News:

if there were no need for 'engineers from the quantum plenum' then we should not have any unanswered scientific questions.

Main Menu

Hotel replaces bibles with "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Started by Firebird, July 25, 2012, 02:10:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Firebird

Hotel replaces bibles with "Fifty Shades of Grey"

QuoteIt's a natural curiosity many of us have when checking into a hotel. Open the top drawer of your room, and naturally you'll find one of the best-selling books of all time.

The Bible? Uh, no.

"Fifty Shades of Grey?" Well, yes.

According to NBCNews.com, a British hotel has replaced the Bible with the steamy, summer hit by E.L. James in its 40 guest rooms.

Jonathan Denby, owner of the Damson Dene, told NBC he had purchased the hotel form a Methodist group about a decade ago and had been wondering how to replace the Gideons Bibles in each of the room.

"I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand - 'Atas Shrugged' was my first thought," Denby told NBC News.

"(But) because everybody is reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation."

Of course, the move hasn't come without controversy. The Rev. Michael Woodcock , the parish priest at a local church recently told the Wesmorland Gazette, "It is a great shame that Bibles have been removed from rooms and very inappropriate to have been replaced by an explicit erotic novel."


Edit: Fixed link. Thanks Tank
"Great, replace one book about an abusive, needy asshole with another." - Will (moderator) on replacing hotel Bibles with "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Tank

If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

markmcdaniel

I wonder just how often they will need to replace the books.
It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds which follows from the advance of science - Charles Darwin

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the object of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a god, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. - Albert Einstein

Religion is a by product of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity. - Arther C. Clarke

Faith means not wanting to know what is true. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Siz

Last thing I wanna do on a dirty weekend is READ about sex...  :D

Shoulda stuck with Ayn Rand... :-\

When one sleeps on the floor one need not worry about falling out of bed - Anton LaVey

The universe is a cold, uncaring void. The key to happiness isn't a search for meaning, it's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually you'll be dead!

Ali

I'm kind of put off by the idea of previous guests....um.....getting germs on them.  :-\

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Scissorlegs on July 25, 2012, 05:19:23 PM
Last thing I wanna do on a dirty weekend is READ about sex...  :D

Shoulda stuck with Ayn Rand... :-\

For me, that would just be two different ways of being bored.  I've never understood why hotels have to offer reading matter in the first place -- I realize the Gideon's bible thing is a low level attempt at conversion (which is really not the hotel's business) but people who like to read bring books with them, they don't turn up bookless and rely on pot luck.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


OldGit

Seemingly they don't have a paid porn channel on the room TV, or the book'd be losing them revenue.

Stevil

It is very odd that hotel have a bible in them.
Getting rid of it is a good thing.

I've always wondered what would happen if I dialed reception and asked if I could have the bible replaced with the god delusion.

Non Quixote

Would be even funnier if they chucked all of the bibles in the dumpster. :D
Ya give 'em books and they just chew on the covers...
"Faith is something you believe that nobody in his right mind would believe."    ~ Archie Bunker

hismikeness

Ever since I was a kid, I've always checked every bible I've ever had in a hotel room (and without fail, it has been there in the drawer of EVERY single one. God damn it if those Gideons don't have a monopoly on that), shaking it out to see if anything comes out. Never found anything, but maybe one day. I've heard people have found money in them before.

Although, if I know about it, certainly the cleaning staff knows about it and they check. So my odds decrease drastically because now I have to have the room right after the guy who stashed his cheddar in the bible and forgot it was there when he checked out.
No churches have free wifi because they don't want to compete with an invisible force that works.

When the alien invasion does indeed happen, if everyone would just go out into the streets & inexpertly play the flute, they'll just go. -@UncleDynamite

Asmodean

Only seen a bible in one hotel room... But then, I didn't check for religious text at every check-in.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Crow

Quote from: Asmodean on July 26, 2012, 07:25:08 AM
Only seen a bible in one hotel room... But then, I didn't check for religious text at every check-in.

I haven't ever seen one either, but I have never looked. Last thing I am going to look for on holiday is a bible.
Retired member.

Firebird

Quote from: Crow on July 26, 2012, 03:10:51 PM
Quote from: Asmodean on July 26, 2012, 07:25:08 AM
Only seen a bible in one hotel room... But then, I didn't check for religious text at every check-in.

I haven't ever seen one either, but I have never looked. Last thing I am going to look for on holiday is a bible.

Seriously? At least half the hotels I've stayed in have them, usually in the night table right next to the bed, where it's easy to find. Less so in Europe, though. Definitely everywhere in the US, and Jamaica.
"Great, replace one book about an abusive, needy asshole with another." - Will (moderator) on replacing hotel Bibles with "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Tank

I don't think I've ever been to a hotel that did not have a bible in the room.
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.