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hotel and motel bedside bibles

Up and down the coast from BC to California I have left post-its directing the next reader to the bible's contradictions and atrocities.

I will also be writing to the owners/managers of these establishments, complaining that I do not appreciate x-rated, racist, misogynistic, genocidal, child abusing hate literature being impressed upon me.

Even better if this could be a conjoined effort.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel B on May 12, 2011 at 2:33pm

They also hold a pin pushed through the cover w/ a glass over the top.

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Permalink Reply by FreeThinker on February 7, 2009 at 7:19pm

Maybe we should buy copies of "The God Delusion" or a similar book and slip one chapter in the middle of each Bible you come across.

In all seriousness though, I don't think we should stoop to using the same tactics that we ourselves find annoying or reprehensible.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony on February 17, 2009 at 9:43pm

Every time I enter a hotel room and come across the Bible (I don't actively look for them, honestly), I remove it from the drawer and place it in the garbage can. I do this when I checkout as well. It is more symbolic than anything and utterly pointless because the only people who find it are the housekeepers. I get a strange satisfaction from doing it, even if it is all for naught.

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Permalink Reply by Cake on February 19, 2009 at 2:58am

I wish they'd at least use the KJB instead of these wussy new versions. It's no less full of balls than any other translation but at least the style means it can be quite a good read when you're stuck with nothing else.

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Permalink Reply by fortunate on February 19, 2009 at 5:27am

Why complain? I don't see how a Bible in the hotel room is being 'impressed upon' you. You're perfectly free not to read it, even take it with you and throw it out on your way home. (I wouldn't recommend that, though, as I was conditioned to treat all books with respect. ;))

You'll only reinforce the cranky atheist stereotype.

Now, the fun thing to do would be to chuck in a Koran, the Book of Mormon and several other "sacred" texts, as many as you can name, and watch as in a couple months the hotel staff gets annoyed and gets rid of it all. Equal rights bby!

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Permalink Reply by Scott VanTussenbrook on February 20, 2009 at 5:03pm

Whenever I check into a hotel room, the first thing I do is chuck the bible out the window. If the window doesn't open, I will usually set it on the room service tray for housekeeping to take away. The Gideons can "place" another one after I leave.

I did like it when they'd all show up on my college campus and hand out those little green new testaments. The pages are (were? I haven't seen one in years) exactly the right size, weight, and shape for rolling joints. "Jesus toked."

I am afraid, though, that hotels will not ever stop putting bibles in the rooms. Not in my lifetime. It's exactly like the fortune cookies that *always* come with your Mu Shu. Somebody somewhere might take them seriously, but everyone I know just thinks they're silly/useless/pointless/tasteless/etc. But it's probably not worth trying to convince Fu's Palace of that. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dunn on March 24, 2009 at 11:01pm

I usually highlight a few of my favorite passages and scribble down some of my thoughts on religion as well as my de-conversion story using a sharpie. (Usually in the "Begat" section, no one reads that anyway.)

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Permalink Reply by Loren Petrich on April 3, 2009 at 9:03am

I hadn't thought about doing anything to a hotel-room Bible for a long time, but when I stayed in a hotel room a few years ago, I wrote in it URL's of the Skeptics Annotated Bible, some messageboards, and the like.

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Permalink Reply by Lynn M. on May 2, 2009 at 9:55am

I have spoken with people whose fun thing to do with the Bibles they encounter in hotels/motels is to hide them. By hiding them, you are not engaging in any hypocritical thievery. LOL

Your approach, addressing them directly, is more honorable. But I wouldn't discount the other method either.........!

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Permalink Reply by Gold Guy on October 23, 2009 at 9:00pm

I don't think disposing of the bible in a hotel room is "hypocritical thievery." It was put there to impose their religion on you. That room is your home while you are there, there is no reason that you should have to endure insane books full of hate. The only reasonable response is to dispose of it.

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 2, 2009 at 8:24pm

I agree with the dilemma between vandalism vs. making a statement that deserves to be made (why a bible and not, say, a book of biology or Descartes?).

For that, I kind of like the idea of replacing the bible with a koran or Baghavad Gita or Alistair Crowley. "Surely you - the hotel - aren't advocating one religion over another so you don't mind, right?"

Or, if we're penny pinching, I'd highlight/bookmark select passages and add my own questions. A favorite of mine is Mark 4:11. "So... God loves us but is intentionally misleading us because he doesn't want us to be forgiven and go to heaven? Sorry, not converted."

(Note: We can use further Christian logic to prove beyond all doubt that this is God's evil plan because it's "Mark 4:11." 'Mark' meaning to bookmark or pay particular attention to something. '411' being slang for information. So God definitely wants us to get the message that he doesn't love us enough to want us to go to heaven with him).

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Permalink Reply by Allen Butler on June 15, 2009 at 5:54pm

I remember staying at the Hale Koa in Honolulu they actually had a collection of Buddhist writings in the drawer next to the Bible. I think the book was called "The Way of Buddha" or something like that. This would have been about 10 years ago, don't know if they still have them there. Only time I ever saw another "holy book" besides the Bible in a hotel room.