If some Muslim or Jewish group wanted to put the Koran or the Torah in every hotel room in America, then it would be up to the hotel owner if they wanted to accept them.
Nobody is making hotel owners accept these Bibles, they do it because it’s free and doesn’t cause people any problems. If you don’t want to rent a hotel room with a Bible in it, feel free to toss the copy in your room in the trash.
And please, who are these mysterious atheists who are so freaked out by a random book in the desk drawer?
Doesn’t bother me. I have an old, very thick family bible published in 1860 that sits in a safe drawer. I don’t look at that one, either.
I give the Gideons a pass ever since one of them jump-started my car in the wilds of Canada. After he was nice enough to do that, he walked over and told us that he was a Gideon and offered us a pocket-sized bible. I figured what the hell and accepted it. It’s probably still around here somewhere.
I have not heard of any Atheist groups petitioning anyone to remove Gideon bibles from hotel rooms. Perhaps the OP can provide a cite for whatever he has recently read.
You understood that? My head hurt trying to make sense of it.
Otherwise, I learn something new about my “religion” everyday. Now I need the bible to be removed from my hotel room. How come I never got the memo? Do I have to perform atheist penance, saying 10,000 Hail Dawkins, to atone for having never done this?
I’m not bothered by it. I’m more bothered by the advertising magazines featuring local attractions that I have no interest in. Like, 0% bothered by the bible, and 2% bothered by the magazines. Neither are important enough to me to be as bothered as say, the price of the hotel room.
According to the story from the religiously based news service you linked to, they asked for the Bibles to be removed because of the hotel’s direct relationship with a publically funded university.
I’ve never seen one. I have had hotel rooms with the Koran and/or Book of Mormon and never saw need to raise a fuss. If I saw a Satanic tract, I’d likely read it out of plain curiosity. It’s just a book, no need to act as though it’ll bite you.
This particular fight isn’t about “Bibles in hotel rooms”; it’s about “Bibles in state-run university facilities.”
The article also notes that the atheist group (Freedom From Religion Foundation) has attempted to get private hoteliers to remove the Bibles, as well, though it doesn’t sound like they’ve gotten any success there.
Also, for the record: Deseret News Service is an arm of the LDS Church, so it may not be entirely unbiased in its own reporting.