Bibles In Hotels (hell, Satan, God, Christians, Christ)

[Fish-Hunter]

Originally Posted by Hexaqua_David(II)

I've never seen a Bible in a hotel! Are they just lying about on the floor or something? I've certainly never spotted one in any British hotels. While in the Lake District I did find a Wordsworth book in a draw though. That was better than any Bible!

The Gideon ministry is based in the United States. The Bibles are kept in the night stand, next to the bed. I believe the Gideon is also international too.

[Draka]

AAck...I didn't place them! I had nothing to do with it. My family had nothing to do with it.

[ChristineES]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

Whenever I go to the doctor's office, I always take a book. My doctor doesn't even have sports magazines, unless you call golf a sport.

I always bring a book, too. The magazines are usually very out of date. I once found a magazine in an office from 1974 (I kid you not)!! I don't mind news magazines but I am not interested in sports, including golf.

[Papersock]

I found a book on Buddhism in a hotel room in New York.

[3.14]

nothing says fast fix like a bible under the leg of a table that a guest sawed off in a drunken mood.
used to work in a hotel happend 3 times in the 4 months i worked there, (still don't get where they got the saws)

[Draka]

I rarely need a magazine at my doctor's office. I know he has some, but I'm never in the waiting room long enough to really pick one up and get interested in an article. I think I've only done that once.

[Runt]

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

Depends where you stay, of course. I used to stay at the Motel 6 years ago when they didn't even have a phone in the room, and you had to pay 75 cents a night for the key to turn on the black and white television.

But hotel rooms often have porn available, for a price.

Now that's service! And it goes so well with the *cough* similarly-themed "sleepsuits" some hotels are apparently giving out now!

[Fish-Hunter]

I haven't stayed in a Motel 6 for a long time. But I bet you will find a Gideon Bible there.

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Originally Posted by Starfish

I can imagine that if it did that for one person, then they would feel all those Bibles were worth it.

They can do what they want, I suppose, but I think even from a Christian perspective, their energy and resources might have been better spent getting textbooks into the hands of people who don't have them than Bibles.

Originally Posted by Mestemia

I agree.

Something I find rather annoying are the one who complain about the Bible being there at all.
It isn't like there is someone in their room forcing them to read it at gun point.

So what's your feeling about the Abimelech Society (which I'm still not sure is an actual thing and not just someone's wishful thinking)?

Originally Posted by ChristineES

There are magazines in doctors' offices, I wonder if they were put there to promote the media.

If the magazines were put there by the publisher's representatives in the hope of getting people to subscribe, then I'd say they were.

Originally Posted by MidnightBlue

Whenever I go to the doctor's office, I always take a book. My doctor doesn't even have sports magazines, unless you call golf a sport.

It certainly is not. Golf may be a game and it may be "a good walk spoiled" (to quote Churchill, IIRC), but it is definitely not a sport.

[Scott1]

The Gideons (www.gideons.org), formed in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin, are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States with 130,000 members located in more than 170 countries.
In the early days, most of the Gideons were traveling salesmen who wanted to be effecitve Christian witnesses while on the road. They decided to place a Bible at the reception desk in each hotel they frequented so patrons could borrow it. The Bible also served as a silent witness in these hotels after the Gideons had checked out. Today, the Gideons place more than 45,000,000 bibles annually in prisons, hospitals, military bases and, of course, hotel rooms.

But if you want to know who started the phenomenon of placing Bibles in hotel rooms, the credit goes to the International Bible Society (God And Politics - Gospel.com - Christian resources from over 300 ministries).

Founded in 1809 in New York, the International Bible Society is one of the leading publishers of ethnic scriptures, publishing Bibles in more than 350 languages (the 1810 Bengali translation is still in use in India). The IBS provided Bibles to Civil War soldiers, and, according to communications coordinator Stephanie Nelson, started putting Bibles in hotels in 1823 -- more than 75 years before the Gideons started their ministry.

The Straight Dope Mailbag: Why is there a Bible in every hotel room?