The Gideons do great work in distributing Bibles. For many decades, virtually every hotel room had a Gideon Bible on the nightstand or in a drawer. But today, less than half do.
A survey has found that only 46% of American hotel rooms include religious material. Ten years ago, nearly three-quarters did.
Of course, what the Christian Gideons did, representatives of other religions did. Hotels that have Bibles in the rooms often also have Books of Mormon. I suspect that the decline of hotel Bibles has less to do with irreligion than with the abundance of religions and with hotel managers’ fear of offending against the canons of religious diversity.
Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington does have Bibles. But they come with a printed note saying that “if you want to continue your spiritual journey,” the hotel staff will give you a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, Talmud, or Quran.
From Leslie Joseph, Wi-Fi, not nightstand bibles, is the new religion at hotel rooms across the US — Quartz:
Religious materials, particularly bibles, have been a nightstand staple at American hotels for decades. Yet innkeepers are now ditching holy books for more modern amenities.
A survey conducted by the American Hotel and Lodging Association and hotel research firm STR found that just 46% of American hotel rooms included religious material in rooms, less than half of what it was a decade ago.
Photo by Seth Sawyers (Depth of information) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
