Fayetteville VA Hospital orders Bible and cross removed from chapel

Fayetteville VA Hospital orders Bible and cross removed from chapel

Fayetteville's Veterans Affairs hospital director Bruce Triplett has ordered a Bible and cross be taken out of the hospital's chapel.

He said the federal directives allow the Catholic articles to stay in the chapel, but not Christian ones.

Read this op-ed piece by a decorated Marine serving on the Fayetteville Observer's Community Advisory Board.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=279339


Two veterans have criticized Triplett for ordering the Bible and cross moved from the chapel's altar to the chaplains' office. The office is next to the chapel inside the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The two veterans - Joseph Kinney and Laud Pitt Jr. - have argued that the hospital is suppressing Christians' freedom of religion by taking the Bible and cross out of the chapel.

A Catholic display, including a crucifix, kneeler and Catholic Bible, has been allowed to remain in the chapel, though it has been partitioned off from the main part of the room.

Kinney and Pitt have argued that because the Catholic items were allowed to remain, the Protestant ones should have stayed as well.

Crosses are shown in several of the chapel's stained-glass windows. Triplett said those images were OK because the windows also showed other images.



"Because of the changing demographic of our military and the fact that we have people of all faiths participating in the military, more so than ever," Triplett said. "It just makes sense that our chapel be available and comfortable to people of all faiths." That is, except for people of the Christian faith.


Send an e-mail to Director Bruce Triplett, asking him to return the Bible and cross to the hospital chapel.