A hotel run by a public university should not have Bibles in its hotel rooms. (Yes, Universities do run “hotels,” or paid lodging; I’ve stayed in such places many times.) Yet according to the Centre Daily Times, a Central Pennsylvania newspaper, until just recently the two hotels at Penn State University had a Gideon Bible in every room.

That’s clearly unconstitutional.  The University realized that, although the reason they gave for just now removing the Bibles (and putting them in the hotel library) was not quite that. It was the Zeitgeist!:

“Penn State decided to remove Bibles from individual guest rooms in both of its hotels, The Nittany Lion Inn and the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, and to place them in public access areas,” Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.

The move was made not to limit the beliefs of one group but to be more inclusive of all, Penn State said.

“In the past few decades, the world and its people have changed dramatically. We wish to be respectful of all religions, and also of those who have differing beliefs, yet we still wanted to ensure the publication was available to those who desire to read it while staying with us,” Powers said. “This action was taken in the spirit of recognizing other religions and beliefs among our guests.”

The move also makes it possible for other groups — such as Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. — to have their beliefs, and their religious books, be put on the same footing.

“It’s my understanding that those publications are certainly accepted if a group wishes to make them available at our hotels,” Powers said.

The religious tomes have been moved to the hotel’s libraries. Maybe not every hotel has its own book collection, but the university’s do. In fact, the Nittany Lion Inn has two of them. The Bibles are also available in some other public access areas. But that doesn’t mean they have to stay there.

A cheaper alternative is to simply take a pen and write this at the beginning (it’s not vandalism, as the Bibles are gifts and you’re even urged to take them with you):

ADDENDUM: Reader Adrian just sent me a new t**t that originated from Alistair Coleman about an addition to a hotel Gideon Bible:

h/t: Sanjiv

A while back, some restaurant, probably in the U.S. South, offered meal discounts to customers coming in on Sunday with a leaflet or bulletin from their church. (I’ve just Googled this and found it was a branch of Denny’s, a national chain, located in Texas.) As I recall, the ACLU or some other civil-rights organization threatened to sue Denny’s for religious discrimination, and the restaurant caved. After all, it’s a violation of  federal law to discriminate in public facilities on the basis of religion.

And that should have been the end of that. But, like the Laernean Hydra, when you cut off one religious head, another replaces it. And so, in the last two weeks, many people have called my attention to stories in several places (including the Inquisitr, The Raw Story, and Christian Today about a restaurant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina—Mary’s Gourmet Diner—that was doing something worse: giving customers a 15% discount on their food if they prayed in public in the restaurant! 

I mentioned this to a European friend, who was shocked, as, she said, no such thing is seen in Europe (I’m just reporting what I was told). But surely, I said, some people bow their heads and say a silent grace in rstaurants. “No way,” she said. European readers weigh in: have you see this happen? If so, is it frequent?

The Raw Story reports:

[Customer Jordan] Smith told HLN that she and two business colleagues prayed over their breakfast during a Wednesday outing there. Later, the waitress allegedly “came over at the end of the meal and said, ‘Just so you know, we gave you a 15% discount for praying,’ which I’d never seen before.”

Mary’s Gourmet Diner garnered notice after one customer, Jordan Smith, posted a picture online of her receipt from a recent visit, which contained a 15 percent discount for “praying in public.”

Here’s the image. Clearly “praying in public” is something programmed into the cash register, and gets you a 15% discount:

Caught with its pants down, the restaurant denied that this was its policy:

While one employee told HLN that it is done regularly, restaurant management denied the allegation in a separate post Friday afternoon.

“I will say that it is not a ‘policy,’” the post stated. “It’s a gift we give at random to customers who take a moment before their meal.”

The post went on to clarify that the “moment” could include prayer or “a moment to breathe,” and that the manager appreciated the “abundance of beautiful food” in the U.S. after living in an unidentified “3rd world country.”

“I NEVER take that for granted,” the post stated. “It warms my heart to see people with an attitude of gratitude. Prayer, meditation or just breathing while being grateful opens the heart chakra.”

But as NPR reported, other visitors to the restaurant’s page questioned the nature of the “gift.”

“Do you give prayer discounts to people who aren’t of your religion?” one commenter asked. “Like Sikh’s or Hindus or Muslims or Jews?”

Others reportedly wondered whether the restaurant’s discount for religious displays violated parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on religion in public places.

Yeah, right: a “gift”! Even if it was a “gift,” it’s still illegal, as such gifts aren’t available to nonbelievers.  I wonder if a Muslim, prostrate on the floor of the restaurant, would get the same discount? My guess is that he’d be asked to leave.

At any rate, as Censor of the Year for 2013 I thought it was my duty to report this to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, but it turned out that they were already on the case. (The FFRF is the Official Website Secular Organization™, and is a great outfit! Give them $$ and join!). They sent me a copy of a letter that Elizabeth Cavell, one of their staff attorneys, sent to Mary’s Gourmet restaurant, and I reproduce it below. It turns out that such discounts do indeed violate the Civil Rights Act. As the letter says, “Any promotions must be available to all customers regardless of religious preference or practice on a non-discriminatory basis.”

The U.S. is soaked in this kind of deference to faith, and it both embarrasses and disgusts me. It’s fine to practice religion in your home, though I don’t believe a word of it, but imposing it on the public by favoring religious customers is both unconscionable and illegal. I’ll report back with the result of this letter.

I’m adding this lest someone misunderstand my point: it’s perfectly fine to say grace or pray in a restaurant so long as you don’t try to involve the other cusomers. What is not right is for restaurants to give discounts to those who engage in religious displays, for that is public discrimination against religion, a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

Meanwhile, as far as I know there is still silence from Lebanon, Missouri. .  .

UPDATE: The ruling was actually published on Marc. 17, and I have no idea why I thought it was this week. At any rate, the story stands, and the update is still an update to what was previously published.  Thanks to a reader for pointing this out.

________

Here’s some good news from Louisiana, home of institutionalized creationism in schools (the voucher schools in that state, which are supported by taxpayers, still teach creationism). In January I mentioned a Raw Story piece that Negreet High School in Louisiana had humiliated a Buddhist student who dared question the Christian creationism rampant in the school, including in science classes. The student and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the school. The report from January’s Raw Story said this (my emphasis):

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Louisiana on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against Negreet High School in Sabine Parish on behalf of two parents, Scott and Sharon Lane, and their son, “C.C.” The lawsuit claims the school has “a longstanding custom, policy, and practice of promoting and inculcating Christian beliefs,” including the teaching of creationism.

Sixth-grade teacher Rita Roark has told her students that the universe was created by God about 6,000 years ago, and taught that both the Big Bang theory and evolution are false, according to the lawsuit. She told her students that “if evolution was real, it would still be happening: Apes would be turning into humans today.”

One test she gave to students asked: “ISN’T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The correct answer was “Lord,” but C.C. wrote in something else. Roark responded by scolding the boy in front of the entire class.

When informed that C.C. was a Buddhist and therefore didn’t believe in God, Roark allegedly responded, “you’re stupid if you don’t believe in God.”

On another accusation, she allegedly described both Buddhism and Hinduism as “stupid.”

When the outraged parents confronted Sabine Parish Superintendent Sara Ebarb about the incidents, she allegedly told them “this is the Bible belt” and that they “shouldn’t be offended” to “see God here.” Ebarb advised that C.C. should either change his faith or be transferred to another District school where “there are more Asians.”

That steonewalling reminds me of what the Lebanon School District RIII is doing now. And, as in Lebanon, the creationism was endemic, not just a one-off thing by one teacher:

. . . The lawsuit claims that other teachers and faculty members also push Christian beliefs on their students. Prayer is often lead by teachers in classrooms and during school events. Religious literature that denounces evolution and homosexuality has been distributed by faculty members to students. The school’s hallways are filled with Christian iconography and electronic marquee in front of the school scrolls Bible verses.

But according to an article in Monday’s Raw Story, the parents of the student (the complainants) and the ACLU just won their suit against the school.

Judge Elizabeth Foote of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana sided with C.C. and his parents, citing that Roark’s behavior — and the school’s decision to defend it — clearly violated “the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

With regard to the specific behavior of Roark, Judge Foot wrote that “[t]he District and School Board are permanently enjoined from permitting School Officials at any school within the School District to promote their personal religious beliefs to students in class or during or in conjunction with a School Event.” Furthermore, “School Officials shall not denigrate any particular faith, or lack thereof, or single out any student for disfavor or criticism because of his or her particular faith or religious belief, or lack thereof.”

She also ordered that all members of the school board, as well as all faculty — both current and incoming — be trained by an attorney approved by the ACLU and the ACLU of Louisiana as to their responsibilities with respect to the First Amendment. The training will emphasize the “the psychological and developmental impact of religious discrimination on students.”

I love that the school board and faculty will have to take lessons from and ACLU attorney about the First Amendment. Can’t you imagine how they’ll be fuming about that?

Now Louisiana is even more conservative than Missouri, home of Lebanon High School and its hyperreligious school board, and yet a Louisiana federal district judge faulted the school for violating the First Amendment. The school district there will, of course, have to foot the bill for substantial court costs.

You can see judge Foote’s decision here.  Here’s one part relevant to the case in Missouri:

Are you listening, Lebanon?

h/t: Haggis for Brains