ICC Note:
On August 4, 2014, attorney Monica Miller of the American Humanist Association (AHA) sent a letter to the Missouri National Guard demanding that they remove a display of Gideons Bibles in their administrative building. One of many recent objections from secular organizations against Gideons Bibles across a number of states, the AHA has threatened to sue the Missouri National Guard unless the Bibles are taken off display.
08/07/2014 United States (Christian News Network) – A prominent humanist organization sent a letter earlier this week to the Missouri National Guard, demanding that ‘immediate action’ be taken to remove a display of Bibles from a military base.
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a group committed to promoting the so-called “humanist worldview.” According to the organization’s website, AHA “strive[s] to bring about a progressive society where being good without a god is an accepted and respected way to live life.”
On Monday, AHA attorney Monica Miller sent a 9-page letter to the Missouri National Guard, demanding that the guard immediately remove a display of Bibles from the guard’s General Services Administration building in St. Louis. The letter argues that the Bibles’ presence in the government building “represents a clear breach of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.”
“The machinery of the U.S. military … is being used to distribute Bibles,” the letter claims. “ … The religious endorsement is particularly egregious in this case because unlike in many of the school cases where private citizens distributed the Bibles, the government is the entity distributing the Bibles here.”
Evidently, the Bible stand is sponsored by Gideons International—a Christian ministry committed to providing Bibles to people around the world. For over 100 years, the Gideons have distributed free Bibles in hotels, schools, prisons, and many government buildings. The ministry places a special emphasis on making Bibles available to military personnel, saying “there’s something especially urgent about giving God’s word to the men and women in the Armed Forces.”
However, AHA insists that the Scriptures must be removed from Missouri National Guard property.
“Numerous cases have ruled that when the government offers biblical literature, even if done indirectly, it is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion,” Miller said in a statement.
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