A hotel in the United Kingdom has replaced in-room Gideon Bibles with the soft-porn best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey.
The change was made earlier this month in all 40 guest rooms at the Damson Dene Hotel in the Lake District of England.
The hotel's owner Jonathan Denby explained his decision in a blog post:
“Tonight millions of women will be curling up in bed with a good book and you can bet your life it won't be the Bible. More likely than not it will be Fifty Shades of Grey. I haven't read the book yet – I'm not in the target audience – but I'm told it's a ripping good yarn and everyone who's in the target audience loves it. This made me wonder about the sense of providing a book, the Gideon Bible which no one reads, and many dislike, in the bedside cabinet of our hotel bedrooms, instead of a book which everyone wants to read, such as Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Denby bought the hotel from a Methodist group 10 years ago, according to NBC News.
He said he had been considering substitutions for a long time.
“I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged was my first thought,” Denby told NBC News.
Denby said he did not do it for any philosophical reasons.
That hasn't stopped the local vicar from publicly denouncing the change.
The Rev. Michael Woodcock — parish priest at St. Mary's Church in Crosthwaite, where the hotel is located — told British media that the hotel's decision is just a gimmick, according to NBC.
There is also much criticism coming from the United States, where the Gideon Bible is more popular, Denby said.
“People in the States feel much more strongly,” he told NBC. “We've had quite a few e-mails quoting the scriptures to us and suggesting that it would be a good thing to put the Bible back.”
In an update on Thursday (July 26), Denby posted that response in England to the move had been “overwhelmingly favourable” but that emails continued to pour in from the U.S. characterized by a “very un-Christian combination of lies, threats and intimidation.”
He also noted that an NBC online poll on the move drew nearly 32,000 responses to the question “Which book would you be more likely to pick up in your hotel room?” As of Thursday, 42 percent said Fifty Shades of Grey and 37 percent said the Bible, with the rest expressing no preference.
Denby said in his blog that he's not completely giving up on the Bible. “I'll keep a couple behind the reception desk so that if any guest whose preferred bedtime reading happens to be the Bible finds that they have forgotten to pack their copy, they'll be pleased to read in the guest handbook that they can borrow a copy from the receptionist.”
“Tonight millions of women will be curling up in bed with a good book and you can bet your life it won’t be the Bible. More likely than not it will be Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Yep, that about sums it up….flesh over spirit.
We are spiritually undernourished and hunger for fulfillment from whatever comes most tantalizing.
On the one hand, I can see the proprietor’s underlying logic. If people want to read the Bible, they often have their own copy. And if not, he still makes them available. On the other hand, though, this precludes any serendipitous reading of the Bible by someone who just happens upon it in a hotel room.
@Eric I don’t see why exactly flesh has to be neglected over “spirit” and why we can’t have conversation about sexual gratification in a Christian culture. That 50 Shades of Grey is even a discussion in our culture is a sign that we have neglected something important in the way we relate to our SO’s and the way we as Christians participate in the larger discussion of values.
I also think that while this incident is a publicity stunt, it shows that Christianity is no longer the default choice, or even apparent as a choice, to many. Christianity needs to seriously innovate because the “If we build it, they will come,” model of church development isn’t going to work as well.
Eric – Perhaps people are spiritually over-saturated. Why should it matter what books are available in a hotel and why should one’s preference in such a setting indicate anything substantial about their flesh to spirit ratio?
Sam, I tried to have that convo on my blog post about 50 shades of grey…it was pretty much an exercise in futility.
My observations are rooted in my pastoral and personal experience with people and relationships.
The condition of people’s sexual and relational lives is a very discouraging realization of pastoral work. Many people are suffering from out of control pornography addictions, unsatisfied and non-orgasmic martial sex, room-mate like marriages and desperate loneliness.
The situation is bleak for many. These books are an escape for some, a false aphrodisiac for others and yet another distraction from the paths that lead to real meaningful pleasure as God designed.
My thoughts about living and sowing to the flesh(sinful nature not holistic body life) are influenced by a biblical evaluation of lives lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit vs a foesh focused hedonistic philosophy.
I can care less about the book in the drawer…our cultures are movimg away from Christianity as it been presented in the past. I hope it does amd that a new day of opportu it’s comes that will be free from association with churchianity and instead provide gospel proclaimed with opportunity to share Jesus with religiously uncluttered or barnacled souls.
I’ve longed to expand my work in Western Europe for just such a reason…fresh found, untilled hearts and hungry souls.
Have you ever tried reading those Gideon hotel Bibles? I spend a fair amount of time in hotels, and I read them once in awhile when I don’t have my PC with me (I have Bible software). They’re horrid. They’re all old King James. It’s really, really difficult to get anything out of it, and I consider myself fairly literate. Maybe if the Gideon’s would get a real English translation people would actually read them!
I think this book is fad. This too shall pass..