PARENTS BATTLE OVER FREE BIBLES FOR STUDENTS IN FRISCO SCHOOLS IN DALLAS

FRISCO — There is a book battle of sorts taking place in Frisco schools. This isn't about a textbook — it's about the "Good Book."
The district permits free Bibles to be put out for students; but there's a fine line between nonschool literature that's "put out" and "given out."
Debbie Lutz has two children in Frisco schools. "How is that allowed?" she asked. "It makes me very mad."
Gideon volunteers have visited both her children's campuses with Bibles in tow. It's part of the Frisco ISD's rotating schedule that permits the religious group in some schools for one day.
"That is unbelievable," Lutz said. "No one has ever sent a letter home from the school district telling me that."
District policy says nonschool literature is allowed as long as it doesn't "attack ethnic, religious, or racial groups." It also can't "interfere with school activities or the rights of others."
"I just think religion should be out of schools," Lutz said.
Another Frisco mom, Nicki Wilks, has a son who attends Griffin Middle School. "He said, 'Oh yeah, mom, somebody was handing out Bibles at school today, and some of the kids started getting upset, and the parents started showing up.'"
Wilks tries to read the Bible daily, and is stunned at the outcry of negativity. "It's not like it is in the curriculum," Wilks said. "It's not like we're making them take Bible classes."

But Wilks says offering — not pushing — the Bible should be fair game. "I believe in freedom of religion, but I think there are people from the other religions who would like to completely stifle the Christian side of it," she said.
The Gideons once handed out their Bibles along a public sidewalk in Frisco, but after too many parent complaints to the police department and the school, the district decided to move things inside. School officials said it's the only way to control the situation.
"We cannot pick and choose which materials are allowed to be left at a designated location for display/pickup based upon the viewpoint expressed in the materials," a Frisco ISD spokeswoman said in a statement.
The district admits that it has had to remind representatives of the Gideons to not approach children; that's the only way the volunteers are allowed in schools.
Either way, Lutz says it puts her kids in a tough spot. "Not maybe 'forced,' but maybe [they] they feel a sense of obligation to pick it up? Just so they're not uncomfortable," she said.
Wilk disagrees. "This should be made available if our children want it."
And at least at some Frisco public schools, Bibles are made available for students.

OUTRAGE OVER BIBLES DESTROYED IN AFGHANISTAN BY THE U.S MILITARY

A Pentagon adviser is blasting what he calls an "egregious" and "politically correct" decision by the U.S. military to destroy Bibles sent to troops in Afghanistan.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated by chaplains and later destroyed to make sure that troops did not violate rules which bar them from sharing their faith. According to the report, the Bibles were destroyed after Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) is a Pentagon adviser and military and national security analyst.

He finds it mind-boggling to think that military officials would allow Al Jazeera to walk through the front gate of a forward operating base and videotape soldiers conducting a Bible study. "This is a bit disingenuous, I think, that you would have a Saudi Arabian-sponsored Al Jazeera television network making tapes on an American facility of a Bible group so that they could target and discriminate against our soldiers," he notes.

Christian troops give up a great deal to put themselves in harm's way, so they should not have to give up their own personal witness in that environment, according to Maginnis. "By and large, soldiers should have the right to share their faith wherever they are," he contends, "and for the political correctness crew to come aboard and declare that we're going to destroy Bibles because of the sensitivity of the local command, I find egregious."

U.S MILITARY DESTROYS SOLDIER'S BIBLES

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan.
Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion.
Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed."

According to the military officials, the Bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. Reuters says the soldier brought them to the Bible study class where they were filmed.
The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, told a Pentagon briefing Monday that the military's position is that it will never "push any specific religion."