The Bible has long been a fixture in hotel rooms across the United States. But a new and increasingly prevalent trend set by upscale boutiques is emptying bedside drawers of the holy book that has brought comfort to millions of downtrodden hotel guests.
Replacing the comfort of the handy Bible is the convenience of an iPod docking station, a flat-screen TV, a selection of underground music, a complimentary goldfish, or in some edgier hotels – an intimacy kit, according to a recent Newsweek article.
"The fact is that many persons have come to faith in Jesus Christ by reading a Bible supplied to their hotel room by the Gideons," Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, commented in his blog this week. "Many others have turned to the Bible when in crisis. Some have even decided against suicide when they read from the Gideon's Bible.
"Are they now to look for salvation and solace from an iPod docking station or a goldfish?," he questioned.
The Gideons, founded in 1899, has distributed millions of Bibles in hotel rooms. Its presence in hotels is explained by the fact that Gideons International was founded by two Christian traveling businessmen who met at a hotel in 1898. The two businessmen, along with a third man, founded the Gideons ministry, devoted to meeting the religious needs of the traveling public.
However, Bibles are increasingly missing from hotel rooms across the United States and especially among hip hotels.
In the trendy New York City Soho Grand Hotel, for example, Bibles have never been offered in guest rooms because "society evolves," explained hotel spokeswoman Lori DeBlois to Newsweek. A Bible in guest rooms would force the hotel "to take care of every guest's belief."
In other hotels, intimacy kits – including condoms and other sexual items – are the new standard room amenity.
"So it turns out that the real story is not just the absence of the Bible in many hotel rooms, but the presence of very different materials, from complimentary condoms to erotic dice games," Mohler noted. "That does help to explain things."
A possible reason for the amenity change is leisure travel has increased while business travel has decreased. Also, the younger generation is entering the hotel market.
According to the travel research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates, leisure travel now leads business by more than 10 percent in U.S. hotel stays.
The Sofitel hotel brand, for instance, is changing its image to cater to the younger, less-business oriented – and apparently less religious – generation of clientele. The Sofitel chain, which once had Bibles in every guest rooms, recently removed them when guests questioned why other religious texts weren't available, according to Newsweek.
Even the Marriot hotel chain, founded by a Mormon, is questioning whether it should include Bibles in its upcoming boutique chain, which Marriott spokesman John Wolf describes as "cutting-edge," "more urban" and "less values-oriented," according to the magazine.
"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.
The prominent theologian called the development a reminder of the "tremendous cultural" and "moral change" taking place in society.
Since 2001, the number of luxury hotels with religious materials in rooms has dropped by 18 percent, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association.