Because I decided over ten years ago to not have a television in my home watching the odd, clean movie in my motel room is also a bit of a treat. (I say 'odd' because it isn't too often the movies are 'clean'.) One has to be so careful these days with all the moral filth on the tube.
A recent stay in a motel is a case in point. As I searched for something else to look at, I found it refreshing to find a Gideon's Bible in one of the drawers. (No, Horace, Gideon didn't lose it; it was named after a Bible character who took on the enemy against all odds – and won.)
I am not sure what side of the Bible-in-a motel-room argument you come down, but I am sure you know my bias. I think it's great that the Good Book is there to offset the garbage on the tube, to say nothing of other temptations that lurk in a near-empty motel room.
I know a little about the organization that places these Bibles in motel and hotel rooms, the same one that goes to every grade five class right across North America. They are common, everyday working stiffs, like you and me, who understand that this Book is very important. I actually do know some the local men personally and I deeply admire their commitment to such a cause.
This is refreshing to me, because in the multi-cultural society that we live in, often the first expression of religious truth that ever gets the boot from the public square is the evangelical one. As we pander to everything and anything that smacks of 'spiritual,' it seems terribly ironic that the established faith of our forefathers is in jeopardy of being completely denied equal rights.
That, then, was part of my relief to see a Gideon's Bible in the hotel room. Good to see it hasn't been thrown out - at least not yet.
If you are part of the generation who was raised without even any token knowledge of the Scriptures, let me tell you just a little about Gideon. We discover him first hiding in a winepress, beating out his father's wheat. His people were being attacked at harvest by their perpetual nemesis, the Midianites. He overcame his fears and became quite a military leader.
To make a long (and very captivating) story short, he leads his ragtag army into the fray, only to watch in disbelief as his few thousand men are reduced to a few hundred men (300 in all), to fight the thousands upon thousands of Midianites. (You can read the rest of the story in the Good Book at home; if you don't have one there, take a night in a reputable motel – they'll have one).
My point is that we are depriving our people of good alternatives when we deny them an opportunity to at least be exposed to the Bible, be they travellers of students. Good on the public, separate, and colony schools that still allow the 'Gideons' to step into a classroom for a few minutes to hand out free Bibles to students. And shame on those same schools that forbid a simple gift of moral reading. It is a given that if we want a balanced religious voice in our culture, let's at least include this one.
If that book is so outdated and so useless, why all the fuss? What is there to be afraid of? Such a antiquated piece of literature can't do anyone any harm, can it? It is so important to be open-minded and flexible to these things. A little bit of truth and morality never hurt anyone.
Especially in a motel room.
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