Author Topic: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms  (Read 8922 times)

Man of Steel

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Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« on: May 12, 2016, 09:39:40 AM »
Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms, Want Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' Instead

http://www.christianpost.com/news/atheists-bible-gideons-hotel-rooms-freedom-from-religion-darwins-origin-of-species-152094/

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, America's largest association of atheists and agnostics, began a campaign Monday to rid all hotel rooms of Bibles distributed by The Gideons International and replaced with copies of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species."

The Gideons International is well known worldwide for their work with hotels but according to their website, they predominantly share Scriptures in schools and colleges, prisons and jails, hospitals, and medical offices. The group is also an association of Christian business and professional men and their wives dedicated to telling people about Jesus through sharing personally and by providing Bibles and New Testaments.

In a release Monday, however, the FFRF charged that Gideons International was "exploiting hotels and motels to proselytize a captive audience," and informed the American Hotel and Motel Association that they wanted the Bibles removed.

The FFRF also sent letters to a number of companies, including Wyndham Worldwide, Intercontinental Hotel Groups (Holiday Inn), Choice Hotels International (Quality Inn), Hilton Worldwide, G6 Hospitality (Motel 6), Marriott International, Best Western, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (Radisson, Carlson, Country Inn) and Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Sheraton).

"Those who must read the Bible every day will surely take precautions to travel with their own copies. The rest of us deserve a break from mindless evangelizing when we are on vacation," wrote FFRF's Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor on behalf of the organization's 23,000 nonreligious members.

"Many of your guests are freethinkers — atheists, agnostics, skeptics or 'nones' — who are deeply offended to be charged high fees only to be proselytized in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Not only that, the Bible calls for killing nonbelievers, apostates, gays, 'stubborn sons' and women who transgress biblical double standards," they added.

The organization said Gansevoort Hotel Groups provides them with a friendlier environment because that company only provides Bibles upon request. A number of boutique hotels also do not offer Bibles as standard practice.

The U.K.'s Travelodge removed copies of the Bible from its hotel rooms in 2007 to make guests who don't subscribe to Christianity more comfortable.

"Travelodge made the decision to move copies of the Bible from its hotel rooms and place them at reception for customers to borrow in 2007. This decision was based on customer research and the fact that we live in a multicultural society," said a statement from Travelodge to TheBlaze. "Therefore in order not to discriminate against any religion, customers who would like a Bible can pick a copy from any one of Travelodge's 500 hotel reception desks across the country, whilst staying at the hotel."

The FFRF said the 15 companies they contacted about the removal of the Bibles are responsible for more than 33,000 hotels in the U.S. and more than 4.1 million rooms internationally.





Of course it's a "Dan Barker" initiative....atheist extraordinaire!  I've listened to him debate a few times....not a bad man but no love for religion anymore.  Me personally, I don't care if they put Darwin's book in there also, but they have to be able to cite the full title of Darwin's book LOL!!


Dawkins can't remember full title of Darwin's book and when can't remember exclaims "Oh God!"  ;D

Skeletor

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2016, 12:14:45 PM »
Why have either a bible or Darwin's book in a hotel room?

Raymondo

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2016, 01:10:24 PM »
Why have either a bible or Darwin's book in a hotel room?

x2

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2016, 02:24:15 PM »
Good grief.  Paranoid anti-religious extremists taking it to another level. 

Man of Steel

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2016, 02:52:21 PM »
Why Are There Gideon Bibles in Hotel Rooms?

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30241/why-are-there-gideon-bibles-hotel-rooms


Because the Gideons put them there! The Gideon Bible is not some special version or translation of the Bible that hotels really like (the books are usually plain old King James Versions); they're named for the group that distributes them.

Gideons International got its start in 1898, when two traveling businessmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, arrived at the crowded Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin, for the night.

The two had never met, but there was only one double room left, so they decided to share it. The men got to talking and found they shared a common faith and had both toyed with the idea of creating an evangelical association for Christian businessmen.

They decided to give it a shot together. They called a meeting the following year for men who were interested in joining together for “mutual recognition, personal evangelism, and united service for the Lord.” Only one other person showed up to that meeting—William J. Knights, who suggested they name their organization after Gideon, an Old Testament judge who led a small band of men to defeat a much larger army.

As the group expanded in its first few years, most of the new members were men who frequently traveled for work and spent many of their nights in hotel rooms. They wondered how they might be more effective witnesses for Christ on the road, and hit upon the idea of providing Bibles to hotels. They could be used not only by the Gideons’ members as they traveled around the country, but also borrowed by other guests in need of them. They started with the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana, then set out to put a Bible in every hotel room in America. Since 1908, they’ve distributed more than 1.7 billion Bibles, expanding beyond the U.S. to more than 190 other countries.

PASSING THEM OUT

The Gideons don’t go room to room themselves, slipping the books in nightstands like Bible elves. When a hotel opens, local Gideons members will present a Bible to the hotel's general manager in a small ceremony and then give enough books for each room and some extras to the housekeeping staff for distribution. In addition to hotel rooms, the Gideons also give Bibles to military bases, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and to students on college campuses.

Each Bible handed out is free of charge, and the project is funded entirely by donations to the group. The Gideons will also replace any books that go missing or get worn out, and the group says that the books have a six-year life expectancy, on average. They don’t get bent out of shape when people ignore the “thou shalt not steal” rule when it comes to the Bibles, either. They’d rather you just take the book if you need it that badly.

Based on the success of the Gideons’ Bible project -- the group’s own statistics claim 25% of the people who check into a hotel room will read the Bible placed there -- other religious groups have begun distributing their own free literature to hotels. The Marriott hotel chain, founded by a Mormon, places the The Book of Mormon in many of its rooms, and many hotels also offer Buddhist, Hindu, Christian Scientist or Scientologist books along with the standard Gideon Bible.

Man of Steel

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2016, 03:15:43 PM »
among other things the bible is a fantastic story plenty of violence, kinky sex, betrayal and general debauchery and has some handy quotes to prevent many an asshole ever realising how pompous they can be when quoting it

Give me an example of this correlation.

Agnostic007

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Re: Atheists Call for 'Bible-Free' Hotel Rooms
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2018, 11:02:54 PM »
Give me an example of this correlation.

Don't play stupid