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Discover why hotels carry Bibles and other religious texts
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If you’ve stayed at an American hotel chain before, there’s a good chance that you’ve found a copy of the Bible tucked away in your nightstand. At this point, the book seems as commonplace as the hotel bathroom’s bottles of soap and shampoo—but why exactly is that? We’re taking a closer look at the origins of this unique hotel tradition, so you can be in the know before your next hotel room stay.
Things You Should Know
- Hotel Bibles (also known as Gideon’s Bibles) are placed there by The Gideons International, a Christian evangelist organization, to spread the Christian faith.
- You can take the Bible from a hotel room if you really want to—Gideons International will just replace it with a new copy.
- Fewer hotels are placing Bibles in hotel rooms nowadays because people tend to be less religious than they were in the past.
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Expert Interview
Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about christianity, check out our in-depth interview with Mark Russell .
References
- ↑ https://www.gideons.org/about
- ↑ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/30241/why-are-there-gideon-bibles-hotel-rooms
- ↑ https://www.gideons.org/faq
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/02/11/hotel-bibles-are-still-thing-some-brands-theyre-their-way-out/
- ↑ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/01/08/qa-why-millennials-are-less-religious-than-older-americans/
- ↑ https://www.mic.com/articles/182597/why-do-hotels-still-put-a-bible-in-the-nightstand
- ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/02/11/hotel-bibles-are-still-thing-some-brands-theyre-their-way-out/
- ↑ https://apnews.com/article/north-america-us-news-business-ap-top-news-religion-a81def375dba4b7ebcbef2b5daff1d43
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