No More Handing Out Bibles: New Rule on Alabama Air Force Base

Aimee Herd : Mar 18, 2014
Todd Starnes – Charisma News

"They told us, 'Get your Bibles out.'"

(Alabama)—According to a report by Todd Starnes for Charisma News, the new recruits at Maxwell Air Force Base Gunter Annex, located in Alabama, will no longer receive a new Bible from the Gideons.

In fact, one Gideon's volunteer, Michael Fredenburg told Starnes that military authorities "told us, 'Get your Bibles out.'"

While a public affairs officer argued that Gideons can still "place their literature within our facility" they are now barred from being able to "hand them out," to each recruit as they had for over a decade.

It was last week when a sergeant reportedly told the Gideons volunteers that the Bible distribution would no longer be allowed.

"I contacted one of my guys and asked him to get the Bibles out," Michael told Starnes. "He went over and got all the Bibles—and we're out."

According to the report, the Gideons are allowed to have a display rack within the premises that can have Bibles on it, however, the volunteers are no longer allowed to personally hand them out.

Michael noted that if his father—who had begun the tradition of handing the Bibles to new recruits—had been alive to see the practice disallowed, "it probably would've killed him."