[IronJack]

The Bibles were originally placed to be a comfort and to provide spiritual support for men who were traveling on business. A lot of them were away from family and got lonely on the road, and the thought was that having a Bible nearby might lead them from temptation and depression.

I used to make it a point, when I stayed in a hotel, to open the Gideon Bible to any random passage and see if it was relevant to my current situation. It was the last thing I would do before I checked out, and it was surprising how often it seemed to speak to me. Of course, there were also times when the passage was about the lineage of some Old Testament prophet and had nothing to do with what was going on in my life at the time.

[elcid1970]

Marxist writer Barbara Ehrenreich used to boast about her atheist father who stole the Gideon Bible from every room he stayed in and then proudly piled them up in stacks in his living room.

Yeah, tolerance.

[mdmathis6]

“lineage of some Old Testament prophet and had nothing to do with what was going on in my life at the time”

Sure it does...the lineages tell us that we have only a short span to live righteously or unrighteously before God...then we die!