Gideons International

A Gideon member placing a Bible in a motel room

The interior of Room 19, Central House Hotel located at 1005 Wisconsin Avenue in Boscobel, Wisconsin, kept in the style it was in September 1898 when founders of the Gideons met here

Gideons International is an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible in over 94 languages and 194 countries of the world, most famously in hotel and motel rooms. The organization was founded in 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin, as an early American parachurch organization dedicated to Christian evangelism. It began distributing free Bibles, the work it is chiefly known for, in 1908, when the first Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.

Nearly 79 million Gideon Scriptures were given out in 2009. Close to 1.7 billion have been distributed since 1908.

Gideons International is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

History

The organization, an early American parachurch organization dedicated to Christian evangelism, was founded in 1899 at the YMCA in Janesville, Wisconsin by two traveling businessmen who met by chance when they shared a hotel room at the Central House Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin and refined their idea in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. It began distributing free Bibles, the work it is chiefly known for, in 1908, when the first Bibles were placed in the rooms of the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. The local railway station at the time was named Iron Mountain, causing confusion as to the name of the town.

The organization describes its link to the story of Gideon:

Gideon was a man who was willing to do exactly what God wanted him to do, regardless of his own judgment as to the plans or results. Humility, faith, and obedience were his great elements of character. This is the standard that The Gideons International is trying to establish in all its members, each man to be ready to do God's will at any time, at any place, and in any way that the Holy Spirit leads.

In keeping with this symbolism, the symbol of the Gideons is a two-handled pitcher and torch, recalling Gideon's victory over the Midianites as described in Judges, Chapter 7.

In addition to their well-known hotel-room Bibles, the Gideons also distribute Bibles to members of the military of various countries, to hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, MPs and students. A typical Gideon Bible or New Testament contains:

• a short preface;
• a pamphlet suggesting Bible verses that may be of assistance in various sorts of trouble;
• translations of John 3:16 into a variety of languages and scripts;
• the Bible text itself, without notes, references, or any other reference matter other than chapter and verse headings — this can either be the full Bible (typical of the copies placed in hotel rooms), or just the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs (typical of the copies handed out as gifts to individuals);
• a short description of Biblical salvation, with Biblical quotations, and a place for the reader to sign and date their confession of Jesus (this is especially common in the shorter editions the New Testament and Psalms).

Colors of Testaments distributed

The covers of the New Testaments distributed by the Gideons are color coded based on which groups they're meant for:

• Orange: for sidewalk distribution to middle/high school students
• Green: for college/university students
• Red: for in-school distribution to Middle/High school students
• Digital Camouflage/Desert Camouflage: for the military
• Dark blue: for law enforcement personnel, firefighters, and EMTs
• White: for medical professionals
• Light blue: for distribution by the Auxiliary only
• Brown: personal worker's testaments (for individual witnessing by Gideons)
• Periwinkle: personal worker's testaments (for individual witnessing by the Auxiliary)

Membership

The Gideons draw their volunteer members from many (although not all) Christian denominations, as described in Article 3 of the Gideon Constitution.

Distribution of Bibles during school hours

For several years, the South Iron R-1 School District in Missouri allowed Gideons International to distribute Bibles to fifth-grade students during class time. Americans United for Separation of Church and State brought suit against the school district, bringing an end to this practice.

In 2009, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a lower court ruling that found the South Iron district's distribution of Bibles to the schoolchildren in their classrooms was unconstitutional. But the court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the district can enact a new policy permitting "any printed material" approved by the superintendent to be distributed outside classroom time.

The tradition of handing out small Gideon New Testaments continues in many British secondary schools. The British state school system has far less of a separation between church and state compared to the American example above, e.g. Christian prayers and hymns often take place in primary school assemblies. Such practices are regarded by many in the UK as a basic violation of Article 14 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child establishing freedom of religion for children and the rights of parents to provide guidance on religion. While a criminal or civil prosecution of the Gideons has yet to take place on this basis, some schools have banned the Gideon group. The Upland Unified School District allows the Gideons to distribute bibles outside of its school premises after school.

Popular culture references

The placement of Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms has made the Gideon Bible a frequent subject for comment in popular culture.

Music

• The Beatles – song – "Rocky Raccoon" - "Rocky Raccoon, checked in to his room, only to find Gideon's Bible."
• Beulah – song – "Maroon Bible"
• Bill Hicks – comedy album – Rant in E-Minor, He speculates how Gideons operate and considers capturing and studying them as a hobby.
• Clutch – song – "Profits of Doom" – "Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, Gideon is knocking in your hotel while you slumber."
• Fall Out Boy – song – "XO"
• Frank Zappa – song – "Room Service"
• Jay Brannan - song - "Home" - "Why don't the Gideons leave condoms in the drawer? Bibles don't save many people anymore."
• Jethro Tull – song – "Locomotive Breath" - "He picks up Gideon's Bible, open at page one."
• John Cale – song – "Gideon's Bible"
• Manic Street Preachers – album – The Holy Bible. It included the lyrics "I know I believe in nothing but it is my nothing" and "All I preach is extinction". Of the album title, Richey Edwards (lyricist) said "In every hotel in the world, the only constant is the Holy Bible."
• My Morning Jacket – song – "Gideon"
• Pedro The Lion – song – "Rapture" in the line "Gideon is in the drawer, clothes scattered on the floor."
• State Radio – song – "Rash of Robberies"
• Jimmy Buffett – song – "This Hotel Room" – "Two big chairs sitting side by side, with a Holy Bible and a TV Guide."
• George Strait - song - "Maria"
• Steve Goodman - Song - This Hotel Room
• Vienna Teng - song - "Homecoming (Walter's Song)"
• Eminem - song "No Love" feat. Lil' Wayne
• Wormburner - album - Placed by the Gideons (Wax Off Records / Dive Records)

Film

In the 1996 film Mission: Impossible, Ethan Hunt stumbles upon a clue as to the identity of a corrupt agent when he notices that the Bible in his team's safe house is a Gideon's Bible from the Drake Hotel in Chicago. When this clue is later revealed to the agent (played by Jon Voight), he remarks, "They stamped it, didn't they? Those damn Gideons."

In the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe's character sings, "I'll be with my diary and that book by Mr. Gideon."

In the 2000 film Memento, Leonard Shelby finds himself in a hotel, unable to remember how he got there and says "It's just an anonymous room. There's nothing in the drawers. But you look anyway. Nothing except the Gideon bible, which I, of course, read religiously."

In the musical Guys and Dolls (originally a play), Sky Masterson mentions that the only two things that have been in every hotel room in the country are "Sky Masterson and the Gideon Bible", and that he can recite the book by heart.

In the 1974 film Executive Action, the Team A operations chief (Ed Lauter) uses a Gideon Bible to decode instructions for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In an opening scene of the 1993 film Coneheads, Jane Curtin's character, Prymaat Conehead, is seen reading the Gideon's Bible in a hotel room and laughing hysterically.

Television

In "Back in the Red: Part III", an episode of the British science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf, Arnold Rimmer and Dave Lister find a Gideon Bible in their prison cell. Lister, unaware of Gideons International, comments, "He [Gideon] follows me everywhere, that bloke! I was staying in a hotel once, he left his bible behind there, as well. And two years later, another hotel, dozy git left it behind again!"

In the television series "Persons Unknown", characters wake up in a hotel room, and find a key inside a Gideon Bible to let them out of their rooms, only to find they are trapped in a small ghost town.

Computer games

In the adventure game Overseer from Access Software the main character Tex Murphy finds a Gideons bible in one of the rooms of the mansion of the main antagonist of the game. This is kind of a wordplay since the name of the said villain is J. Saint Gideon.

Literature

In Yann Martel's book, Life of Pi, Pi, the protagonist of the novel, mentions his love for books and how, upon encountering a Bible in a hotel in Canada, burst into tears and immediately sent a note and money to the Gideons urging them to spread their distribution of Bibles to less thought-of places.

In Kurt Vonnegut's book Slaughterhouse 5 the author, upon reading a Gideon bible placed in his motel room, observes similarities between himself and Lot's wife; and also between the Bombing of Dresden and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by God in the bible.

In Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, one of the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse finds a Gideon Bible in a motel while on the run from the law.

In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Francie's aunt Sissy obtains a copy of Gideon's Bible from a hotel room for her.

In Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler, the title character's father Reuben Shapiro has a unique understanding of the bible based upon his days as a prize-fighter, when the only thing to do in the hotel room was read Gideon's Bible.

In Sin City: Hell and Back by Frank Miller the Femme fatale-assassin Delia offers to the main protagonist Wallace to "fetch him the Gideon" while they rest in a motel, after he repeatedly turned down her advances.

Urban legends

There are several urban legends in circulation about the Gideons. One is that money is sometimes left behind in the Bibles placed in hotel rooms to reward the next person who opens the Bible looking for guidance or solace. Snopes.Com classified this legend as being of indeterminate origin and concluded that any money left in Bibles was far more likely to have been placed there for safe-keeping by a former guest. Another version of this legend states that hundred dollar bills are placed in the Bibles as a reward or as an act of charity. On occasion, some members of Where's George leave marked dollar bills in the Bibles in hopes of getting "serendipitous" hits.

See also

• The Pocket Testament League

External links

• The Gideons International official site