Gandalf vs. The Bible

[Recidiva]

(sorry to be so late; I haven't been on until now)

To me the question is not that of a respect for other people's religions, or for those religions' books, but for the people themselves. If someone wants to come in and pull out the Bible, or the Koran or the Baghavad Gita, from the hotel drawer where the hotel puts them, it seems to me a matter of common courtesy that they should find it whole and complete, just like they find the sheets and towels clean. There is a housekeeping staff that keeps the linens clean, but I don't think (although I don't know) that they go around checking the Bibles to make sure that someone hasn't defaced them.

So for me that leaves the responsibility to the guest instead of the Gideons or the hotel.

With great power comes great responsibility? I'm not saying that defacing is wise.

I am saying that if you go to a hotel room and something is broken, you call down to housekeeping. "I need more towels, my air conditioning is broken, may I have a bible with Deuteronomy intact?"

 

[MarshAlien]

So for me that leaves the responsibility to the guest instead of the Gideons or the hotel.

With great power comes great responsibility? I'm not saying that defacing is wise.

I am saying that if you go to a hotel room and something is broken, you call down to housekeeping. "I need more towels, my air conditioning is broken, may I have a bible with Deuteronomy intact?"

Now we're doing Spiderman, right?

 

[Recidiva]

Now we're doing Spiderman, right?

I think for me the real distinction comes in between business manners and personal manners.

So many businesses (The Gideons for me are a business, Bibles are a marketing tool) behave as if they're doing me a favor by marketing to me, and I should be grateful for it, because, they care about me, right?

No. Doesn't work that way.

You should hear how irritated I get when my President said "God Bless America."

Can't we mix it up a bit? Krishna bless America? Kali bless America? Thor bless America?

 

[MarshAlien]

I think for me the real distinction comes in between business manners and personal manners.

So many businesses (The Gideons for me are a business, Bibles are a marketing tool) behave as if they're doing me a favor by marketing to me, and I should be grateful for it, because, they care about me, right?

No. Doesn't work that way.

You should hear how irritated I get when my President said "God Bless America."

Can't we mix it up a bit? Krishna bless America? Kali bless America? Thor bless America?

I'm sorry, I meant that "great power" quote was from Spiderman, right? Lots of people market to me, and if they give me something I don't care to read, I throw it out. I don't believe that you or need necessarily have to be grateful to them for leaving the Bibles for us. To me, the manners that I show in a hotel room - to the staff, to the other guests, to the guests who will use the room tomorrow - are all personal. Whether the Gideons' actions are rude or not (and it's really the hotel that's acting here; they don't have to allow the Bibles there) is beside the point; it's how I act that is the issue.

 

[Harrowborg]

The first thing that sprung to mind when I read that article was the scene from Back to the future when Marty rips the page from the phone book and runs off without buying anything. When your a kid you think its smart that he's using his brains but as you grow up you think to yourself that he's just commited vandalism, defaced the owners phone book and probably inconvenienced a lot of people who wanna call someone named 'Brown'.

Now I know thats a movie but the principle is still the same. He's defaced a book in the public domain which will probably inconvenience those devout christians among us who go to hotel rooms to read THAT PAGE, but kudos to the guy to admitting to it and sticking to his convictions. Now, granted he would probably be burnt at the stake if he did it to the Koran but hey.

 

[Harrowborg]

Thor bless America?

The day ANY world leader says that I will have respect for them

 

[Recidiva]

I'm sorry, I meant that "great power" quote was from Spiderman, right? Lots of people market to me, and if they give me something I don't care to read, I throw it out. I don't believe that you or need necessarily have to be grateful to them for leaving the Bibles for us. To me, the manners that I show in a hotel room - to the staff, to the other guests, to the guests who will use the room tomorrow - are all personal. Whether the Gideons' actions are rude or not (and it's really the hotel that's acting here; they don't have to allow the Bibles there) is beside the point; it's how I act that is the issue.

Yes, it was used in Spiderman...but it's derived from a Biblical quote:

King James version: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

Kennedy and Roosevelt also said versions in their day.

I find that Bibles are welcome or overlooked. I do believe that's hypocritical in a nation that permits public acceptance of pushing one religion. To many people, the Bible is supposed to be a fixture.

It's a very different point of view when, if I try to replace it with my own fixture that should be (in a nation with religious freedom) interchangeable, it clearly does not, and will not fit.

 

[Recidiva]

The day ANY world leader says that I will have respect for them

Exactly!

 

[English Lady]

What are the honest odds, though, of school boards allowing the Koran to be passed out? That's the real question for me. Why the bible and not a library of spiritual inspiration?

Because the Gideons assume they're doing nothing but good. However, the Bible has quite a bit 'o bad in it, when I read. Taking it philosophically, that's great. Taking it literally, or having it literally taken to you, is a different thing.

I don't know why people are so scared of giving others a choice, especialy when it comes to spirituality.

Test everything, it says somewhere in the bible (I'll look it up if people want, I'm too lazy todo it off my own bat right now) so that should mean everything including other faithsand their writings -it can only strngthen a faith or help in a persons spiritual choices, I think.

 

[Recidiva]

I don't know why people are so scared of giving others a choice, especialy when it comes to spirituality.

Test everything, it says somewhere in the bible (I'll look it up if people want, I'm too lazy todo it off my own bat right now) so that should mean everything including other faithsand their writings -it can only strngthen a faith or help in a persons spiritual choices, I think.

Yes, and you practice your faith with understanding and inclusion, and that's lovely. You and I often agree and have no problems even if we disagree, because it's okay to do so for both of us.

I believe in the "test everything" myself.

Those who simply glorify their faith without checking under the hood or kicking the tires...well, for them I feel sorry. They often end up buying a lemon.

 

[English Lady]

Yes, and you practice your faith with understanding and inclusion, and that's lovely. You and I often agree and have no problems even if we disagree, because it's okay to do so for both of us.

I believe in the "test everything" myself.

Those who simply glorify their faith without checking under the hood or kicking the tires...well, for them I feel sorry. They often end up buying a lemon.

I completely agree. Faith is the key, but blind faith is just that -blind.

 

[matriarch]

I think you'll find the Gideons will be happy if you take a bible.

They came to our secondary school and gave away little new testaments to every one of the 1st years when I was in school.

I've always found it to be a pretty cool thing.

Indeed.
Up until a few years ago, I still had mine.

I do have my own bible, in a leather, zip up cover. Sometimes I even get it out and read bits.