Tim Ellsworth

From AP:

The U.S. Olympic Committee is looking into reports that Bibles will be prohibited inside the Olympic village in Beijing next year.

A story posted on the Catholic News Agency Web site cited a list of prohibited items that was said 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.

But USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation had reviewed all the information the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee had provided about what is permissible in the Olympic village and found nothing to indicate the Bible or any other religious material would be prohibited.

I’m going to be following this story and may be doing a report for Baptist Press in the near future. I’ll be attending the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as a reporter for BP.

UPDATE: Evidently there are some conflicting reports circulating. The Catholic News Agency originally reported on Nov. 2 that Bibles would be banned in Olympic village. Now, in an updated report published today, CNA is saying that visitors to the Olympics are being told to take no more than one Bible. That’s a big difference.

Here’s the official policy from the Beijing Olympics site, where it clearly says that “Each traveller is recommended to take no more than one Bible into China.”

UPDATE #2: Here’s my story for BP.