stolen bibles
 

i've heard and been involved in a debate over a bible taken from a hotel room... along with all the towels, lol... the bible was needed for a class that next day soo the jew of the group stole it for the person and gave it to them later


is it just simply wrong and sinful to steal a hotel bible... or... were they put there and intended for the hotel visitor to take the bible home, for like making more people religious.... and are they given to the hotels for free for that reason, or do the hotels just buy them?



my reccommendation for hte person who recieved it was to just mail it back at the end of the semister or when he/she gets it back.... someone told her they put them there for people to take, while others tease him/her and say she's going to hell...


what do you guys thinks?

They are there for the taking, though they would like a donation.

Gideons

Sure no problem, just when that person is reading along and it looks like stealing is going to be condemned, skip to the next chapter. As long as you don't know what you did is wrong, it's ok.

Seriously though, it's cool. They are placed there in the hopes that someone will take one and read it.

"the jew of the group"?

Are you just being racially insulting or are you refering to this person's religion?


Mr Mephisto

he's jewish and therefore he said he has no problems with taking it or doing anything to it... since it wasn't from his religion, it didn't have real meaning to him, as it would a christian

OK. Well, I'm not familiar with the Torah, but I suspect the Jewish faith also frowns upon theft?

Having said that, I'm not sure if it's considered theft as I believe the Gideons (who place many if not most hotel room Bibles) expect people to take them with them.

Can't say it's something I've ever really thought about. I don't study the Bible.


Mr Mephisto

Bill Hicks: Who are the fucking Gideons? Ever met one? No! Ever seen one? No! But they're all over the fucking world, putting bibles in hotel rooms! Every hotel room: "This bible was placed here by a Gideon." I've been here all day, I ain't seen shit. I saw the house keeper come and go, I saw the mini-bar guy come and go, I'd never laid eyes on a fucking Gideon. What are they, ninjas? Where are they? Where are they from, Gidea? What the fuck are these people? I'm gonna capture a Gideon. I'm gonna make that my hobby. I'm gonna call the front next one day, "yeah, I don't seem to have a bible in my room."


Sorry, couldn't help it. I'm sure that taking a bible from a hotel room is not a problem, both legally or spiritually.

christianity and judism are rather close and do share writings, some of whats in that bible is in the jewish books...... they arn't quite that far away as you would think... then again i didn't do good in that class :D

Sometimes I read a thread title and I misread it completely.

I could've sworn the title of this thread was "stolen babies"

I have nothing more to contribute to this thread except to say that it's hot in hell, bring a swimsuit.

Or at least a towel to sit on, no?

So...I'm confused..you said you stole the towels AND the Bible, but you're only worried about the book? Did "the Jew" steal those as well or were others in your group breaking a commandmant from our Lord? It doesn't matter if he/she mails it back as the damage as been done and according to our Lord's Word he/she will be sent to Hell accordingly to spend near eternity repenting for their awful theft of the Holy Scripture.

;) I joke.

If you want to get all uppity about it, stealing is stealing. End of story. There are no "loopholes." At least none I've been able to find. So, while "the Jew" may have stolen it, he/she accepted it knowing it was stolen and hence as placed her eternal soul on the pathway to damnation.

Oops, there I go again, sorry.

Hotels get pissed when you steal towels. Some of them even send you an invoice in the mail for the cost of the stolen towels. I've never considered stealing a bible; I'd take the toilet paper first.

I thought the hotels don't even pay for the bibles... the gideons give them to the hotels for free...

I think what he means is that the Bible is not considered sacred to a Jew. Stealing is considered wrong pretty much EVERYWHERE, but it's normally considered worse to steal something that is recognized as sacred.

What were y'all doing in a hotel? :D That might be more cause for sinning that taking a bible that was placed there.

I'd put the hotel room bible in the same category as the hotel toiletries, they are there for your use, and if you want to take them, g'head. Most bibles I've seen, generally request a donation for the bible, but it's only suggested. Taking the towels or the bathrobe (or blowdryer, sheets, etc) is stealing...

Umm... I don't have a Gideon bible handy, but isn't the first half of it the Old Testament? Or did he tear the book in half and only take the New Testament with him?

The way I look at it, something like stealing can be defined in two ways: technical and moral. Technically, it appears to me that what he did was not stealing. A donation (so others have stated) is requested but not required and people are apparently welcome to take the bibles. Morally, however, I think the issue goes to the intentions of your friend and not the act itself. As far as he was aware, he was taking the bible without permission and, despite the technical aspect, it is still stealing in terms of doing the right thing.

Moses brought those 10 commandment thingies down from the mountain smack dab in the middle of the Torah. Thou most definitely shalt not steal, be you Christian, Muslim or Jew.

For that matter theft fucks with your karma pretty good if you're Hindu. And it's certainly not in keeping with the teachings of the Buddha, or the Way of the Tao. But as far as I know, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob is the only deity actually on record about it.

That said, the bible is there for you to take. They put it there specifically so you'll take it and read it. They request a donation, but it's no big woop if you don't give. They'll replace it before the week is out. Now SEND BACK THOSE TOWELS!! ;)

Back when I was dumb (still debatable I guess) we used to smoke joints with bible paper. It wasn't the best tasting thing in the world but it got the job done..

now to the topic at hand, I don't see how it could be wrong if they were placed there to be read and used by people. The Gideons donate them in hopes that someone will take it and read it. So that's not stealing. As far as the towels go, that's not stealing either.. that's just extended borrowing ;)

This is funny stuff, although one of my high school math teachers really was a Gideon. It seems that the Gideons are also radically opposed to capital punishment, and she told us all about this poor young guy she was trying to help out on Death Row in our state capitol. She went on and on about this guy and what a good person he was, blah blah blah. And then she mentioned his name...

He was our town's worst mass murderer and none of us wanted to see this guy get away with anything except some free electricity.

Ironically enough, it was my future father-in-law who prosecuted him and got him sentenced to death.

You're not the only one, thats what I read too

Your town has enough mass murderers for there to be a "worst"!?

As far as I know, my town hasn't had even ONE mass murderer.

Where is it you live again?

Alabama.

Well, we've had people murder two or three at a time (last Spring some old guy killed three guys in a group of four that were joy-riding on his land), but this guy I'm talking about wiped out portions of two different families in one horrific Summer night. If I remember correctly, there were only two survivors when he was finished (one hid in the closet and the other pretended to be dead). As it turned out, the very two who survived were the specific ones he was trying to kill, and everybody else just happened to be in the way. He even "murdered" a doll that he mistook for a sleeping child.

It took about a week to catch him, and our whole town was paralyzed with fear until then. My father secured our house (from basement to attic) every night with his gun to make sure this guy wasn't hiding out there, and none of us were allowed out of the house until he was caught.

Ah. Hence the banjo on your knee in your avatar. :thumbsup:

/threadjack

Edit: I know, that's not a banjo, it's a guitar.

Edit: I know, that's not you, that's Bugs Bunny.

Edit: I know, sombreros have nothing to do with Alabama. /threadjack, dammit!

heres some clarifications, i had no part in any of the stealing of the bible or towels


i'm religious and involved in church and condem stealing.... the person who the bible was taken for was flustered about the idea because she knew it was really realllly bad... it was mentioned about how they were given to the hotels for people to take by that one group, soo i posted it here to see whats the real scoop, soo i could relay the info to ease her mind...


btw, i offered her one of my bibles after she was given it




and i'm a church deacon :thumbsup:

A friend of mine, who did some time on the inside, told me something similar. He said it's because the paper is so thin and readily available that makes it such an obvioius choice to roll with.

I was skeptical at the time and I gave him quite a bit of shit over it, but I guess it turns out he was right. I guess I owe him an apology. :)

I've heard of people in jail/prison doing that also. We really did it just for the hell of it I guess.. maybe we were trying to be bad ass.. go figure :rolleyes: