Hotel's dissing the Gideons
- Thread starter wil
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juantoo3
....whys guy.... ʎʇıɹoɥʇnɐ uoıʇsǝnb
Hotels like any other business simply respond to the needs of their customers, and the needs of customers today are not what they were 25 or 50 years ago.
I personally don't see this as anything particularly intuitive about hotels or business. On the other hand, I think it speaks volumes about present day zeitgeist, and the "need" for society at large for religion, in particular the culturally dominant religion. Were there an analogous comparison in other cultures like say Israel, Somalia or Afghanistan, I wonder if the same could be said?
I think one of the main reasons the Gideons were so welcome for so long in the West is because the people were still dealing with the psychological devastation of the Depression of the '30's and the Great War of the '40's. That's all a couple of generations behind us now, and succeeding generations forget amid prosperity. Something tells me that there is still a more urgent psychological need in other more devastated societies to keep their intrinsic religion more close at hand, whereas we have "grown" to allow ourselves freedom from our religious needs (some would no doubt say "crutches").
History tends to repeat itself however. Seems to me the psychology in the West prior to the Great Depression was not a great deal different than today in thumbing its nose at its religious heritage. I am not prepared to say that it played a role in bringing about the Depression, but "irrational exuberance" is not limited to the 21st century. It would not surprize me in the least to see the pendulum swing yet again...particularly if these tough economic times magnify and continue for any length of time.
There's something about being reduced to catching sparrows in mousetraps in the front yard just to be able to eat (true family story), that makes religion maybe not such a frivolous endeavor afterall.
I personally don't see this as anything particularly intuitive about hotels or business. On the other hand, I think it speaks volumes about present day zeitgeist, and the "need" for society at large for religion, in particular the culturally dominant religion. Were there an analogous comparison in other cultures like say Israel, Somalia or Afghanistan, I wonder if the same could be said?
I think one of the main reasons the Gideons were so welcome for so long in the West is because the people were still dealing with the psychological devastation of the Depression of the '30's and the Great War of the '40's. That's all a couple of generations behind us now, and succeeding generations forget amid prosperity. Something tells me that there is still a more urgent psychological need in other more devastated societies to keep their intrinsic religion more close at hand, whereas we have "grown" to allow ourselves freedom from our religious needs (some would no doubt say "crutches").
History tends to repeat itself however. Seems to me the psychology in the West prior to the Great Depression was not a great deal different than today in thumbing its nose at its religious heritage. I am not prepared to say that it played a role in bringing about the Depression, but "irrational exuberance" is not limited to the 21st century. It would not surprize me in the least to see the pendulum swing yet again...particularly if these tough economic times magnify and continue for any length of time.
There's something about being reduced to catching sparrows in mousetraps in the front yard just to be able to eat (true family story), that makes religion maybe not such a frivolous endeavor afterall.
How so? A Gideon Bible is "free" to the hotel. There certainly are enough other "advertisements" in the little book on the desk (that they had to pay for, to print).
This Advertisement (the bible), is free of charge.
I may not read the bible everytime I'm in a hotel (and I am in hotels alot), but I have walked out of $300.00 a night hotels, and told the manager the reason why, was because there was no bible in my room...