“We also embrace our diverse and inclusive culture.”Apparently, the diversity, inclusiveness, and nondiscrimination does NOT extend to Christianity.
-- Brad Hoey, NIU spokesman
“My sense is that we have a strong ally base and a strong nondiscrimination policy at NIU.”
-- Molly Holmes, Director, NIU Gender and Sexuality Resource Center
For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:
Atheists Force Bible Bans at Colleges Across America
Atheists Claim Bible Says Kill Gays & Non-virgin Women
President Obama's Defense Dept. Says Bible is Sexist
Colorado College Bans Bible Talk, OKs Swear Words
Religion or Gay Agenda: California Students to Choose
-- From "NIU removes Bibles from campus hotel" by The Associated Press 11/24/15
Bibles can no longer be found in the rooms of Northern Illinois University's campus hotel after a secular group complained it had no place in nightstands.
University spokesman Brad Hoey says the student center removed the Bibles immediately. He added university officials are "very conscious of the separation of church and state."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Northern Illinois University to offer LGBT housing, Rockford campuses gain student interest" by Alexa Wybraniec, Rockford Register Star 7/30/15
The added [gender-inclusive] housing option is one of many ways NIU is reaching out to students in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The acronym is sometimes extended to include queer, intersex and asexual. On a basic level, queer is a fluid label that acknowledges being outside societal norms in regard to gender or sexuality. Individuals born with ambiguous genitalia or bodies that appear neither typically male nor female identify as intersex. And people who are asexual do not experience sexual attraction.
[Molly Holmes] also oversees Transitions, a club that helps transgender students meet and learn from one another. It was inspired by a transgender student intern who had difficulty navigating resources on her own in 2011.
“Transitions has been a response for what students have asked,” Holmes said. “We hear that students come here because of that group.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Northern Illinois University removes Bibles from campus hotel after complaint" by Manya Brachear Pashman, Chicago Tribune 11/24/15
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation [FFRF], discovered a Bible in a drawer last month during a stay on the DeKalb campus where she had been invited to speak by the Secular Student Alliance. Upon her return home, the foundation's lawyer wrote a letter to the Holmes Student Center director requesting the books be removed.
The ubiquitous Bibles in bedside tables come from Gideons International, an evangelical group founded more than a century ago by two men who accidentally shared a hotel room and set out to spread the Gospel in hotels across the U.S.
For decades, Gaylor said, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has taken aim at the Bibles, especially in public accommodations such as state university hotels and park lodges. Some members when they travel carry stickers to slap on the covers of hotel room Bibles — sarcastic warnings that literal belief in the book could endanger the reader's health and life.
"Even if it takes three decades of education, we're finally persuading public officials," Gaylor said. "It's an anachronism. As this country becomes more and more secular, more and more people are offended. It's a constant mop-up job."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "NIU Removes Bibles From Student Center Hotel Rooms" by Jenna Dooley, Northern Public Radio NPR 11/11/15
According to a representative with the Holmes Student Center, the bibles were removed in late October as requested by the university’s legal counsel.
Nicholas Bergman is president of NIU’s Secular Student Alliance. He says he is satisfied with the university’s response:
“The school is trying really hard to support that interfaith dialogue and sense of community between different religious groups. Only having the Bible in the hotel rooms seemed to be against that.”
Bergman says if visitors want to read the book, it is available elsewhere in the community.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Atheist Group Wants Removal of 'Obnoxious' Gideon Bibles From Hotel Rooms" by Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter 11/14/15
"No one is making any guest open the Bible. No one is making them read it. In fact, the university is not 'providing bibles;' it is allowing a Christian group to place literature, the Bible, in hotel rooms much like a pizzeria may leave coupons," [American Center for Law and Justice] ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow wrote on Thursday.
"They unbelievably claimed to be 'proselytized in the privacy of their own bedrooms.' Who knew a closed Bible's mere presence qualified as proselytizing. Yet, they called the Bible 'obnoxious' and claimed that the mere presence of the Bible in a state-run lodging was 'inappropriate and unconstitutional,'" the ACLJ described.
The ACLJ reminded the FFRF, however, that the Supreme Court has ruled that "adults should be able to withstand 'speech they find disagreeable,' without imagining that the Establishment Clause is violated every time they 'experience a sense of affront from the expression of contrary religious views.'"
"There is no coercion," Sekulow insisted. "There is no proselytizing happening here. Instead, it's once again clear that those holding themselves out to be freethinkers are threatening smaller institutions with constitutional claims that would fall flat in court. FFRF is in the business of making threats because they know that any time they go to court, they always lose."
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Bible Verse Gets Georgia Student Athlete Disqualified
And read Bible Harmful to Students, Must Ban: Parents Say
