The familiar sight of a Gideon Bible in a hotel or motel room is being joined by appearances of Buddhist, Scientologist, and Mormon writings.
No longer are Bibles, placed primarily by members of Gideons International, a Nashville-based laymen’s group, the only religious book found in the nation’s 3.4 million hotel rooms. Today’s pluralism, plus witnessing efforts by members of other religions, is broadening the scope of reading material available.
The Bible, however, remains the primary choice for hoteliers, continuing what has been an American tradition most of this century.
CROWDED NIGHTSTAND: Nevertheless, rivals to that tradition are emerging. The Tokyo-based Society for the Promotion of Buddhism is distributing a volume of Buddhist scripture to hotels in the United States. The Nikko hotel chain, owned by a Japanese company, has long placed The Teachings of Buddha in its rooms alongside the Bible. Some California and Nevada hotels have added the volume, bringing the number of hotels carrying it to 2,500.
Followers of the Church of Scientology say they have placed in 350 hotels more than 90,000 copies of “The Way to Happiness: A Common Sense Guide to Better Living,” a secular-themed booklet by the group’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The 96-page booklet encourages moral and ethical conduct and is placed in hotels by members of an affiliated secular organization, the Way to Happiness Foundation, according to spokesperson Rosemary Dunstan. The booklet also is being reprinted and distributed by businesses and other organizations.
“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” which contains the principal beliefs of the Church of Christ, Scientist, and founder Mary Baker Eddy, is showing up in more hotel rooms. Carol Hohle, a spokesperson for the Boston-based religious group, says the Scripture placement is an ad hoc effort. Christian Scientists are trying to make “Science and Health” more available to the public, Hohle says, and it has been reintroduced to more than 2,000 bookstores.
The “Book of Mormon” has long been a fixture in hotel rooms owned and operated by the Marriott Corporation, the Washington, D.C.-based chain founded and controlled by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. LDS spokesperson Don LeFever told CHRISTIANITY TODAY that the J. W. Marriott family originally placed the “Book of Mormon” in hotel rooms, and the church itself has not organized such a campaign.
A spokesperson for the American Muslim Council in Washington, D.C., says that while some of the country’s 2,000 mosques may do some outreach work in hotels, there is no campaign to place copies of the Qur’an in lodgings. Muslim scholars say one factor is fear that a reader would take the Qur’an into an “inappropriate” place such as a bathroom.
Other groups are offering booklets of poetry to hotels as a counterpoint to religious literature. The late U.S. Poet Laureate Joseph Brodsky initiated the campaign as a way to make the public more familiar with poetry.
A NICE EXTRA: Still, despite the increasingly diverse religious views held by Americans today, the Bible remains the dominant literature found in hotel rooms. Anne Curtis, communications director for Choice Hotels in Silver Spring, Maryland, says tradition has created an innate demand for the Bible in its 3,000 U.S. hotels.
“People check into a hotel and expect to find a Bible, and not just a Bible but a Gideon Bible,” Curtis says. “We are in the business of providing rooms; the Bible is a nice extra.”
The American Hotel and Motel Association, the Washington-based trade group for the industry, says it has no official policy on the matter, either, leaving that up to its members.
Three traveling salesmen formed Gideons International to accomplish the public placement of Scripture. Since 1908, the organization has placed millions of Bibles in hotels and motels through the work of 150,000 members around the world.
Though by far the largest placer of Bibles in hotels, the Gideons are not alone in this venture. The New York Bible Society, a unit of the Colorado Springs-based International Bible Society, the country’s oldest, has for nearly 60 years placed Scriptures in hotels.
“We haven’t run up against any resistance [from hotels],” says Richard Galloway, manager of ministry for the New York Bible Society. “From time to time, we have letters come to us with money enclosed because the people take a Bible and want to replace it. We’ve had people who were saved as a result of coming across the Bible, which helped them during a difficult time.”
Galloway says the greatest challenge for his group has not been competition, but financial backing. “There’s a lot of genuine opportunity out there that is not being addressed,” he says. “We can show people where the doors are open.”
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