Gideons International (also known as Gideon's Bible) 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.[1]
Gideons International is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
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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 in Boscobel, Wisconsin and refined their idea in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.[2] 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.[3] The local railway station at the time was named Iron Mountain, causing confusion as to the name of the town.[4]
The organization describes its link to the story of Gideon:
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:
The Gideons principally use the King James Version for their Bibles.[5] The Gideons also distribute New King James Bibles and Testaments, which they refer to as "Modern English Version" (MEV) Bibles and Testaments. According to the Gideon Guidebook, these MEV Scriptures are used as a supplement to the KJV Bibles. Typically, MEV Bibles are allowed to be distributed only when either the Bible purchaser, Hotel, or the recipient specifies a desire for a modern Bible.
The covers of the New Testaments distributed by the Gideons are color coded based on which groups they're meant for:
The Gideons draw their volunteer members from many (although not all) Christian denominations, as described in Article 3 of the Gideon Constitution.
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.[6]
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.[7]
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.[8] The Upland Unified School District allows the Gideons to distribute bibles outside of its school premises after school.
The placement of Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms has made the Gideon Bible a frequent subject for comment in popular culture.
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.
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!" [10]
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.[11]
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.
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.
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.[12] Another version of this legend states that hundred dollar bills are placed in the bibles as a reward or as an act of charity.[13] On occasion, some members of Where's George leave marked dollar bills in the bibles in hopes of getting "serendipitous" hits.