A students’ association in Scotland have made a controversial request for all Bibles to be removed from more than 2,000 rooms in the university’s halls of residence, because the book could cause offence to non-Christians.
The Stirling University Student’s Association (SUSA) has demanded that the free Gideons Bibles that are placed in student dormitories to be taken out. The spoke out saying that providing a Bible in all university accommodation was very "presumptuous" and offensive to different religions on the campus.
Stirling University have refused to comment on the request until it is formally submitted later next month.
The request resulted from a recent student council meeting in which the motion to submit the request passed by 15 to 1, with seven others abstaining.
The president of SUSA, Al Wilson commented, "The one thing that students have brought up is the fact that they do have Gideon's Bibles in their rooms. They felt that this was not really fair on those students who practice other faiths. And it was promoting one faith over others. So we are trying to encourage the university to still retain the Bibles within the buildings themselves but not necessarily in the rooms."
However, the proposed move has met stiff opposition from the former chaplain at the university, who said that it was wrong to remove the book from a place of learning. Rev John Munro, who leads Kinross Parish Church said, "I think there is an agenda here, seemingly politically correct. There is actually a hostility towards faith by those who have none."
He concluded by urging others not to follow mistakes made in the past, but to learn from them: "This is repeating the worst of our errors, where the Christian faith used to have an intolerant attitude towards people of no faith."
