sic] might bring about a rule like this, it isn't good enough just to stop the rule," he states. "It's also important that we move back into the affirmative. We go on offense and take something back from the people who come after the things that we believe."

During a recent appearance on American Family Radio, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-Virginia) also stated that it is not enough that just the policy is being rescinded and rewritten.

"We want to find out everything that was driving this policy to be written in the first place [and] the individual who wrote it," said Forbes, "because what they will always use is the excuse du jour [that] somebody complained because someone was proselytizing them."

The Virginia congressman says it should be left up to the patient to decide who and what should be allowed in the hospital room.

Source:   OneNews Now.com