Who Are The Gideons?

Whether you check into the EconoLodge or the Ritz Carlton there is one amenity you are bound to find in your nightstand or dresser drawer: a Bible. It usually comes courtesy of the Gideons. "The Gideons are not a denomination or a religion," said Dr. Ardel Caneday, a theology professor at Northwestern College in St. Paul. Rather, the Gideons are an association with nearly 250,000 members in 181 countries. "They are laymen who devote themselves to the spreading of the Bible,” said Dr. Caneday. They take their name from Gideon in the Book of Judges who was strictly obedient to the word of God. The Gideons began their work 100 years ago as a group of traveling salesmen and Christians who left behind a Bible in each hotel for road weary travelers. Gideons now place 63 million Bibles each year in prisons, hospitals, military bases and, of course, hotel rooms. That's 120 Bibles every minute. Most Gideons are still common folks with day jobs. "You bump into Gideons more or less by chance,” said Dr. Caneday. "They are businessmen and farmers and many of them are individuals you would never ever see preaching a sermon. This is their way of participating in worldwide evangelism." The Gideons typically replace the Bibles in hotel rooms every three years so they always look spiffy. That requires more than 120,000 copies for Las Vegas alone.

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