I spent five weeks in the states last year and I was in a different hotel every couple of days (drove along the coast of california). Not one of them had a bible.
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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Big chain hotels have stopped this practice, stay at some dingy family owned motel and you will still find them in the bedside drawer.
Yeah, it's a lot less common than it used to be. These stories that say, "every hotel room" are definitely exaggerating these days.
I was re-watching the rock the other day and nick cage mentioned he’d stashed money in the bible in his hotel room. If you do come across one, remember to thumb through for cash before you get rid.
Yeah, maybe in Utah
The west is much more atheist. Go to the southeast.
I make a habit of taking them and throwing them away.
I usually stay in higher end hotels when I travel, and I agree that over the past 5-20 years the Gideon bible thing has started to fall off. Ten years ago you could still find them i. places like the Atlanta Ritz. It has been a hot minute since I’ve seen one, but that might be due to the type of hotel as much as progress over time.
When I went into the service, they had a team of 70 year old men making a gauntlet run where they handed you a (camo cover) version of the mini-new testament which as far as I know was allowed by the Army.
Finding this book, and only this book, in every hotel room is an example of Christian privilege. Nobody asks you which book you'd like when you check-in. They've made that decision for you. They've provided you with "the good book."
I thought they get placed by the Gideons? It's even a plot point in the original Mission Impossible movie.
That is correct. But why do the Gideons get to place their book and Muslims do not?
I would assume the muslims haven't tried. It's weird that these Gideon creatures do
They get given to hotels by the Gideon’s. The hotel staff usually are the ones to place them.
Thanks for clearing up my misconception. This makes sense.
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Many years ago, a Christian friend of mine sent an email to his entire Sunday School class saying, "... As Christians we need to be more discerning." This was in response to another email that had been sent to the class about the evils of Harry Potter, and it used an Onion article for its source material.
As people who claim to be more discerning than people of faith, we really need to be more discerning...
Bibles in hotel rooms are not an example of Christian privilege, but an example of a private non-profit, spending their own money to place Bibles in hotel rooms. If it were not for this private non-profit they would not be there.
A hotel with back bone would not let a private non-profit mess about in their hotel room and put their things there. Regardless of if it was religious propaganda or pamphlets about immigration.
Why not? They are offering a free "service" to their customers. Hell Mariott pays out of their own pocket (I think) to have Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible.
A bible isn't a service. It's recruitment and conversion propaganda. Would you want your hotel to provide you with the service of immigration propaganda pamphlets?
If a private non profit were there to put Qurans in Hotel rooms, how many American hotels do you think would take them up on the offer outside Dearborn, MI?
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The privilege is not that they are provided. It's that they are allowed by otherwise impartial hotels to be there, no questions asked. Can I leave millions of copies of The Quran? Of Ulysses? Of Industrial Society and Its Future?
Have you tried? Until an org starts trying to place the Quran, and is told they can't, there is no privilege involved. Once that happens, I'll buy your argument, until then, nope.
Well, you'll be glad to learn that hotels in Muslim countries often do keep copies of the Quran.
I haven't tried to place copies of the Unabomber's manifesto in hotel drawers, but then again I haven't tried to get a small loan of $1,000,000 or the deed to an emerald mine from my parents because, as it turns out, you don't actually need to experience literally everything that you hold an opinion on. I don't like rape either, lads, and I'm not giving it a try.
Have you tried?
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Bring a highlighter and some post it notes. Mark it up to emphasize the the horrible parts. The person to actually open it is likely already a Christian. Perhaps you could get someone to question their beliefs if they focus on the rape, murder, slavery, etc. featured in their "good book".
While I love the idea, do most people who call themselves Christian actually read the Bible? And those that do are likely too hardcore to be swayed by anything, and they either carry around their own Bible or use an app.
It might help someone curious, though. Hell, just trying to read the Bible cover to cover as a teen was enough to put me off for good.
Just write "Samuel 15:3" on the cover.
Please don't call it privilege. They are/were the majority where this hotel seems to be located. I can assure you you won't find a christian bible in a hotel in the UAE but you will find something else...
I know you mean the Quran but in Islamic countries I've mostly only seen a little sticker in the hotel bed drawer pointing in the direction you should pray.
Not just Islamic countries. Many US hotel chains have this too. Or if they are more discreet about it, it's a needle pointing north in every room.
Please don’t call it privilege. They are/were the majority where this hotel seems to be located
in other words: they have privilege where this hotel seems to be located, along with millions of others, but admitting being Christian is a privilege makes me uncomfortable (because I am, or was one, and still enjoy said privilege), so please don't say things as they are.
Whatever dude. I'm against the use of a victimising term in defence of atheism. We just don't need that. We fight religion with reason and the scientific method, we don't need to victimise anyone in the process. Also, my point was not that things must remain as they are. Is that some things are habits, are customary acts from the place/region you're from. Some hotels will have a small bottle of milk in the fridge but not coffee, only tea, because their custom might be that they prefer english tea over coffee. Some places will have water instead of milk because they see cows as sacred. Só many examples that you'd find very peculiar if you travel around the world. So no, is not privilege. Most of this (before mentioned) hotel guests are from around the area and they generally pray with the Christian bible before they go to sleep. The hotel business is just catering to their customers. Want to make a big deal of it, fine but don't make a fuss if you get some criticism back at ya.
I guess their point was that it's not a particularly unfair privilege. E.g. imagine if everyone was Christian, would it be a privilege? What if only one person wasn't Christian? And so on...
Just use them as toilet paper
Use them as rolling papers for your joints.
Holy rollers
And don't tear the pages out but leave them in and return the Bible back instead
Wtf, how is this any sort of privilege? A religious order offers them, so I don’t pay, nor does the hotel, and I have no reason to use it or to benefit from it. As a Christian, I ignore its existence, just like any other hotel functionality I don’t use. I have a feeling they’re there less frequently but I wouldn’t know since I don’t look for them. If there were some other religious book, I also don’t see why it would affect me, and I likely wouldn’t even notice.
How does someone get worked up about this?
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I usually vandalize them in way way or another. The book that is.
Same lol.
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It’s very dependent on the region. Where I live hotels either have nothing or both Christian bible and The Book of Mormon (with huge majority having nothing - just two chains having anything). IMO this is not an example of Christian privilege.
I'm too lazy to get offended by this but imagine if someone put any other violence-filled book in a hotel room. Unwind by Neal Shusterman anyone? How bout that war novel where there was a graphic skinning scene?
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