ACLJ Takes On Angry Atheists’ Absurd Demand That Private Hotels Remove Bibles

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has demanded that private hotel chains remove Gideon-placed Bibles from their hotel rooms. 

The ACLJ has responded, on behalf of more than 178,000 Americans, sending a letter to set the record straight to each of the hotels harassed by FFRF. 

As we’ve reported, FFRF began by targeting university-funded hotels. Now it has set its sights on private hotel companies.  It claims to have sent letters – demanding that Bibles be removed from hotel rooms – to Wyndham Worldwide, Intercontinental Hotel Groups (Holiday Inn), Choice Hotels International (Quality Inn), Hilton Worldwide, G6 Hospitality (Motel 6), Marriott International, Best Western, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group (Radisson, Carlson, Country Inn) and Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Sheraton).  FFRF also sent a similar letter to the American Hotel & Lodging Association in Washington, DC. 

Notably absent from the FFRF letters is any mention of a legal basis for the demand.  Of course, there is none.  These are private companies.  So instead of pushing its tired (and warped) constitutional arguments, FFRF morphed into a consumer advocacy organization, comparing the presence of Bibles in hotel rooms to cigarette smoke. 

On what does FFRF base its demand?  A Pew Research Center report that, according to FFRF, shows that one in four Americans identify as “non-religious,” and that the number of so-called “nones” is increasing.  But that same report also stated, unambiguously:

To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.

And:

[E]vangelical Protestants, while declining slightly as a percentage of the U.S. public, probably have grown in absolute numbers as the overall U.S. population has continued to expand.

The new survey indicates that churches in the evangelical Protestant tradition . . . now have a total of about 62 million adult adherents. That is an increase of roughly 2 million since 2007, though once the margins of error are taken into account, it is possible that the number of evangelicals may have risen by as many as 5 million or remained essentially unchanged.

It’s clear then, that FFRF’s reliance on the Pew Research Center report is flawed. Flaws of logic exist as well.  Just because the number of so-called “nones” may be rising does not mean that each “none” is as hostile as FFRF to a one-hundred year old tradition—a Bible in a closed drawer in a privately funded hotel room.

FFRF complains that “[t]he Gideon Society is exploiting hotels and motels to proselytize a captive audience,” and “[i]t’s simply bad business to promote divisive religious teachings to a diverse clientele.” It complains the presence of Bibles amounts to “proselytization.”   But, as we wrote in our letter,

[P]roselytization connotes action. It’s hard to imagine how placing a book inside a closed drawer could amount to proselytization. Indeed, a FFRF co-president recently described how she searched through her hotel room and was shocked to discover a Bible in the fourth drawer she opened.

We also explained to the hotel companies that,

making a book available in a closed drawer is no more akin to proselytization than making a religious channel available on a hotel television.  There is no captive audience in a hotel room. Nothing in FFRF’s letter indicates that hotels’ participation in a historic and honorable American tradition has negatively impacted the bottom line.

We addressed FFRF’s silly assertion that “many of us object to renting a hotel room only to be greeted by a bible,” as if the Bible jumps from the drawer and greets them: 

But a reasonable person, finding offense at the existence of a Bible in a nightstand drawer, may simply not open the book, just as one offended by what is available on a hotel television may choose to change the channel or not turn on the television at all. 

We took the opportunity to outline for the hotel companies the extreme nature and outlandish actions of FFRF, including their challenges to the Salvation Army, “Adopt a Cop” programs, the nation’s motto of “In God We Trust,” numerous national war memorials, the Star of David at a Holocaust memorial, cheerleaders placing Bible verses on spirit banners, university sports chaplaincies, and their “Heathen’s Greetings” literature. 

We concluded with our appreciation for “the time-honored courtesy recognized by” the hotels, and our assurance “that no reasonable-minded person perceives the Gideon’s Bible as an act of coercion or proselytization.”

We will continue aggressively battling FFRF’s outrageous legal claims, factual distortions, and unrelenting assault on our religious heritage as a nation.

Please stand with us as we fight to keep Bibles in hotel rooms.  Join over 178,000 others and sign our Petition today.