Hate literature placed in my hotel room by the Gideons....what should I do?

[Weirddave]

Oh good Christ, Valteron’s looking to be offended again. :rolleyes:

And if they can call to complain that there is no Bible in their room, why can’t I call to complain that there IS?

I don’t believe anyone has said that you shouldn’t, in fact more than a few posters specifically suggested it. The people to complain to, however, are the management of the hotel. Starting a stupid thread here and then whining because it wasn’t treated with the respect that you thought it deserved (Hate to break it to you, but the mods have treated this thread with way more respect than it was entitled to) is nothing more then blatant RO and attention whoring.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Valteron

Tomndebb’s decision to send my thread to Marley’s domain, and Marley’s decision to send this thread to the Pit is typical of the contempt I am regularly shown by some of the mods.

I have brought up an issue that has received extensive input both pro and con, with intelligent points being made about the nature of religion and scriptural interpretation. Sure SOUNDS like a debate to me. But if Valteron started the thread, it deserves nothing but the contempt of Marley and Tomndebb, I guess.

It’s like this: If you wanted this to be a Great Debates thread, you should have done a better job in your OP of saying what point you were trying to make or what you wished to debate.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Valteron

“No, I mean all this drama” replied Spouse.

Priceless.

[Chimera]

@Princhester

IHow about a t-shirt that just says “Kill gay people”. That’d be hilarious. You could leave one in every hotel room.

Is there something seriously wrong with your brain?

Where the fuck do you get this from?

Edit: Nevermind, I just figured out you’re only being a reactionary fuckhead.

[amarinth]

@Valteron

Option 2: In fairness to everyone in our secular society, they put a copy of the following in each hotel room: One atheist book (Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, for example) the Holy Bible, the Holy Koran, the Vedic Literature of the Hindus, the Book of Mormon, the Bhagavd Gita, the Popul Vuh of the Mayan Religion, the Teachings of Buddha (as a matter of fact I found a copy of this in my other drawer! :eek: ), the writings of the Bah’ai Faith. . . . any others to add?

Checking at amazon.com - that set of books (minus the Bible, which the Gideons provide for free to the hotels and the Teachings of Buddha, whose presence suggests that the hotel also got free copies of that book as well) will cost approximately $60/room and the Banff Springs has 770 rooms.

Based on the presence of multiple religious works, I’m sure that if you were to make a $47000 gift to the hotel to place the readings you suggest, they would leave them in the nightstand with the Bible and Teachings of Buddha for people to pick and choose which, if any, of the works they would like to read during their stay.

[Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup]

@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed

I think there’s a guy named Job who would disagree with this.

Not really.

Job’s faith in God is essentially what cause him again to be rewarded, wasn’t it? Same with the woman who was sick. Nothing they DID caused their affliction, yet it was their FAITH that carried them.

And, more specifically, we’re talking about Christ’s example and Christ’s laws and how I feel they command me to treat my fellow man, which postdates Job significantly.

So I gotta disagree with you on your point for multiple reasons.

[Antinor01]

@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup

Not really.

Job’s faith in God is essentially what cause him again to be rewarded, wasn’t it? Same with the woman who was sick. Nothing they DID caused their affliction, yet it was their FAITH that carried them.

And, more specifically, we’re talking about Christ’s example and Christ’s laws and how I feel they command me to treat my fellow man, which postdates Job significantly.

So I gotta disagree with you on your point for multiple reasons.

That same faith also killed Job’s children.

[Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup]

@Antinor01

That same faith also killed Job’s children.

Check your Internet connection.

The part of your reply where you responded to the substance of my post got cut off.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Really Not All That Bright

Uh… not to ruin your angry party or anything, but since the hotel doesn’t own the Bibles and the Gideons might be argued to have abandoned them, is there any legal reason you can’t deface/destroy them?

Can anyone answer this?

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup

Check your Internet connection.

The part of your reply where you responded to the substance of my post got cut off.

If you only want to talk New Testament that’s fine, but claiming that Job was “rewarded” for his faith after God wiped out his family seems like we have differing definitions of reward. Yes, he was rewarded with a new family, but they’re not as replaceable as his livestock was.

[Antinor01]

@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup

Check your Internet connection.

The part of your reply where you responded to the substance of my post got cut off.

I’m not really in the mood for a full scale religious debate here. But in the interest of responsiveness, which part would you like me to address? The part where you specify that it’s Christs example we should follow? If that was the whole of the Bible, I would agree with you. The life described in the Gospels is a great lesson in how to treat mankind.

I responded as I did because people like to say Job was a great example of how faith in God will get you through anything. They always seem to gloss over the fact that 10 other people died because of his faith.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@Really Not All That Bright

@Really Not All That Bright

Uh… not to ruin your angry party or anything, but since the hotel doesn’t own the Bibles and the Gideons might be argued to have abandoned them, is there any legal reason you can’t deface/destroy them?

Can anyone answer this?

I can. The Bibles are intended to be gifts (from the Gideons) to the guests. It is yours to do with as you choose. As I said earlier, they actually want people to take them. They probably wouldn’t be overjoyed at defacement but there is nothing illegal about it. Essentially, if you are the guest, it’s your Bible.

[Lobsang]

Set up as the anti-gideons. Distribute copies of the God Dellision in hotels.

[Miller]

@Triskadecamus

Am I allowed to think Valteron is a pretentious, self absorbed jerk, and not kill any queers?

I can report from first hand experience that you can be a queer and think Valteron is a pretentious, self-absorbed jerk.

[VinylTurnip]

@jtgain

As others have said, if you feel that strongly about it, then refuse to stay at a hotel that allows Gideon Bibles to be placed in their rooms. Call, email, or fax the management and tell them why you won’t be coming back. Maybe they will change their policy.

Or maybe they’ll respond with “they’re here, you queer. Get used to it.” <clap clap>

[Chimera]

@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed

If you only want to talk New Testament that’s fine, but claiming that Job was “rewarded” for his faith after God wiped out his family seems like we have differing definitions of reward. Yes, he was rewarded with a new family, but they’re not as replaceable as his livestock was.

My thought is always: What the fuck did his original family do to deserve being wiped out just to test Job? What kind of sick fuck engages in that sort of a test?

Oh yeah, that’d be the same guy who tells Abraham to sacrifice his son.

I was born and raised conservative Baptist, but the God of the Old Testament is not someone I have any desire to worship. My God is not a monomaniacal psychopath.

[BurnMeUp]

When I traveled a lot for work I opened the drawers in various countries to see if the bibles were there. Two interesting exceptions, in several asian countries “The Teaching of the Buddha” were in there and in India was a copy of the Bhagvada Gita.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Chimera

My thought is always: What the fuck did his original family do to deserve being wiped out just to test Job? What kind of sick fuck engages in that sort of a test?

In other words, you’re outraged that God would allow awful things to happen to people who don’t deserve them. Which is, of course, precisely the issue that the book of Job was written to wrestle with. Would you prefer a Bible that claimed that God never lets bad things happen to people who don’t deserve them?

[bdgr]

Yeah, that’s the thing…raise a stink and try to get the hotel’s to kick the Gideons out …

because we all NEED a ton of reactionary spam emails flooding our inboxes about how the gays really ARE trying to destroy America and x hotel chain is caving in to them taking gods word away from us and we should boycott them and all kinds of other paranoid ramblings. See, those canadians gave in and went against og and allowed them to marry and now the bibles have been replaced with astroglide in all the hotel rooms.

Poke the ignorant 800 pound gorrilla with a stick some more…I’m sure it will end well.

[Malacandra]

@Lobsang

Set up as the anti-gideons. Distribute copies of the God Dellision in hotels.

Whuzzat, Dawkins for the not especially literate?