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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Each Bible placed in a hotel room has the potential to reach up to 2,300 people in its estimated six-year life span, and about 25 percent of travelers read the Bibles in their hotel rooms, according to The Gideons International, a group that has been placing Bibles in hotel rooms since 1908.
The Gideons say they receive testimonies almost daily of lives changed because of the Bibles they've placed, including one man who planned to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. The man said he threw the Bible onto the hotel room floor and it fell open to John 14, where Jesus says He gives peace. Now the man is a pastor and his family has been restored.
But a growing number of hotels are opting not to allow the placement of Gideon Bibles, according to an article in Newsweek magazine.
Sofitel hotels are going in a 'new direction,' including the removal of Bibles from guest rooms.
"In the rooms of Manhattan's trendy Soho Grand Hotel guests can enjoy an eclectic selection of underground music, iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and even the living company of a complimentary goldfish. But, alas, the word of God is nowhere to be found," the article begins.
Such hotels say society is evolving and a younger, hipper generation has no interest in the Bible. They also say they would have to cater to a variety of belief systems and could not single out Christianity.
Hotel chains are removing Bibles from guest rooms, replacing them with "intimacy kits" and adding "One Night Stand" packages as well as "romance concierge" personnel to their offerings, according to Newsweek.
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, noted the tragedy that awaits if people aren't given the chance to encounter God's Word when they find themselves troubled in a hotel room.
"Are they now to look for salvation and solace from an iPod docking station or a goldfish?" Mohler wrote on his blog at albertmohler.com.
"... This development is another reminder that we are living in a time of tremendous cultural and moral change. The absence of Gideons Bibles from an increasing number of hotel rooms tells us something about the secularization, sexualization, and extreme sensitivities of our age," Mohler said.
"It also tells us that there will be no Bibles available in those hotel rooms when travelers need them, and that is a tragedy by any measure," he added. "Think of this the next time you are in a hotel room. Check the bedside table for a Gideons Bible. When you find one, thank the hotel management. And, when you have the opportunity, thank the Gideons."
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