AS someone who has frequently complained to hotel managers about Gideons Bibles in the rooms I have occupied – “remove it now, or I will clog up the bog with the thing” usually did the trick – I was delighted to learn today that the American Civil Liberties Union has warned a school district in Ohio that it will take legal action if administrators don’t stop Christian busybodies from handing the Bibles to students during class time.
Fifth grade students at Findlay’s five elementary schools in March were allowed to leave class and escorted to sidewalks where they were given a Gideon Bible.
“The school crossed the line,” said Carrie Davis, an ACLU attorney.
The district’s school board is now reviewing its policies on the distribution of materials from community groups, said Findlay Superintendent Dean Wittwer. “The Bible handout has been going on for years,” he said.
Gideons International is a group of Christian men who give out Bibles to students, prisoners, soldiers and others. It says it has distributed 1.3 billion Scriptures worldwide since 1908.
Christine Link, executive director of the ACLU of Ohio, said that students and parents who want information about a particular religion should do it outside of school time.
The school cannot be involved in sacrificing classroom time to help them hand out the Bibles.
Things have changed since the days I was compelled to complain about hotel Bibles. Many hotels have now ditched them, fearing that their presence might lead to demands that other “holy” books be placed in or on bedside cabinets. So it would seem that purveyors of the Bibles are now targeting children.
The decline of the hotel Bible was roundly condemned by Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of the Christian Radio show, the Albert Mohler Programme.
This is sad, but it is also a sign of the times. Gladly, not all chains and hotels have followed this example. The fact is that many persons have come to faith in Jesus Christ by reading a Bible supplied to their hotel room by the Gideons. Many others have turned to the Bible when in crisis. Some have even decided against suicide when they read from the Gideon’s Bible. Are they now to look for salvation and solace from an iPod docking station or a goldfish?
The iPod and goldfish references were gleaned from an article in Newsweek:
In the rooms of Manhattan’s trendy Soho Grand Hotel guests can enjoy an eclectic selection of underground music, iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and even the living company of a complimentary goldfish. But, alas, the word of God is nowhere to be found. Unlike traditional hotels, the 10-year-old boutique has never put Bibles in its guest rooms, because ’society evolves’, says hotel spokeswoman Lori DeBlois. Providing Bibles would mean the hotel ‘would have to take care of every guest’s belief’.
What might be surprising to many Americans is that the Bible-free room isn’t a development just in hip New York City hotels. Across the country upscale accommodations are doing away with the Bible as a standard room amenity. And in its stead have arrived a slew of “lifestyle” products that cater to a younger, hipper (and presumably less religious) clientele. Since 2001 the number of luxury hotels with religious materials in the rooms has dropped by 18 percent, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
The Nashville-based Gideons International, which has distributed copies of the Christian scripture to hotels since 1908, declined to comment on this trend.
11 Comments
The Gideons handed out copies of the New Testament in my school, but then it was a christian school. More time off lessons, didn’t complain.
Maybe they could put a podcast of the bible out to be downloaded on those ipod docking stations? Wonder who they’d get to play god? unfortuntaley Barry White is dead…
OK so if the Gidieon bible is to stay in hotel rooms lets demard a copy of “the god Delusion” or perhaps “God is not great” to sit beside it
Or better yet, how about copies of “the zombie survival guide” by max brooks in hotel rooms
I would not rejoice too long regarding your article on the Bible. This article on atheism is ranked #11th for atheism at Google UK and soon it will be #5 like it is at Google USA.
“Maybe they could put a podcast of the bible out to be downloaded on those ipod docking stations? Wonder who they’d get to play god? unfortuntaley Barry White is dead…”
Eddie Izzard should play God! He usually does it by imitating either Shaun Connery or James Mason.
Do people who think the Bible is suitable reading for kids actually ever read the damn book? You’re as likely to becme a serial killer as a saint if you dip into the thing at random. As kids are wont to do, looking for dirty bits. If memory serves.
I always look for the Gideon Bible in my hotel room because I love reading the stories. There’s nothing better than the Joseph and his brothers story. You don’t have to believe it, just enjoy it as literature. If we didn’t have that story we wouldn’t have had Thomas Mann’s great “Joseph and his Brothers” and that would have been a great loss.
The trouble is that these days, if you have a bible in a room then someone will want to put a Koran there too. Now that would be the end. That would be when I would object.
A true “free thinker” would say, “live and let live”.
Remember that ‘1001 Uses for a Dead Cat’ book that spawned a few spin-offs?
How about ‘1001 Other Uses for a Bible’ (Koran….I Ching….. whatever?
Got to be easy to put out via a mag or website for ideas, then print off & flog for a suitable cause?
If nothing else, I’d love to hear what’s the wierdest alternative use anyone’s had for a Gideon Bible. Worked in hotels years back and seen a few myself!
Have you tried returning the bibles to the front desk? Guaranteed amusement every time. Employees will usually give you a perplexed look - it’s priceless…
I’ve always been offended to find the damn thing. Nothing like a bible to get people into a xenophobic genocidal rage.
And, yes, it’s not suitable reading for children. Check the story of Lot, that’s my favorite.
Anyone ever consider how drunk one must be to fail to recognize one’s own daughter? Anyone think a man could perform sexually in such a state?
But, Lot is alleged to have screwed his two daughters on successive nights. These are the same two daughters he was going to sell into sexual slavery to the entire city for a few minutes of peace and quiet with the messengers from god.
Here’s someone worthy of salvation from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, right?
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