Map, Travelodge
One of England's largest hotel chains, Travelodge is reported to be removing Bibles from its rooms in light of the nation's growing "multicultural" society. The Church of England has called the hotel's decision both "tragic and bizarre".
A Travelodge spokesman revealed in an interview with The Daily Mail that, "The reason is because of diversity. With the country being increasingly multicultural, we didn't feel it was appropriate to just have the Bible because there are people of other religions. People were also taking Bibles away and with the redesign of the rooms, it was felt that it would be better to remove them."
Another insider explained that the hotel does not want to offend any customers with diverse cultural backgrounds, Christian or not Christian. He added that any guest staying at the hotel who would like a Bible could pick one up at any of the hotel's reception desks across the country. He added that so far, the hotel has not received any feedback from customers regarding this decision.
Travelodge which is known to have 500 hotels across the United Kingdom was reported to have removed all the Bibles along with the drawers they were kept in during refurbishment. The Bibles were provided to the hotel for free by the ministry, Gideons International.
A Church of England spokesman condemned the decision and the reasoning behind it and said: "It seems both tragic and bizarre that hotels would remove the word of God for the sake of ergonomic design, economic incentive or a spurious definition of the word 'diversity.'" However other hotel chains in England are known to be keeping the Bibles within their facilities including the Premier Inn and InterContinental Hotel.
Similar happenings regarding the removal of religiously affiliated materials occurred in the U.S. Air Force and Navy only recently. However in both cases, the USAF and Navy was reported to have reversed their initial decisions to remove Bibles from their quarters, following complaints from atheist groups who had first requested their removal.
