Manchester V.A. Medical Center Continues to Deceive Public Over “Bible in a Box” Provenance
Poster Explaining Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Table Meaning Contains False Allegation
MANCHESTER, NH — The Manchester V.A. Medical Center continues to propagate a lie that was spread by Mike Pence and right-wing “religious liberty” warriors about the provenance of the Bible padlocked into a plexiglass box on a POW/MIA table in the building’s foyer. The false claim was repeated by then-Vice President Mike Pence during a speech at the American Legion Convention in 2019.
Pence trafficked in a demonstrable falsehood when he told the veterans, “You might’ve heard even today that there’s a lawsuit to remove a Bible that was carried in World War II from a Missing Man table at a V.A. hospital in New Hampshire.”
In fact, as revealed nearly three years ago in an article in Manchesterink.com, the large, altar-sized Bible that is at the heat of the controversy actually was given to 100-year-old World War II veteran Herman “Herk” Streitburger by his mother after he returned home after the war. He never had the Bible with him in a POW camp during WWII.
The lie makes a mockery of the poster’s final declaration Faith, Trust, Responsibility & Accountability.
What also makes a mockery of the declaration about truth is the Biden Administration’s failure to roll back the Trump-Pence regulations permitting religious displays and religious proselytizing in federal buildings.
The failure of Biden to act made a mockery of the the over-two year long battle of New Hampshire veterans seeking to have the U.S. Veterans Administration uphold the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state in a federal lawsuit that ultimately was dismissed.
What also makes a mockery of the declaration that the POW/MIA table display is the embodiment of truth is the failure of all four of the Democrats who constitute New Hampshire’s entire Congressional delegation to even comment on the Bible in the Box and the erosion of the separation of church and state, let alone take a stand on it or the lawsuit filed by brave veterans.
Responsibility for Failure
President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and U.S. Reps Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas bear responsibility for the erosion of the Establishment Clause and the victory of religious liberty warriors.
This author — a disabled vet and a user of the Manchester V.A. Medical Center — believes that the Trump-Pence imposed regulations overturning a decades long ban on religious displays in public places should have been overturned by Biden’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Yet, they were not.
Perhaps if one or more members of New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation had taken any interest in the issue, they might have been. And the lawsuit wouldn’t have been dismissed.
For ultimately, Joe Biden’s Justice Department supported the Trump Justice Department’s anti-Establishment Clause stance. In this vet’s opinion, President Biden, his attorney General Merrick Garland, and the four federal Dems from New Hampshire have acted shamefully.
By the way, expect Mike Pence, should he seek the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination, to take credit for the Manchester V.A.’s Bible in the Box in the political jousting leading up to the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. After all, he won.
Pence won, while the so-called liberals showed they have no interest in protecting old constitutional rights that can’t be weaponized into national fundraising campaigns.
