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.
Just to add an extra dystopian layer: the separation of church and state doesn’t apply, because the prisons are all privately-owned and operated.
In another comment, OP said it was county jail which would be local government-operated.
That is called Christian nationalism.
Who Cares about the Constitution?
-Republicans who Defend School Shootings with the Constitution!
Constantly under attack?
When was it ever separate?
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.
There’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
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
Have you never watched the news? Southern states only accept two religions as valid in any context: Christianity and GUNS.
don’t forget capitalism, capitalism is the real religion, and the dollar is it’s icon.
We have freedom of religion. You can be any kind of Christian you want.
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.
Not 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.
Fun 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”
You’re in the South. It’s a Christian theocracy. I’m surprised that you’re surprised.
Was in the south got my ass straight out of there once I became a traveling nurse.
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.
Jesus freaks are donating them to the jails/prisons
Same with hotels
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.
I believe the average American inmate is more likely to want a Bible than a Quran.
that’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.”
Take that back, Chick Tracts are gold.
I believe the average American is more likely not to give a shit about either.
What are you talking about? Religion is huge in prisons
So is sodomy, and abuse in there… Very odd how they all correlate, eh?
