STUTTGART -- Many hotel guests expect to find a Bible in their room. They may be surprised to find an additional book on Buddhist meditation in some German hotels.

"The books on Buddha have been given to us free of charge by a Japanese organization," Ulrike Herrmann of the InterCity Hotel in Stuttgart told the evangelical new agency "idea". The management would also place copies of the Koran in hotel rooms, if they were on offer, she said.

The hotel management would exercise caution, however, with brochures provided by Scientology. The organization is monitored in some federal states by agencies for the protection of the constitution.

The German branch of the Gideon association, which places Bibles in hotel rooms, is not unduly worried by the competition. "The living word is more attractive than a dead book," commented Johannes Wendel, Gideon director for Germany.

Last year German Gideons placed 765,000 New Testaments in hotels, hospitals and medical consulting rooms.
 

 

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Other articles by Wolfgang Polzer: Infants watch TV before they walk and talk

New "Darfur" in Northern Sudan?  | Islam is Taking a Grip on Europe

Three Evangelicals Murdered in Turkey | Persecution Coming to the West

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Wolfgang Polzer (56), is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency  (idea)  Wetzlar (Germany), which he joined in 1981. In all, he has spent 30 years in Christian media.

Tel: +49-6441-915102, Fax: +49-6441-915118
E-Mail: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de  - Internet: www.idea.de
Postal address: idea, PO Box 1820, 35528 Wetzlar, Germany

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