Bibles return to US Navy base guest rooms

WASHINGTON — The Gideon Bibles are going back in the Navy’s nightstand drawers. 

In June, the United States Navy ordered housekeepers at thousands of Navy-owned guest lodges near U.S. and international bases to remove the Bibles and any other “religious materials” from their rooms.

But public outcry, prompted by a social media alert from the American Family Association and protests by the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, led the brass to reverse course Aug. 15.

Now the Navy’s “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, the daily military newspaper. Meanwhile the Bibles (New Testament and Psalms but no Hebrew Bible) will be tucked back into nightstand drawers.

A letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation questioning the constitutionality of religious literature in the Navy lodges’ 3,000 guest rooms prompted the original order to remove the Bibles.