Veterans Challenge VA Hospital's Policy Change On Chapel Furnishings

In Fayetteville, NC, two veterans, with the help of the Rutherford Institute, are challenging a local hospital's interpretation of VA regulations regarding hospital chapels. Today's Fayetteville Observer reports that until earlier this year, the chapel at Fayetteville's Veterans Affairs Medical Center had a cross and Bible on permanent display, which were removed only when other faiths used the chapel for services. However earlier this year, hospital officials decided that VA regulations requiring that chapels be kept open for meditation and prayer for all faiths meant that the Bible and cross need to be removed when Christian religious services are not in progress in order to keep the chapel religiously neutral. Two veterans, Joseph Kinney and Laud Pitt Jr., argue that the chapel should be kept as a Christian place of worship and that the hospital should open a separate meditation room for use by members of other faiths. They say that the hospital is suppressing Christians' freedom of religion in removing the Bible and cross.