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WATCH: Huckabee Calls for Pastors to Flood Houston Mayor With Sermons

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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wants the nation’s pastors to send Bibles and copies of all of their sermons to Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who has issued a broad subpoena demanding the city’s pastors hand over copies of their sermons and communications concerning the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

“I hope she gets thousands and thousands of sermons and Bibles,” said Huckabee, who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, on his Fox News show Saturday.

“It ought to make you mad that the mayor thinks she can turn in her pastors,” the Republican said. “And so I got an idea. If she wants a sermon, here is my suggestion. I would like to ask every pastor in America, not only the ones in Houston, to send her your sermons and go ahead. Obviously she could use a few. And everybody watching the show ought to send her a Bible.”

Houston’s city attorneys initially issued the subpoenas in September when people who opposed the city’s equal rights ordinance were trying to force a repeal referendum on the ordinance, which grants certain rights to transgendered people, reports the Houston Chronicle.

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Navy Removes Bibles from Guest Rooms

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

There is growing outrage among sailors and religious liberty advocates over a directive that calls for the removal of Bibles from lodges and hotels run on U.S. Navy bases. The directive comes after an atheist group filed a formal complaint earlier this year over the placement of Bibles in the rooms.

“The current direction is to remove all religious material from Navy Lodge guest rooms,” read an email to a Navy chaplain from The Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). “For those Navy Lodges with religious materials currently in guest rooms, the Navy Lodge General Manager will contact the Installation Chaplain’s office who will provide guidance on the removal procedure disposition of these materials.”

An active duty service member contacted me and alerted me the Bibles were being taken out of hotel rooms and a lodge housekeeper told American Family Association the same thing.

The American Family Association received an exclusive copy of a similar directive from NEXCOM, the organization that manages the lodges.

“The Navy Lodge General Manager should advise the Installation Commanding Officer of our intention to work through the chaplain’s office to determine what installation policy is and the method to remove religious material currently in the guest rooms,” read a directive approved by Michael Bockelman, the vice president of NEXCOM and the director of the Navy Lodge Program.

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Bible Controversy Hits Air Force Base

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Photo Credit: APFor more than a decade new military recruits at Maxwell Air Force Base – Gunter Annex in Alabama have received a Bible from Gideons International volunteers. But that tradition has come to an end after volunteers said they were told by the military that they would no longer be allowed to personally distribute the pocket-sized Bibles to recruits.

“They kicked us out,” Gideon’s volunteer Michael Fredenburg told me in a telephone interview from his home in Montgomery, Ala. “They told us, ‘get your Bibles out.’”

Gaylan Johnson, is a public affairs officer for the Military Entrance Processing Command. He told me the Gideons’ side of the story is “not strictly true.”

“They can place their literature within our facility, but they are not allowed to stand there and talk with applicants or hand them (the Bibles) out,” he told me.

Fredenburg said his father started the tradition of giving Bibles to new military recruits at the Military Entrance Processing Command center more than 10 years ago. He assumed leadership of the group when his father died last July.

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Gideon Bibles Removed After Atheist Group Pressures U of Wisconsin

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The University of Wisconsin-Extension has agreed to remove all Gideon Bibles from 137 guest rooms at its conference center after an atheist group, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), complained, arguing that the Bibles in the bedrooms constituted state endorsement of Christianity.

“After attempting to end the practice for several decades, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has persuaded University of Wisconsin-Extension in Madison to remove Gideon bibles from its 137 guest rooms,” the group said in a Jan. 15 statement. “In November, the complainant who encountered the bible at the Lowell Center on the UW-Madison campus complained to Madison-based FFRF, a state/church watchdog and the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics).”

Back on Nov. 4, FFRF staff attorney Patrick C. Elliott sent a letter to Chancellor Ray Cross, head of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin-Extension. (See FFRF Letter.pdf)

In the letter, Elliott wrote, “It is our understanding that guest rooms in the Lowell Center contain bibles from Gideons International. We were contacted by a concerned complainant who informs us that the bibles are in every guest room. We understand that the bibles include a statement noting that they were placed by Gideons International.”

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Gays In, Bibles Out In the New American Military

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Photo Credit: Björn SöderqvistPresident Obama’s Defense Department is waging a private war. While our Pentagon is entrusted with the duty to “protect and serve,” a secular zone is growing within the ranks of the Military.

A little over a year ago then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the Military would honor through “Gay Pride Month” the contributions of homosexual service members. This announcement came just a few months after the Department of Defense had begun its subtle campaign against the Bible.

1) The Air Force Services Agency through its spokesman Michael Dickerson stated the Air Force has “no requirement to have Bibles in the lodging checklist.” [1a] In other words, as a military member checks into housing (much like a civilian would into a hotel or dormitory) there is no availability of a Bible to be by his or her bedside. In defense of this Air Force Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews, Retired, has stated, “while there is no requirement to have them, why should there be a requirement to remove them?” [1b] By the way, these Bibles are free to the Military, paid for by donating Christian churches and foundations.

2) The Department of Defense announced it would be removing military edition Bibles from its base exchange stores. These military editions published by Holman Bible Publishers are “prominently emblazoned with exact replicas of the trademarked emblems of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force.” Known as the “Soldier’s Bible, or Sailor’s Bible and so forth,” these Bibles have been published since 2003. The Bibles “include a cover designed for the particular branch, as well as patriotic essays, prayers and hymn lyrics,” according to Holman’s website. “Holman also produces Bibles for police, firefighters, sportsmen and students, each tailored to its particular audience.” [2a]

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ACLU Relying on Bad Law to Try to Ban Gideon Bibles from Distribution

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Photo Credit: WNDThe ACLU has threatened to sue Kentucky’s 174 school districts if they refuse to ban the distribution of Gideon Bibles, but the warning lacks teeth, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which contends it is based on outdated law.

“Most of the decisions cited in the ACLU’s letter are no longer good law as they were issued before the Supreme Court decided Good News Club in 2001,” ADF told school officials in a letter sent to correct an ACLU missive.

ADF jumped into action when it became aware of the threat from the ACLU.

“Public schools should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Rory Gray. “That’s why the schools frequently allow a wide array of groups to distribute literature of various sorts to students. Singling out the Gideons while allowing other groups to distribute literature would be clearly unconstitutional.”

The issue arose when the ACLU dispatched a letter to every school superintendent in the state, threatening lawsuits if they would not submit to ACLU demands and ban distribution of Bibles by members of the Gideons organization.

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