Gideon Bibles
Much work needs to be done to combat the intrusion of religion to a captive audience as the Gideons distribute 120 Bibles per minute. Members of The Gideons International
distribute Bibles in 181 countries in 82 languages. They focus on five primary areas:
- Hotels and Motels
- Hospitals, Nursing Homes, and Domestic Violence Shelters
- Schools, Colleges, and Universities
- The Military, Law Enforcement Personnel, Firefighters, and EMTs
- Prisons and Jails
The Gideons provide Bibles to Hotels for free under the condition that the proprietors keep them in the room. The next time you travel and stay in a hotel or motel, ask for a Bible-free room. Watch how quickly the proprietors go back on their word to the Gideons in oder to get your money. If you can't get the room Bible-free, place warning stickers on the Bible and expose Gideon. Print your own stickers. Play a game of "Hide The Bible"! The site suggest a number of hiding places but i bet you can find others. Support the effort to Remove That Bible! The folks at RomoveThatBible.com provide a template letter of complaint to the hotel management and provide links to bookmarks to place in the Bible. Sign their petition to have bibles removed from hotel rooms.
Hospitals, shelters and the like which are county owned or otherwise government owned have no business accepting Bibles for distribution to patients or residents. If they are going to own Bibles, they should at least acquire other "holy books" as well so that they may accommodate everyone equally. Check the status of this practice at the local hospital.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that an Indiana school district's policy and practice permitting representatives of Gideon International to distribute Bibles in public schools during school hours violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. See Berger v. Rensselaer Central School Corp., 982 F.2d 1160 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, U.S., 113 S.Ct. 2344 (1993). So, obviously, the Gideons are fully aware of the illegality of this practice but they continue anyway. Their current strategy is to cease distribution at a school after the first complaint, thereby avoiding controversy, legal costs and most importantly to them, legal precedent. Immediately report any appearance of a Gideons representative at one of your public schools.
The military, law enforcement and many firefighters are government employees. If these people feel it necessary to have a bible with them on the job, that's fine. But for a government body to accept them from an outside group whose stated mission is "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ" is absolutely inappropriate. There has been quite a bit of controversy lately about the christian bigotry in the ranks of the military.