Why do you just find bibles in hotels?

Question

NOTE: Don't answer if you're just going to insult Christianity or say that Christians are arrogant/intolerant.


So most hotels and motels here in America have bibles in every room but why don't you ever find the holy books of other religions like the Torah or the Qauran?

Answer 1

It began as a nice way that Hotels/Motels could make their customers feel at home. The tradition lasts to today, but I've stayed in a few nicer hotels and a few chain hotels recently and I never came across a Bible, so I think they're more often found in regional chains and owner-operated places.

Answer 2

Open the night stand drawer in almost any hotel room in the world and you will find a Bible placed there by the Gideon’s International. The oldest Christian business and professional men’s association in the United States, the Gideons have been around for more than 100 years, and have been placing Bibles in hotel rooms for almost that long.

The Association began in a hotel room on September 14, 1898, in Boscobel, Wisconsin. The manager of the Central Hotel there asked traveling salesmen John H. Nicholson of Janesville, Wis., and Samuel E. Hill of Beloit, Wis., to share a room in a crowded hotel, which was hosting a lumbermen’s convention. In Room 19, above the saloon, the men discovered that they were both Christians. They prayed and read the Bible together before settling down for the night. They talked about starting a Christian traveling men’s association but parted ways the next morning without any definite plans. A chance meeting the following May rekindled the idea, and on July 1, 1899, the two salesmen, joined by a third, William J. Knights, met in Janesville and founded the Gideons. The name comes from the Old Testament book of Judges, and refers to a man who was willing to do whatever God asked of him. Today, the Boscobel Hotel, where the two founders met, is listed on the National Historical Register, and Room 19, where the idea of the Gideons was conceived, is marked with a special plaque.

The Gideons primary purpose has always been personal evangelization conducted by Christian business and professional men. As early as 1900, the organization considered putting Bibles at the front desk of the hotels its members stayed in, but it was not until 1908 that the association voted to place Bibles in all hotel rooms. Within 20 years of the first placement of a Gideon Bible in a hotel room, the association distributed one million Bibles. Because the Gideons so quickly became associated with hotel room Bibles, the association has, at times, had to remind its members that the Bibles are but a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The sole purpose of the group is to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through personal witnessing and the distribution of Bibles and New Testaments.

Today, the association counts more than 140,000 members in 175 countries. According to its web site (www.gideonsinternational.org), the Gideons distribute more that 56 million Bibles and New Testaments every year. This averages out to be one million books every seven days, or 107 per minute. Evangelical churches of many denominations financially support the Gideons’ work of distributing Bibles, not only to hotels and motels, but also to hospitals and doctors’ offices, jails and prisons, elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, and military bases.

A 1997 Fodor’s survey of American travelers found that 23 percent of those surveyed read the Gideons Bible in their hotel rooms. When the Bibles are taken or become too worn, the local camp of the Gideons will replace them at no charge. Often, when a new hotel opens, a representative of the local Gideons camp will present a Bible to the hotel’s general manager in a solemn ceremony. Then, Bibles for the entire property are given to the housekeeping department which places one in each room. Some properties have begun offering other religious books in their hotel rooms, such as The Book of Mormon in Marriott properties or Buddhist religious texts in Nikko properties. But, for the majority of travelers, the Gideon Bible is the book they’ll find when they settle into their hotel rooms for the night.

Answer 3

I would assume that Christianity if the most widely practiced religion in America, which is why you find bibles instead of other holy books in American hotels and motels. Besides, Gideon places those bibles in hotels and motels, and Gideon is a Christian based organization they believe in Jesus, not Allah, Buddha or any one else. Perhaps there aren't any organizations that represent different faiths that place their holy books in hotels and motels.

Answer 4

An organization called the Gideon Society raises money from Christian individuals and churches to buy the bibles. Volunteers distribute them to hotels & motels. The hotel owners accept them because they know that the vast majority of their guests are or were Christians.

I don't know if any other religion's representatives have attempted to do something similar. They might meet with limited success due to owners being fearful of offending Christians.

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Answer 5

Most, if not all Bilbles found in motels are placed there by the Gideons, which is an organization that pays for the Bibles themselves and gives them to motels to place in their rooms. Why no other religion has done that is probably due to the fact that no one within their religions have tried it. Plus I don't think that most people would be receptive to a Qauran in their room, so to aviod losing customers I doubt that motels would place them in their rooms even if they were given to them to do so.

Answer 6

I have always thought that the reason for this is to maybe find a lost sole, or person in trouble, or someone that could be saved. Other religions are not as well known in America as Christianity and that is why you never see other holy books and also it seems to be a tradition with hotels.....

Answer 7

Because most of the hotel Bibles are provided by the Gideons. The Gideons do not hand out the sacred texts of other faiths, but specialize in the Bible.

Answer 8

Because the western hemisphere presumes they are the chosen God of the universe (their delusion, not mine), and thus only recognize a single religion.

You'd be better without those books anyway. Not an ounce of life deserving of recompense shall be spared due some manner of literature (esp. Christian Bible), not whereas the same adherents profane the concept of God (or Creator) through their hideous assaults.

Answer 9

Because Christianity is one of the higher studies which you see all the time even on TV shows religion like Christianity.

Answer 10

there is only bibles in hotels because that religion is most common but you should launch a complaint because it does not make any since althongh the cant have a version of everyones holy book in their hotel room now can they?