I have been to jail in the US. How come they always offer a bible instead of offering you different religious books like a quran?
I have been to jail in the US. How come they always offer a bible instead of offering you different religious books like a quran?
Because the separation of church and state in America is constantly under attack and there's a large political movement to make America officially Christian.
162Just to add an extra dystopian layer: the separation of church and state doesn't apply, because the prisons are all privately-owned and operated.
44In another comment, OP said it was county jail which would be local government-operated.
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That is called Christian nationalism.
15Who Cares about the Constitution?
-Republicans who Defend School Shootings with the Constitution!
5Constantly under attack?
When was it ever separate?
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theres a singular group of bible-thumpers who do the bible thing in hotels. the hotels dont really give a shit
i like to slip condoms in them
e. the gideons i think...
81I met a fundamentalist Christian a few years ago, who just came back from overseas. She flew Air Emirates, an openly Muslim airline. She recounted with a malicious smugness how she replaced the Qurans in the seats with bibles. I asked her what good she thought that would do - did she think such a disrespeful act, done with malice, would encourage them to invite Jesus to their bosom. She frowned heavily and said nothing. I asked why even use an airline you have so much hatred for, why not use a good, clean-living, Christian™ airline? She squirmed and mumbled something about Air Emirates being the cheapest. I asked her if someone replaced her bible with a Quran on a plane, would she be receptive to the message of the Quran, or would she just be offended that someone is being malicious towards her holy book of choice. She looked like she was going to cry, and walked away.
I have a feeling airlines don't really care either.
45Definitely sourced a make-shift rolling paper or two from those things.
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I guarantee you the bibles in question are provided by some local (private) fundamentalist organization. There's no way the prison is spending its own money on that. So then you've got to look at who is the biggest group of religion-peddlers to find your most likely source.
In America at present, the various Christianity-adjacent sects are basically the only religious groups out proselytizing in any significant numbers. I suspect that compared to the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Aventists, and assorted Evangelical/Baptist types, everyone else is basically just a rounding error.
If experience is any judge, plenty of dudes go into prison and come out Muslim. So Allah must still find them somehow.
41There’s no way the prison is spending its own money on that.
You underestimate a) the South, and b) what jails can get away with
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Probably sponsored by a local Church. I'm sure that prisons in areas with large Jewish, Muslim, etc. populations have similar programs.
Talking out of my ass here, I can't imagine it would be that difficult for someone to get a holy book from a different religion, though
34Have you never watched the news? Southern states only accept two religions as valid in any context: Christianity and GUNS.
29don't forget capitalism, capitalism is the real religion, and the dollar is it's icon.
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We have freedom of religion. You can be any kind of Christian you want.
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They don't... I'm guessing you might have done time in a state prison?
In the feds you can request any approved religious texts you want. Typically the chapel will have said materials available for consumption.
Also most prisons will have large Muslim and Hebrew Israelite populations.
20Not prison but county jail in AR. When I was young and stupid. When I was put into my cell or whatever they gave me a bible and I said I don't need it and they said take it anyway because you are going to need it. I was raised by mom and dad. Dad was a catcholic mom was a baptist so I had to read the whole stupid thing because otherwise mom would give us an ass whooping. But never read the Quran so I thought if they offered or forced a bible on you than you should be able to get a Quran. As an agnostic I thought it was really fucked up when they told me no.
7Fun fact, you can't get a Quran unless it's in Quoranic Arabic. Translations aren't considered to be the Quoran, but are instead called things like "Interpretations of the Meaning of the Holy Quran in the English Language"
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When I was in basic training in the U.S. Army in the late '90s, we were also offered free bibles and rosary beads and no other religious materials, although there were various services for many religions on Sundays that you were allowed to attend.
14I guess scheduling for different days would be too difficult, but Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath (technically starting at night fall on Friday night) and Friday prayers are the most significant to Muslims.
I don't know if other religions have other special days.
1Yeah, they never gave a shit about that, it was all religious services on Sundays only. If I remember correctly there was Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhist services, and I think maybe Wiccan.
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Jesus freaks are donating them to the jails/prisons
12Same with hotels
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It's a slippery slope. There's no sense or consistency to allowing books of religion but not books of philosophy, which are also often not credible. Some new age manosphere grifter would love to get their trash into jail. Or whatever's going as the Celestine Prophecy or the Secret these days. Or The Game, lol
Since they're westerners there at the jail in Kentucky, I'd like some David Hume or John Locke. Kant is good, requires a lot of focus, might get you twisted up with anxiety, Marx or Hegel if you're even more masochistic. it would be amazing to sneak in some 20th century Spanish antifascist text, but that might turn out to be anachronistic. I'd say you need a dictionary for much of this, but same with the bible.
11I believe the average American inmate is more likely to want a Bible than a Quran.
1that's not why.
The bibles are donated in a feeble attempt to convert the "wicked". In any case, mostly the free-bible programs are a grift scamming the well-meaning people who donate funds for it. The bibles aren't quite that expensive, and the people soliciting the donations are taking a cut. The grift offers 'feel good' vibes with little effort to the donors.
same as the people selling tracts for people to hand out, really. The tracts are useless. nobody ever saw a tract and was like "WOW I'm a heathen! I should repent!" (at most, people get a chuckle before littering on the street corner.) but the people selling the tract make a lot of money.
fun fact: the typical gideon bible isn't a complete bible. Cuts out a lot of the "And god smote that asshole for being an asshole," and "God smokte that asshole because he smote his brother, and the guy refused to get his brother's wife prego"; also the child rape. the genocide. the collecting foreskins. Oh, and the other genocide. The incest. And that other-other genocide. and. uh. well. basically all the stuff that's likely to get people to go "huh. that's pretty fucked up."
12Take that back, Chick Tracts are gold.
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