Bibles will be removed from guest rooms at Iowa State University’s Hotel Memorial Union in Ames.
The Des Moines Register says a guest had complained to a watchdog group, Freedom From Religion Foundation. The organization wrote to Memorial Union director Richard Reynolds on Jan. 29, asking for the Bibles to be removed. The group’s attorney, Patrick Elliott, said that for a state-run university to provide a Bible to guests, “that policy facilitates illegal endorsement of Christianity over other religions and over nonreligion.
Reynolds responded last week and said the Bibles would be removed by March 1.
The hotel occupies several floors in the Memorial Union and has 52 rooms. The Bibles will be placed in the Memorial Union’s Browsing Library for lending.
