The founder of a national group with the aim of preventing the military from endorsing religion says he’s pleased with the Lexington Veterans Affairs decision to remove a Bible from the “missing man table.” The display is also referred to as the “Fallen Comrade Table,” and is meant to remind viewers of fallen, missing, or imprisoned U.S. military service members. Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation says his organization was contacted by a dozen veterans upset over the presence of a bible in the presentation.
“That's great because that means that we're not trying to elevate Christianity and creating an alloy between fundamentalist Christianity and a display like this in a government building.”
Weinstein said after his group wrote about the controversy last week, the table was removed, before reappearing this week with a blank journal.
“If you'd put a Koran on there, or if you'd put the Satanic Bible, or you put an atheist book, you know, there'd be blood in the streets. But why is it okay, because it's majority faith, that you stick that on there?”
Weinstein said he hopes the decision serves as a precedent for VA facilities across the country. The executive director of Lexington’s VA health care system declined an interview request Thursday.
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