A Californian veterans home is threatening to kick an 84-year-old widow out if she doesn’t stop hosting Bible studies.
Artis Breau and her husband moved into the California Veterans Home in Yountville nine years ago. Her husband served as a Merchant Marine in World War II and later served in the Air Force during the Korean War, while Breau worked as a civilian employee at the Pentagon during the Korean War.
After the couple moved into the veterans home, Breau began volunteering with the chaplaincy program to lead Bible studies. Things seemed to go well at first but then, in September 2018, administrators starting paying attention to the study after Breau allegedly had a discussion with another resident about heaven and hell, causing him to lose sleep. It was regarded as elder and emotional abuse, according to the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a nonprofit that is representing Breau.
Several months later, administrators told Breau that her volunteer status had been suspended while they investigated what had happened. She was permitted to keep leading Bible studies at the home but on March 1, an attorney with CalVet said that the studies were in violation of the agency’s directive.
If Breau chose to keep leading the studies, she would be subject to “involuntary discharge,” the attorney wrote.
“The home claims it needs to protect residents from this elderly widow, even though attendance at her Bible studies is entirely voluntary. Breau has explained to PJI that the real issue is that she is an evangelical Jewish believer in Jesus, which does not sit well with some of the chaplains,” the institute said in a statement.
“CalVet’s treatment of this widow is shameful,” institute attorney Matthew McReynolds added in a statement. “Throughout this process, we have been deeply disturbed not only by the lack of constitutional guidelines, ineptitude, and lack of due process in the investigation, but even more by the notion that discussing religious views on the eternal state of the soul is somehow elder abuse or emotional abuse.”
“Our client’s husband fought for his country to preserve the freedoms now being threatened by CalVet. Our veterans deserve better.”
In a response obtained by Fox News, Lindsey Sin, deputy secretary of Women Veterans Affairs at CalVet, stated: “The safety, security, and wellbeing of all of our residents is our top priority. We are very proud of the religious services provided to all of our residents through our chaplaincy services.
“This investigation concerns the private conduct of an individual. Beyond that, we are unable to comment on an ongoing investigation,” she added.
Man’s Bible Survives After Fire Burns Down Home
A man in Tyler, Texas, said that his personal Bible had survived after his tiny home and almost everything inside it was destroyed by a fire on Dec. 28.
When the tiny house owner Charles House returned to the rubble to see what was left to salvage, he found his Bible sitting on a charred side table, barely affected by the flames.
“He said His word would not perish, and the Bible did not burn,” House said, according to KLTV. “It was scorched but it did not burn. That Man’s word is real.”
House added: “You can take it away, but you can never stop His word. I’m a witness to that right now. Seeing that Bible, in the middle of that fire … it didn’t burn that Bible.”
House had woken up to a smell of smoke that he couldn’t identify at the time.
“I looked up and my whole bedroom was on fire,” House told the TV station. “All I could do was just jump up and run out the house.”
Firefighters had been called to the fire at about 4:30 a.m.
House had converted a storage building into a tiny home as he was saving money for a larger place.
He said he almost passed out trying to leave but in the end, nobody was hurt during the incident.
“It’s fortunate I got myself out of there,” House told KLTV. “It’s a blessing; I can’t stop saying that because it’s a blessing. Thank God.”
The Tyler Fire Marshal’s Office said hazardous wiring caused circuits to overload and spark the fire.
Epoch Times reporter Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
