To arms
They're silent. They're inconspicuous. No one suspects anything, but they're invading our nation's hotels. In every room, they have annexed a drawer. What are they? Gideons Bibles.
I ventured to a Holiday Inn in Pennsylvania this week. Inside the drawer next to my bed was one of these tomes which. according to The Gideons International, is "Dedicated to Bible distribution and evangelism". I guess those Evangelicals aren't happy now that they have control of our government.
A previous resident of the room I was in had left a note inside the bible, reading "This book is worth reading!" When I looked at that note, I had an idea: If The Gideons can put bibles in hotel rooms, then we can take them away. I soon stuffed this copy in my pack.
I would like to encourage all atheists on the blogosphere to do the same. Every time you stay at a hotel, and there is a Gideons Bible in your drawer, take it out. Remove it from the hotel and from the public.
Of course, I still don't know what to do with them once I return home, so I'll need your ideas. For the time being, I'll just dedicate one of my empty drawers to store them.
Remember this next time you travel.
I ventured to a Holiday Inn in Pennsylvania this week. Inside the drawer next to my bed was one of these tomes which. according to The Gideons International, is "Dedicated to Bible distribution and evangelism". I guess those Evangelicals aren't happy now that they have control of our government.
A previous resident of the room I was in had left a note inside the bible, reading "This book is worth reading!" When I looked at that note, I had an idea: If The Gideons can put bibles in hotel rooms, then we can take them away. I soon stuffed this copy in my pack.
I would like to encourage all atheists on the blogosphere to do the same. Every time you stay at a hotel, and there is a Gideons Bible in your drawer, take it out. Remove it from the hotel and from the public.
Of course, I still don't know what to do with them once I return home, so I'll need your ideas. For the time being, I'll just dedicate one of my empty drawers to store them.
Remember this next time you travel.
This rant brought to you by seth at 7:31 PM has:
29 Comments:
Though I can't be absolutely certain, I beleive that's called stealing. It's important to some people, if u disagree, log a complaint, though it probably won't be recognized. A new thought, perhaps you leave a document behind proving that the bible is wrong, if some guy could leave a note, why can't u?
That's such an awesome idea, but the bibles are provided by the hotel and therefore you are stealing. I agree - leave a note, but make it funny.
What would be seriously awesome would be to get a bunch of fake joke-bibles printed up, and then replace the ones in the hotel with your own fake ones.
...no, Gideons distributes them.
Burn it. And remove the devil from within.
ha thats awesome. i always see bibles in hotels and im like wow who reads bibles on vacation. im definetly a robber so i shall steal one hehe.
-ZOE
PS when does daytime close in the day? because i need to go in
I agree with everyone - it's stealing. Create a petition or something. Leave a note. Complain to the hotel, saying that you feel you are being discriminated against, and to respect all religions (including atheism), they should not allow any bibles of any kind in the hotel rooms (provided by the hotel I mean).
But it is a funny idea.
~Mia
Except it's not stealing. Did you read Gideons' web site? They put the Bibles in the hotel rooms. The hotels don't.
And Zoe, it's now closed. I was the last out. Go in tomorrow between 8 and 12.
Btw, Prov has a list of what teams Daytime people are on I'm on Green. Anything advice, Max?
Remove the Gideon Bibles? Heck no. If I do that what will I use for toilet paper? I can't use the stuff they put next to the toilet, it'll tear you up.
I prefer Leviticus for average wiping.
It is still stealing. So change the petition or complaint or whatever to telling them to get rid of these bibles - to do whatever they do with anything else just left in a hotel room. Like, do the same thing with these bibles that they would with my copy of Pride and Prejudice if I left it there. Because the hotels allow these bibles to remain in the rooms, it is their problem to physically get rid of them. It is our problem to get them to do it.
~Mia
Eh, I disagree that it's stealing. The hotel did not pay for the Bible, somebody just left it there. It's not their property. If somebody dropped a banana in your yard, would you mind if someone passing by later picked it up?
It's my responsiblity to pick up that banana. And that's a bad analogy because there are thousands of these bibles in every single hotel room. Have you ever stayed in a hotel that doesn't have a bible?? I don't care if it's a Gideon thing or whatever. The maids go through the rooms after people stay in them. They would notice if a bible just showed up. I wouldn't neccesarily notice the banana before someone else did. Because the hotel knew that the bible is there and they chose to do nothing about it, it becomes their property (I bet there's something in contracts and stuff that says if you leave something in a hotel room after check-out, they have the right to keep it - especially in this case because the people who left the bible wanted the hotel to keep it) and it is stealing.
How are you going to get rid of these bibles when there is basically one in every single hotel room??? The most efficient way is to go to the hotel and get them to get rid of them, instead of illegally stealing them.
~Mia
It's my responsiblity to pick up that banana. And that's a bad analogy because there are thousands of these bibles in every single hotel room. Have you ever stayed in a hotel that doesn't have a bible?? I don't care if it's a Gideon thing or whatever. The maids go through the rooms after people stay in them. They would notice if a bible just showed up. I wouldn't neccesarily notice the banana before someone else did. Because the hotel knew that the bible is there and they chose to do nothing about it, it becomes their property (I bet there's something in contracts and stuff that says if you leave something in a hotel room after check-out, they have the right to keep it - especially in this case because the people who left the bible wanted the hotel to keep it) and it is stealing.
How are you going to get rid of these bibles when there is basically one in every single hotel room??? The most efficient way is to go to the hotel and get them to get rid of them, instead of illegally stealing them.
~Mia
Oops. Delete one of those comments.
True, that rule could exist, but I doubt it. And I don't think a hotel would care too much about the Bibles in its rooms...they don't exactly make money for the hotel, do they?
And I don't hope to get rid of the Bibles, I just want to help motivate atheists. Do you think a vegetarian believes that by not eating meat, they can stop animal slaughter around the world?
They will care if enough people complain because they want to do what the customers want so that they get people to actually come and stay. Although, you'd probably have to go to a hostel to get away from those bibles.
Motivate atheists to do what?? Steal?? A vegetarian does not eat meat so that there is less animal slaughtering. If you steal a bible, it will just be replaced by another one.
~Mia
Do you think a jury would convict me for stealing a Bible from a hotel?
And are you currently in Virginia?
You're not going to get convicted for stealing a bible from a hotel (unless you do it multiple times), but what's the point?? There are other ways to show your disappointment with the bibles that would be much more effective and meaningful. You said you're not trying to get rid of the bibles, you're trying to motivate others, but - asking again - what are you motivating them to do???
I am currently in my room in my house which is not in Virginia. If I were in Virginia, I would probably want to shoot myself, and I probably wouldn't have just watched Gilmore Girls and feel very depressed (I knew Luke and Lorelai would break up because I had seen it before, but it's upsetting nonetheless). Why did you think I would be in Virginia??
~Mia
PS For future reference, I don't have internet access away from home, so if I'm commenting, I'm at home.
According to my stats counter, someone who's making many comments on this post is from Virginia. I guess it's just confusing VA with...uh...Michigan, right? Minnesota?
I would assume it's confusing Virginia with the state I live in. I told you once; I'm not telling you again.
~Mia
Hm. This could just be my very own ignorance, but is there anything in particular about the Gidgeon Bible that's offensive. Bibles have been in hotel room drawers for Ages. On the other hand, if the hotel doesn't oversee the distribution of this representation of doctrine, it wouldn't be stealing to remove it. But it would be courteous to leave a justification of that so the Hotel doesn't get blamed. Xtians can get a little touchy. Also, S3th, dispose of it in a respectful way please. Just because you disdain what's in that bible, doesn't mean you should dispose of it in a disrespectful way. I say give it to someone who's already indoctrinated or leave it in public with critisizms. That'll give ppl something to think about. NTM, being militantly atheist comes off as trying to hard to instill your views on other ppl. No offense.
Eh, it's Christianity that's offensive, and that the Christians think they have the right to do this.
And we still haven't decided what to do with them....we're (that is, we atheists of the blogosphere) are drawing up a battle plan here.
hey seth...I hopped over from nogod to check u out here. I was just thinking about the Gideons and their bibles last night for some reason. I don't think it's stealing to take the book. In fact, I think they WANT you to take them!!! They will just get replaced though. But it will cost them $$$ to do it, so I say, go for it. After that, do as you will with it. Use for reference, use as firestarters, or as previously mentioned, good TP, esp. if camping. Except you get print on your hiney cheeks ;-). I THINK THOUGH, that you should also leave a note telling the gideons thanks but no thanks and that you were disposing of the pornographic refuse left in your room.
Gideons International is an evangelical organisation with the sole (IIRC) aim of giving bibles (are they bibles? I've only seen the NT + Psalms from Gideons) to people. They visit schools in some places and give bibles to every single student (at my high school a lot of them were smoked - apparently the pages make good roll-your-own cigarettes).
They want you to take them: it's even written in some of them, just like those free issues of Watchtower and the like.
Handy tip: The ones with the really, really thin pages can be used as rolling papers in a pinch.
Why try to keep people from reading the bible?
Link!
"I looked at the files of "Deconversion Stories" maintained by Cliff Walker on his positive atheism site. It should be borne in mind that deconversion is usually multifactorial. But roughly speaking, the top reasons include at number four, the multiplicity of One True Religions, at three, the problem of evil, at number two, talking to nonbelievers and reading sceptical literature (especially The Demon Haunted World). But what is the all-time, number one faith-buster?
"The Bible.
"Yes, you heard me right. Reading the Bible is the cause of more deconversions than any other single factor. I therefore give you my godless atheist plot. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... the Atheist Bible Society."
I think I'll do a blog entry on this...
You've got a point. But I also see this as retaliation to the Gideons.
I have grappled with this issue many times I'm in a hotel room. My personal practice is to take the unwanted book from the bedside table and place it in the trash. That way I'm ridding the room (which I have paid for) of unsolicited propaganda without removing it from the room (ie, without stealing)
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