Bibles in hotel rooms

Scandic hotels in Sweden decided to remove the bible from all their hotel rooms about a month ago. This caused the Swedish church along with several smaller churches to call a boycott against Scandic. The reason for removing the bibles was, according to Scandic, the lack of drawers. Instead they were to offer bibles, Korans and other holy books in the lobby. That you might bring to your room.

The whole thing led a hectic debate between those who were happy about the decision (see Swedish Humanist association) and the ones who thought that the bible ought to be there (see the Swedish church, other Christian groups in Sweden, but no non-Christian groups) due to tradition and the spiritual need of those who end up in the hotel rooms. Some even claimed that it's was terrible of Scandic to keep the porn available but not the bible.

I am a member of the Swedish Humanist association so what I write is probably not to the liking of members of any church, but I want to reflect upon the matter. I have no interest in whether or not the bible is the word of god but try instead to focus on whether or not you can (from my point of view) morally justify bibles in hotel rooms. Now, on to my analysis.

First of all, Sweden today has several cultural minorities represented, Muslims, Buddhists and so on. Why should Christians have the right to push their holy book into the living room of others? I have tried to justify this, but the only fact that is slightly relevant is that Sweden has been a Christian nation is not an argument in favour of keeping them. History is important, but why should we not take into account the changes in recent years? Why did not any Muslims complain? One might wonder.

Secondly, why should a chain of hotels force a bible into the bedroom of their customers? Are the customers not capable of bringing their own holy books? Do Scandic want their customers to read the bible? Should we force ideals and laws upon people and not leave it up to them to decide what to read for leisure? I would certainly feel uncomfortable to find Mein Kampf in my drawer when I checked into a hotel. Hell, I want the Communist Manifesto, the Koran and all other holy books in a private library in my hotel room! That would at least be fair. Or perhaps... why not let people go down to the lobby and make an active choice on what to read?

Lastly, I was rather annoyed by the claims of the porn offered on the TV to be a problem. There is an important difference between the porn and the bible. I choose to bring the porn into my room, if I want to see it, I order it. The bible is there whether I want it to or not. If you don't want to watch any porn, fine... just go down to the lobby and bring a bible instead? Perhaps they will even care to bring it to your room for a small charge? Or watch God channel for that matter.

Today, I found that Scandic will keep the bibles. A pity, I liked the way things were going. Now a bunch of fundamentalists have once again proven to prevent people from making active choices when it comes to their view on life and all that it brings.

Link to the latest SvD article (in Swedish). You can find links to the older articles in the series from the list inside the article.