h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know why every hotel room everywhere has a Bible in it?

In this day and age I find it unlikely that every hotel-keeper is both that religious and that interested in saving their clients' souls. Presumably there must be something more fundamental in the underlying aspects of the industry.

I was under the impression it was a US thing. Do you find bibles in hotels in Germany or Japan? Are the bibles not usually donated by religious groups, rather than being supplied by the hotel?

They're supplied free by the Gideon Society.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideons_International

How annoying.

Do you think any of those have actually managed to convert anyone? I expect the vast majority of people don't even look at them.

>>Do you think any of those have actually managed to convert anyone?

I expect that level of promotion will inevitably have a consequence; if someone is stuck in a room with a bible, there's a possibility they might actually read it.

that happens with gossip magazines at the dentist surgery.

at least the Bible can be read as fiction.


it doesn´t happen in Spain.

"at least the Bible can be read as fiction."[Maria]

I agree. Plus, the Bible has so much material that has been adapted for other works over the centuries. It might be fun just to check certain passages to see how much nonsense has been added to the original. Thomas Jefferson, who was a Deist, separated out everything that Jesus said, and printed it as a little pamphlet. I guess Jefferson respected Jesus, but thought everything else in the Gospels was just speculation.

And, no, I doubt that anyone would read the Bible and be converted. We're not talking about something that most people have never been exposed to before. The ones who were likely to be converted have already been converted.

It's also a matter of timing. You want to expose people to the bible when they are stressed out or grieving. Much better conversion rate then.

I'm surprised the bible hasn't been banned from hotels, since it contains such inflammatory material.

Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”

On a related note, isn't it a bit pretentious when people quote from the bible and and give the chapter and verse, as if that someone makes their point more valid?

No, it's always good to back up what you say with references.

I agree that it's pretentious, but that's not the biggest problem with doing so. The Bible reveals people doing all sorts of things that were bad ideas then, and would be even worse ideas now. For the last few thousand years, the collective efforts of the human race have brought us closer to true enlightenment, but we're supposed to listen to the "wisdom" of people who had no clue about much of anything? Mendelssohn's "Elijah" is a great piece of music, but I cringe at the idea that God withholds rain because someone has sinned. .

I was at first surprised when I found no Gideon Bible
in my room in Cuba a few weeks ago. Then I remembered
that religion does not exist in secular communist countries.
Neither do hygiene, alcoholism, cheap transportation, fashion,
fun, free speech... but there are still a lot of old Churches.

~jwf~

>>No, it's always good to back up what you say with references.

Absolutely, but while I've no doubt they think they're being terribly elevated with their quotes, to me they might as well have said:

"On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry." The Very Hungry Caterpillar 5:4

They're not there to try to convert people, but to provide comfort to those who might wish to read it. Lots of people do carry a religious text around.

Yes, I've been in a hotel room when I was stressed and grieving, so I looked at the Gideon Bible there and it was interesting as it had a contents page for particular situations, eg lonely, stressed, grieving, and then it referenced pages people might like to read. As I recall, it was only the New Testament.

It was interesting to see what had been picked out as comforting for different things, but it didn't give me the need to refer to it more than once, so that was that - at least I learned something about the book itself.

I had a spare moment in a hotel once and 'appened upon the Gideon in the cupboard. I thought I'd give it a look. I expected all nice touchy feely stuff about helping your fellow man, but the bit I picked had stuff about sacrificing lambs. Not what I expected at all.

"Sacrificing lambs?

Don't let Shari Lewis* see that!





*Shari Lewis was a multi-talented woman who became famous for a puppet named Lamb Chop. She also sang and danced, most notably with a life-sized Fred Astaire puppet who danced with her. Very clever!

SashaQ is correct. It is only the New Testament. When I was at Junior school, in the late 1960'2, we were all given a copy. Except the JW.

I hadn't realised they come in different colour covers, or the extent of their distribution.

No idea who covers the costs.

https://www.gideons.org.uk/about_the_bible

MMF

It appears they don't do too badly.

At least the money is used for <peacedove) purposes.

http://www.gideons.org/HowYouCanHelp/financial_statements.aspx

MMF

When In was growing up, the King James version was the one most frequently used. The language is kind of flowery, but it kind of drives home the idea that these things happened a very long time ago. If you're the sort of person who likes history or tradition, this can be a comfort.