British hotel tosses out Bibles

by **Liv** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 3:29 am

I'm still perplexed by the practice considering what year it is. Of course they were all there on my latest cross country trip across America. My first reaction is to write glib messages within the covers, but ultimately my caring rational mind wins out and I decide that it may give someone else comfort, while they're watching their naughties and gunking up the remote buttons. I decide my time is better suited swimming in the cesspool of salt-water known as the hotel pool. I miss my chlorine, I'm not on-board with this salt thing. I want some chemicals between me and sticky fingers bible beaters.

So this caught my interest. The Damsen Dene Hotel has removed the bible and replaced it with a top seller. If only they would have put Sheep Under the Sea in the nightstand. Personally, I love this idea! A bookshelf of books in a hotel? Fabulous! Please for the love of God let me find a place like this to work when I finish my degree, rather than a business that shoves a Bible under peoples' pillows.

by **Atheist Titan** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 5:35 am

Give it up Gideons..... people go to hotels to F**k, not to read your 'Book of Lies'.....................

by **SouthernFriedInfidel** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:18 am

I may have mentioned this before. When I went to Hawaii once some years ago, and actually stayed in hotels there (been there 3 times, only did hotels once), we found some rather interesting material in our room's night stands. There was a Gideon Bible, a Book-o-Mormon and The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha. All things considered, I thought that was pretty cool...

:whistle:

by **Liv** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:17 pm

I don't know, but not everyone is in need of spiritual healing in a hotel room. There are these things called churches for that. A little Dickens or Austen would be my preference.

by **SouthernFriedInfidel** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:22 pm

Liv wrote:I don't know, but not everyone is in need of spiritual healing in a hotel room. There are these things called churches for that. A little Dickens or Austen would be my preference.

Yeah, well there are LIBRARIES for that, yes? :mrgreen:

by **Liv** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:38 pm

True. Besides probably short novelettes would be ideal, unless it's like a long-stay hotel.

by **A Person** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:01 pm

It's something I've seen in several motels. A bookcase of paperbacks and a request to borrow, swap or donate books. It's better than nothing, but the books tend to be predictably bad. (I wouldn't want to leave a good book either)

by **Liv** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:33 pm

Hmmm this gives me an idea....

by **SouthernFriedInfidel** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:10 pm

Reasoning that in an increasingly secular world, Bibles in the hotel nightstand are rather anachronistic, a hotel in Britain's Lake District has gotten rid of them. So far, so good. But the fun part of this is what happened next.

The owner wanted to put SOME sort of reading material in the rooms, so they decided to go with "Fifty Shades of Grey." Yeah... replace a book of sick sexual violence with a more modern ... book of sexual violence. Good call.

Of course, there have been objections.

From Americans, who apparently WANTED to go read Bibles in a bloody hotel in the Lake District, but now they can't. Fer real??

And then there's the local parish minister that's upset over the lack of Biblical access, but that's hardly surprising.

Sometimes, you just gotta wonder about people. :think:

by **Liv** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:07 pm

I was having a bit of deja vu till I realized this was the same hotel from the thread previously in the week.

LOL.

I actually looked up yesterday if you could take the bibles from hotels. I didn't know if it was a "take-one-need one", policy, but apparently according to the Gideons, they'd like you to leave them in the hotel, and call them where they'll try to help you get one, rather than taking the one in the room.

This puts an interesting perspective out. If it's not about mass-delivery of bibles to people, then aren't you likely trying to only influence motel goers?

Sort of kaboshes my whole, replace it with a better book plan.

by **SouthernFriedInfidel** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:15 pm

Saw one comment on the story I read about this. Someone saids that the reason the Bibles are there is because a lot of people go to hotels to commit suicide, and the hotels think having a Bible in the nightstand would help change some minds on that.

I responded that you'd think putting an ad in the drawer giving the number of a suicide hotline would be more effective in that regard. I mean, imagine some gay teenager, tired to death of being bullied in high school, going to a hotel, opening up a Bible "for comfort" and just happening to start reading in Leviticus...