Praying and the Bible were banned at Red Cross shelter

WASHINGTON, DC, Sep 09 – The Association of Mature American Citizens is calling for a boycott of the Red Cross. AMAC president Dan Weber said the organization’s membership voted overwhelmingly for a boycott, 16,340 to 642, in a poll conducted in the wake of an incident in which a Louisiana police officer was asked to leave a Red Cross shelter for holding a Bible. The incident happened in Lafayette, LA during disastrous flooding that devastated the region in August.

“I was not proselytizing; I was just there to thank volunteers and offer prayers and encouragement,” reserve city marshal Clay Higgins said shortly after he was asked to leave a Red Cross shelter for holding a Bible.

An eyewitness to the incident quoted a Red Cross worker who said praying or reading the Bible was not allowed. Higgins told reporters a supervisor at the shelter “told me the Red Cross is not a religious-based organization and they don’t allow religious interaction with [shelter] residents.”

The Red Cross did not deny that the event occurred, but offered an apology for what had happened.

Weber said that “Red Cross founder Clara Barton must be rolling over in her grave. Bureaucratic, politically correct automatons are not fit to provide comfort and relief during times of catastrophic events.” He suggested that those who wished to help when disaster strikes should consider donating to organizations that believe in religious freedom such as Samaritan’s Purse and the Salvation Army. ”

The Association of Mature American Citizens is a conservative advocacy organization for older Americans. “When we got wind of the Higgins story we posted a poll on our Web site that drew an astounding number of members and visitors to the site – nearly 16,340 of them – who voted for a boycott of the Red Cross,” according to Weber. He said that only 642 respondents opted against a boycott.

The poll, said Weber, was “less about the boycott of an organization with a mandate to help people than it was about how intrusive the current focus on political correctness can be for Americans as they go about their daily lives. Obviously, many of the people who sought temporary shelter at that Red Cross facility were God-fearing citizens. They were going through a particularly difficult time in their lives, and they welcomed the comfort of prayer that Higgins tried to provide.”

Weber blamed incidents like this one on what he called the introduction in recent years of “a progressive lifestyle that has been foisted on a country that prides itself on its history of religious tolerance and the fact that the Constitution gives us the right to pray.”

Many of the AMAC members who voted were incensed by what the Red Cross had done and made sure that the organization knew it. One member sent a scathing message to the Red Cross. He told them: “I expect the Red Cross to recognize the ABSOLUTE RIGHT of all Americans to worship and display religious symbols and to follow their beliefs. You are NOT the arbiter of our beliefs, religious or otherwise. If there are some people that are ‘offended’ by beneficial displays of faith and caring, that is just something they’ll have to live with. Intolerance is something I expect the Red Cross to fight against, not to promote.”