May 2014 – Iowa State University’s Hotel Memorial Union has been ordered to remove all Bibles from guest rooms. The decision was made after a guest complained to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, an atheist activist organization.
Patrick Elliot, staff attorney for FFRF said, “It is a fundamental principle of the Establishment Clause jurisprudence that a government entity cannot in any way promote, advance or otherwise endorse religion. If a state-run university has a policy of providing a Christian religious text to guests, that policy facilitates illegal endorsement of Christianity over other religions and over nonreligion.”
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of FFRF said, “We can all sleep easier knowing secularism is being honored at our public universities.”
Hotel Memorial Union will still make Bibles available in the lobby and downstairs reading area.
