“I would actually be quite surprised to go into any Christian church of any denomination, to find Bibles provided for all the members in the pews...I would actually expect that situation to the unusual one...”
Then be surprised. I’ve not ever been in a Christian church that DIDN’T provide a pew bible.
Well, I have been in many Methodist churches in Chicago, large and small, and never saw Bibles in the Pews..when we lived rural North carolina, we went to a medium sized Baptist church, and they never had Bibles in the pews either...and I do consider both Baptists and Methodists to be Christians...so this seems not to be a cut and dry thing...