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,” sa
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.
The Gideons are members of the Gideon Society, a worldwide evangelical Christian organization. While the Gideons are probably most famous for distributing copies of the Bible to hotels, as they have done since 1930, the organization also engages in other evangelical works all over the world. Membership in the Gideon Society is restricted to Christian men over 21 years of age who are of good spiritual character. This organization was founded in 1899 in Wisconsin with the express goal of spreading the word of God to people who are not of the Christian faith. The Gideons refer to their work as “saving the lost,” reflecting the idea that many Christians believe that people who are not Christian are lost in the eyes of God, but that they can be saved through conversion and an acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. A key aspect of the organization’s work from the beginning has been the distribution of Bibles, allowing people who are not Christian to access the Bible so that they can read it a
