It irks me.It doesn’t hurt me, and it doesn’t cost me anything. It just irks me when hotels assume their patrons are Christian (or Mormon) and leave their god texts in the hotel rooms. It makes me feel — solidly second-class.The Borgata is equal-opportunity, and provides all sorts of religious reference materials on request, at the front desk, but nobody is assumed to be anything. I stay there when I can for that reason alone.Now this, from American Family Ass.
Parent company Accor Hotels decided to replace the Gideon Bibles with “intimacy kits.” For Accor, providing travelers with sexual paraphernalia is more important than the Bible. Accor Hotels owns several chains including: Motel 6, Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap, Formule 1. While these chains are mostly located in Europe, Accor is expanding to many U.S. markets.
http://www.afa.net/emails/transform.asp?x=hotels_111407&m=11&y=2007&s=browserTalk it up. What do you think of Bibles in hotels. Should we try to help the trend? But how?
Woo Hoo!
I just went to the AFA site. They are offering a DVD that explains how Homosexuals are taking over towns. Places that used to have thriving Christianity paraphernalia businesses. They are getting democratically elected and that doesn’t sit well with the AFA.
It’s called They’re Coming to Your Town. Silly theists. Trust me, they are already in your towns and churches. There’s even a trailer there to laugh and cry over.
Suggested donation is only $15. I hope some of our resident LGBT types look into this. Not just for the laughs, but as a how-to inspiration to do the same. Wonder how little they’d let the DVD go for.
No excuse to complain about politicians anymore. Be one or support one. You don’t even have to come out of the closet. In my opinion, stealth works too, as long as you don’t lie by currying votes with homophobic statements.
And yes I have voted successfully for a fabulous candidate, in spite of not liking his party. Got re-elected a couple of times, too.
Nothing scares the mindless sheep into handing over their dollars like the threat of queers infiltrating the schools and other institutions and recruiting their precious little heterosexual darlings (as if recruitment works) into our deviant and godless “lifestyle” of sodomy.
what do you guys not understand about private property.the hotel is a private enterprise if they want to place bibles in every room it is their right.those bibles are hotel property and you have no right to take it or destroy it.
btw
the hotels assume most customers are some kind of christian because drum roll here most americans are.you are not some kind of 2nd class citizen because a private business caters to its largest customer group.
reason – It’s not just catering to a group of customers, it’s insulting another group. Do Christians need Bibles so urgently that they’re willing to insult non-Christians in order to get them? If so, I’d say not enough Christians go to church. That only means some churches should close up.
Now the secular hotels are catering to what appears to be the majority – non-religious people, and religious people who don’t need a hotel to provide them religious literature. Sheesh…
Why don’t we start our own version of an organization like the Gideons? We could call ourselves the Ingersolls, the Russells, or otherwise name ourselves after a well-known Atheist (and a better role model than Gideon!) and leave Atheist literature, such as the non-tracts available from ffrf.org or our own material that points out the errors/inconsistencies in the Bible, in hotel rooms? The Gideons encourage men who travel a lot or stay in hotels a lot to join their organization; why can’t we do the same (and include women too)? Instead of merely “recycling” the Bible, why not contribute our own material, agreeing to leave those Bibles alone as long as our pamphlets are left alone too? Am I being too optimistic here? I don’t stay in hotels often, but from now on I’m leaving some good Atheist literature behind when I do.
An older friend of mine in Florida has a rubber stamp with a quote by Thomas Paine which he stamps into hotel Bibles but like me he doesn’t remove or destroy them. I am planning on having such a rubber stamp made or ordering some of the stickers from FFRF. Really the Bibles don’t offend me tucked away in a drawer, but I would like to put stamps or stickers on them.
I’m with reason on this one. Nobody gets bitchy because the Mexican restaurant down the street doesn’t sell sushi.
Substitute your own two favorite non overlapping cuisines for a personal metaphor.
This is still the land of pseudo capitalism, voice your displeasure with your wallet.
Personally I think it’s insulting that these intimacy kits are provided.
I couldn’t get laid in a monkey whore house with a bag full of bananas.
I like to read mythology and science fiction. I don’t mind those bibles when in a hotel room. Actually it brings good memories of the seventies when we use to roll joins using the fine bible onion paper… and it was for free.
There are fewer hotel/motel chains putting out bibles these days, simple economics. That’s why you’ll not see bibles at restaurant chains. They want to sell food, not attract controversy.
Warning stickers are great but a hi-lite is I think much more effective. Hi-lite a bible at home and take it with you to exchange with the one in the room for future use. Put a couple colored post-it notes to catch attention. If there’s no bible in the room then you have delivered a giddy-up bible. You can pick up bibles at thrift shops or goodwill for 50 cents.
I have noticed religious tracts in doctors offices but I think devout patients are leaving them. When I saw a bible at my proctologists office with his name stamped inside I stopped going to the asshole.
Haha – you called your proctologist an asshole. That’s funny
When I go to a hotel with my wife I should consider reading the bible as there is sex, drugs, cheating and lies. Then I won’t have to convince my wife to watch porn
The Bible.It contains little of interest. It has some poetry in it; and some clever fables; blood-drenched history; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies. — Mark Twain
Yep,that about sums it up!!!!!
And at the same time, he stopped going to yours, right?
I kill me.
I guess this is like “Merry Christmas” in dept. stores. “Happy Holidays” is more inclusive, more friendly, and should reach a wider demographic. Trouble is, a petty fraction of one demographic has so much disdain for the others that they pitch a fit and twist the whole thing around to try to turn clients away, until they get their special treatment restored.
What can the businesses do? Their goal is to have MANY customers, not to have NICE ones. I guess they’ll have to keep pretending they actually like the fundamentalist brats in order to take their money (just like the GOP does), and that’s that.
reason
Are the buybulls the property of the hotel? If somebody leaves their dirty underwear in my room am I required by law to leave it there?
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Polygamous sects that have spread throughout the United States and beyond are “a form of organized crime,” largely unchecked by law enforcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
When I pay for a motel room while travelling, all I want is a place to sleep during the night and shower in the morning. I’m not paying them to proselytize me. Therefore, if a room has a Gideon’s bible, I remove it and leave freethought literature in its place. If I decide to throw it away, I take it to an outside trash can or dumpster. Sometimes, I’ll keep it; the pages make good fireplace kindling, bird cage liner, etc. For reference, I highlighted some of the more violent passages (Numbers 31, for example) in one of them. Any other suggestions?
I once spent the night in Van Horn, Texas (I’m not proud of it, I was tired). The bible in that motel room had an FFRF Gideon sticker on it, but it had been mostly torn off so that only those who know about the sticker would know what it is. Such stickers might seem like a good idea, but if some Christian objects, it won’t last.
Has anyone else been in a room that has something other than a Gideon’s bible? When I stopped in a small town off I-40 in eastern Arkansas, that motel room had a copy of the Christian Science holy book Science & Health.
The intimacy kits would also do some good in Latin American countries that are Catholic controlled. I’d rather the motel sell them at the desk than add the cost to every room.
So long as they’re keeping bibles out of their rooms, I think the Accor chain deserves our financial support. I’ll be seeking their motels when travelling. If Christians need to read a bible so that they can experience the desired nightmares, let them bring their own.
Phreedm said:
But when the United States was founded neither the hotels nor the bibles were there. If you’re going to use the Gideon bibles in hotel rooms as evidence for saying we have a Christian nation then you have a problem.
I’m with Reason on this one. Nobody should be removing stuff from hotel rooms unless it really wasn’t meant to be there in the first place.
If I tear down the curtains because they’re ugly and I don’t agree with them, should I be able to get away with that? Can I justify that by saying that I didn’t want the curtains there in the first place?
From what I’ve heard, the Bibles are donated by whomever and are the property of the hotel. They’re not free for the taking unless it explicitly says that somewhere.
On the other hand, putting post-it notes in there pointing out errors is a great idea. That doesn’t damage the books. The same could be said of hiding anti-religious tracts (can we call them Jack Manly tracts?) in between the first couple of pages.
The United States was also founded on slavery as well, does that mean that we should we put slaves in every room too?
Religion is no more a part of the constitution than is slavery, making women do all of the housework, or abusing the poor.
On the topic, I was amused by the comment Cynic made a few days back about bibles in hotel rooms:
If they end up in the trash can or otherwise destroyed then there is nobody to observe the rude gesture (and it is meaningless). Tossing them into the hallway roughly enough to leave the battered piece of crap for someone else to find, that’s just priceless. It sends a message: This country does not belong to you alone. Keep your preaching in your churches where people came to hear it.
The bibles are donated free of charge to the hotels by the Gideons and as such it is not legally or morally wrong to do what you wish with this unsolicited and unwanted literature. Just dont steal the towels which are hotel property.
Alatham
You appear to be suggesting that the giddy buybulls are hotel property. I have found no legal precedence or case ruling that says they are. Maybe there is such a ruling but I have not found it.
Comment from: alexatheist
Wow…
Why do blacks get to use the word nigger when talking about each other…?
Why do gays get to use the word queer when talking about each other?
Seems to me if a word is so offensive to the group it’s used to describe, then even that group wouldn’t use it…
Thanks Alex…I’ll use the word “queer” from here on out…
I’m sure you’ll sit quietly by and listen…
Hmmm…”What do I know”…
That was a tongue in cheek comment…
Comment from: VegeBrain
Duh…
However, the bibles were used in EVERY court in early America…
Vege
And don’t forget that air was breathed in every court in early America.
Yah, and slaves outside every court, as well.