I get mail.
From: AntheaSubject: Hide the Bible
Hi Jeff – just come across your website and in some ways it is highly amusing. In others, however, I find it upsetting and I hope you will read on to find out why. I know of some members of the Gideons movement; I know of the huge sacrifice in time and money some of them make to fund and place Bibles in hotels for those that want to make use of them. You can guarantee that amongst the donors there are plenty of elderly widowed women living on a meagre pension who want to do this for the benefit of others. Could you not show some respect for them?
So you don’t want to read it? Fair enough. I understand. Plenty don’t. Why not just put it back in the drawer? Your game seems quite funny, but as it extends itself and encompasses more and more Bibles, you are in a way insulting and rejecting the love and concern of hosts of people who care about others. You may not like their way of caring – but that is what it stems from. If you ever read some of the Gideon bulletins, you will hear of some of the heart-rending stories of those on life’s knife edge who have been helped in a significant way by finding a Bible in a hotel room – people who previously would never have touched one yet remain truly grateful that they did. Your game may the reason that some people miss out on some help at a crucial moment in their lives. You may never know.
Please re-think what you are promoting. I am sure you are a reasonable person (as well as obviously a fun one) so please have a re-think.
Best wishes,
Anthea
Dear Anthea:
If elderly women are wasting part of their meagre pensions to put Bibles in hotel rooms, then THAT is the problem. Instead of hassling me about interfering with those Bibles, why not hassle the Gideons organization for weaseling money out of those elderly ladies?
You ask why I don't "just put it back in the drawer". I don't do that because I think Christianity is harmful. I'm sure the love and caring those elderly women feel is real. I encourage them - as should you - to channel it into something that actually helps people in need, instead of sucking them into a cult when they're at their most vulnerable.
You refer to testimonials by people who say they were helped by finding a Bible in their hotel room. Fair enough. Have you ever read any of the testimonials by those who've thrown off the shackles of religion, and felt so much better for it? Yet you won't find atheists taking advantage of hotel patrons by slipping our literature into their rooms. It's not that we care any less than those elderly ladies. It's that we think taking advantage of a captive audience like that is crass, manipulative, and WRONG.
Thank you for presuming that I'm a reasonable person. I try to be. And that's WHY I come up with stuff like the Hide the Bible game.
-Jeff Dee
Labels: atheism, bible, gideon, hotel
posted by Jeff Dee @ 9:37 AM
6 Comments:
Preach it, brother!
Magical thinking is harmful. It leads people to throw away their money on lottery tickets and bibles for strangers.
I need to start a cult. Easy money.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Repost:
My five year old daughter likes to take the Gideon bibles and play with them - she calls them Wizard Books and runs around casting spells from them... It's kind of like Live Action Role Playing!
As such I wholeheartedly support any kind of shennanigans involving Gideon bibles - I'm a fan of bookmarking and highlighting the "wife grabbing of genitals" law - you know, the important stuff.
The justification given that "These bibles have helped people so we should just let them carry on," irritates me. Religion is a yoke, a control mechanism that prays on the weak. Weak people will fall for religious mumbo jumbo much easier than those with a clear sense of purpose in life hence why so many churches and cults hang around at fresher's fairs at college/uni waiting to hoover up young people who are homesick and lonely.
I'm reminded of when a soccer player in the UK 'Fabrice Muamba' collapsed on the pitch suffering a massive heart attack, and millions prayed to God for him and he recovered. Hey guys, instead of saying "God did it!" Why not point the finger of thanks at modern medical science. Instead of putting pennies into the church collection plate, why not donate that money to a research lab focusing on curing heart disease...or a cancer research charity, or a diabetes charity, etc.
I've been positively affected in the past by some Satanist literature. Think I'll start leaving some of those books in hotel rooms.
Also porn.
How about spreading pamphlets of The Euthyphro and maybe more selected dialogues of Plato?
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