The Gideons International describe themselves as an "extended missionary arm of the church" whose sole purpose is to "win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life." Simply summarized, they are Christian missionaries who give out Bibles with the goal of converting people to their belief system. There's nothing particularly alarming about that, groups like this one are pretty common. I have no problem with them being Christians. The problem with these particular missionaries is that they repeatedly try to use our public school system as a forum.
The Gideons routinely go to elementary schools and finagle permission to speak to captive audiences of children and pass out Bibles. Now, it should be fairly obvious that this use of public school classrooms and class time to promote one particular religion is a violation of the First Amendment, and time and time again this has been pointed out to local school boards and the Gideons, and the practice is put to a stop.
In the lastest such incident we can gain a little insight into the strategy the Gideons are counting on. Quite simply, they are counting on people not realizing that they do illegal missionary work in public schools. They don't fight or put up a ruckus when they are caught. They simply back off quietly and try again in another school.
Quoting from the AP article: "Bob Lambert, the president of the local Gideons chapter, said the organization would abide by the decision and did not want any publicity for fear it would compromise Bible giveaways elsewhere."
I had to read that twice when I first saw it. What unmitigated gall this group has. They're basically saying "Shhhh, don't tell anyone that we are doing this and that it's wrong, it will be harder to get away with next time if people know." They're perfectly happy to keep going to new school districts and using them to promote their religion. When ultimately someone decides to stand up and put a stop to it, they pack up and move on like a crooked carnival, forcing parents and First Amendment advocates to play a constant game of wack-a-mole, pounding them down and waiting for them to pop up somewhere else.
The Gideons are counting on you and your school district not knowing or caring about what they are doing, and far too often they succeed. Even when they are caught, they've usually already been able to advance their beliefs in another public school. It's time to fight this infringement of the Establishment Clause in schools proactively. Consider contacting your local school district superintendent and expressing your concern about the distribution of religious materials in the classroom. Ask if they have a policy on such things, find out if the Gideons or other groups visit the school (you might be surprised, some schools have been allowing this for 20 years). If necessary, point out that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has already ruled agaisnt Bible distribution by outside groups (specifically the Gideons, in fact) in the classroom. If you meet resistance, try the approach of Carl Silverman who, following a visit by the Gideons to his local school, asked for equal access to distribute literature in classes. He chose a pamphlet entitled "God is Just Pretend," excerpting the book Just Pretend: A Freethought Book for Children which compares belief in a god to belief in Santa Claus.
The Gideons know what they are doing is illegal.
They're betting you'll allow them to keep getting away with
it.
They don't want any publicity about being barred from public
schools?
Let's give them some. Spread the word.
Consider it missionary work.
