Principal Annette Martinson
Posted on 02/08/2007 1:42:46 AM PST by Robert Drobot
Two men who are members of Gideons International, the Christian organization that is famous for, among other ministries, placing Bibles in motels and giving them to children, have been arrested after trying to hand out Bibles on a public sidewalk in Florida, according to a law firm.
Officials with the Alliance Defense Fund have confirmed they will be representing Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson, who were arrested, booked into jail and charged with trespassing.
Jeremy Tedesco, one of the ADF's lawyers on the case, confirmed to WND that the organization's clients were on a public sidewalk when they were handing out Bibles and school officials summoned police.
"The First Amendment protects the right to engage in religious speech on a public sidewalk," ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman said. "Members of the Gideons have been highly respected for decades as peaceful providers of free Bibles to those who want them."
Principal Annette Martinson
The arrest happened Jan. 19, when Mirto and Simpson were on the sidewalk outside of Key Largo School in Key Largo, Fla., and were distributing copies of the Bible to those interested.
Monroe County Sheriff Richard Roth
"Neither man entered school grounds," the law firm said. "After the school's principal called police, a Monroe County sheriff's officer asked the men to leave immediately or face trespassing charges. As the men prepared to leave, the officer decided to arrest both individuals."
A hearing is scheduled March 5 in Monroe County Court in the cases, and ADF attorneys are preparing motions to dismiss the charges.
"Officials cannot use fear of arrest as a means of bullying law-abiding Christians into silence," Cortman said. "These men broke no laws when they decided to communicate their message on a public sidewalk."
Tedesco noted that sometimes school officials have a misconception about whether they can control activities on school grounds and adjacent public sidewalks. But the First Amendment does provide a protection for speech on those parcels of ground that are public, he said.
"There's no reason why they should be put in jail," he said.
The ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the truth, through strategy, training, funding and litigation.
The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."
Members of the Gideons, who pay their own expenses so 100 percent of the donations to the group go toward Bible purchases and distributions, have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.
The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.
"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done – if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more than 1 million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days in these areas…" the group said.
The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800. Information about the products is available on the group's website.
The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States.
>>It's a public walkway. They have a right to be there, talk to anyone, and hand out whatever, except those materials that are banned.<<
Oh, OK, I didn't know the law in Florida. In Georgia the schools control the sidewalks and street parking adjacent to any school and they can arrest someone who approaches the kids for any reason on an adjacent sidewalk or street.
finally - someone willing to consider the possibility
It's for the children, you know!
World Net Daily is incendiary "reporting" and gives conservatives a bad name. I hardly ever read them anymore b/c of this.
No wonder secularists think we are weird..... cuz we ARE!!!
I am also embarrassed at the invective poured out in situations like this. I don't have any problem heaping scorn and opprobrium on people who are really committed to obstinate wicked foolishness. I just see way way too much of this stuff from conservative Christians.
as if that had anything to do with the price of snuff in Bangkok.....
I will wait for the Alliance Defense to tell me what happened...
That is the problem. At this point in time, you are letting a group that depends on hectoring conservatives with "outrages" for fund raising purposes to tell you what happened.
Christians make mistakes sometimes, even Gideons. The heart of Christianity is that we embrace the cross as the central message. That means that our FIRST response is not to defend our record...., because we have no record worth defending. That is sorta what we are saying when we claim to be "Christians."
When the world sees us proud, obstinate, hateful and defensive, they have a right to say that they don't need what we are offering, because we truly are no different than them.
..You are making sweeping generalizations of the folks at FR for someone who has only been here since December.
Feel free to leave....We don't appreciate newies who arrive just to badmouth us.
Looky!! Haven't had an OI for a long time, I think!
a voice of reason?
..You are making sweeping generalizations of the folks at FR for someone who has only been here since December.
What are you, the "time you joined FR police" or something?
I had actually joined FR in 98 but canned my membership, and then rejoined. (that was, fyi, the first year FR was in existence).
Finally, it may come as a total shock to you to discover that not all conservatives are rigid judgmental alarmists. Some of us remember what it was like to look at a selfrighteous, bigoted, judgmental group of churchpeople and think "if that is who God is, no thanks." I will never forget learning the joyful news that Jesus was DIFFERENT than the prudes. Once I found that Jesus was really different than the caricature of Him in many churches I began to learn to love Him. I then found out that many of His people are NOT the shallow, narrow, joyless haters I thought all of them to be, so I learned to love them, too. Now I find that even when some of His people ARE the shallow, narrow haters I thought them to be...., I have to learn to love them, too. Doesn't stop me from calling a spade a spade, though.
I dobt that that is worth the time and effort, a net search with your favorite search engine ought to turn up a source. However, it doesn't.
I am Christian, but these men were in the wrong. I live here. I know the landscape. They were wrong. I respect and admire that this was handled how it was. There are many pedophiles here, as in most communities in this country. If we just brush off that people are on the sidewalk handing out bibles, we will be the next community hit with tragedy. There are many other places they could legally hand out their bibles and it would be appreciated. I would have called for the principals and sheriffs head to be on a platter if it had been handled differently.
What is wrong with people when they start putting adult wants above the safety of children?
I don't appreciate it when someone presumes to speak for me.
These men were on school property with my child. How many people from Key Largo do you think were signed up with FR before this? I doubt you believe me....doesn't matter, I disregard you now as well.
Our school district goes beyond what is required with Jessica's law. (named for a little Florida girl Jessica Lunsford who knew her predator from school grounds - horrific story, still very fresh in many of our memories)
Parent volunteers must pass a background check. To go to my child's Christmas party, I need to have that on file.
Good Christian men would not be trying to teach children against common sense and what is taught at home and school ....watch out for strangers. That's a new one and I will be sure that my children know not to accept even a bible from strangers, this really makes my hinky meter go! Maybe they should go complain to the ACLU...
http://www.nsba.org/site/doc_cosa.asp?TRACKID=&VID=50&CID=482&DID=36689
Link for Jessica's Law
Most RCC believers I know have found the Holy Bible to be on eif not the most Catholic book they might ever procure.
Nope, sheriff is Republican as well as the mayor of Key West. Here's a link if you would like to evaluate and judge us because we want to keep our children safe from strangers that refuse the order of LE to leave school grounds.
http://www.keysy.com/monroegop/
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