Published: November 08, 2007 07:13 am         

Chinese to allow Olympic athletes to have Bibles

DENVER (AP) — The U.S. Olympic Committee received confirmation from Olympic officials Wednesday that there will be no restrictions on Bibles being brought into the Olympic village in Beijing next year.

The USOC contacted the International Olympic Committee about the issue in response to a story posted on the Catholic News Agency Web site citing a list of prohibited items that was reported to include Bibles.

That story said the Italian daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, reported that organizers cited “security reasons” for prohibiting athletes from carrying any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities. Those reports and others were producing active blog discussions on several Web sites.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation contacted the IOC about the news reports.

“We have heard from the IOC and there will be no restriction on athletes bringing the Bible or any other religious book into the village for their personal use,” Seibel said in a telephone interview from USOC offices in Colorado Springs.

Seibel said the Beijing Organizing Committee never considered any ban on Bibles.

Li Zhanjun, the director of the Beijing Olympics media center, also discounted the report.

“There is no such thing,” Li said. “This kind of report is an intentional distortion of truth.”

Religious services will be available in the Olympic Village next summer for Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists, he said. Religious texts like the Bible and Koran should be available.

“Even if there aren’t, the athletes can bring the texts themselves, there’s no restriction,” Li said.

With the Olympics heading to the largest Communist country in the world, many observers are interested to see how China handles issues like freedom of the press and freedom of religion over the 16 days next August.

IOC rule 51 states “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

But that rule is in place to prevent participants from using the games as a political platform and doesn’t include any ban on Bibles.

A notice on the official Beijing Olympics Web site explaining entry procedures into the country said “each traveler is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China.”

“We fully expect that the standards established by the IOC for previous Games will be in effect for these Games,” Seibel said.