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 kind of ironic. So many schools have cut the pledge of allegiance or cut "one nation under God" out of it. Our school still does the pledge every morning in it's entirety. Posting that will probably get the "other" extremists going on a rant and get that taken away.
I have already got it - Thanks!
You seem like a bright person. These entries all have numbers on them. You can figure out which ones I am replying to. This one is in response to # 149. There, I got you started.
I think I have had enough however. People here are starting to talk about muslims and quoting way too much ancient history. None of this had anything to do with all that. Any person, unknown, handing out anything - I don't care if they were passing out flowers, would have been asked to leave. It was about safety. If everyone here chooses to believe some big conspiracy theory, they can stay in that little world. Here's hoping you continue keep your mind open. Nice to meet you.
Catholics, and for that matter, all religious believers, have a dog in this hunt. Any authority that can stop an evangelical men's ministry from distributing Bibles and tract literature can do the same to another group.
Most distressing news.
I will take the word of World Net Daily and the defense counsel offered by the Gideons International any day over that of local authorities in a Florida county known for its tolerance of lewd and disgusting behavior by the local homosexual community during "Gay Pride" days.
Yes. Better yet, she and the school board trustees should permit the Gideons to come on the campus, and for that matter, Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Seventh Day Adventist, etc., groups as they wish. All of these religions believe in voluntary persuasion and conversion, not coercion. All of these beliefs are compatible with free and representative government.
The founding fathers would be so proud of your childish bullying.
Standing up for Constitutionally protected freedoms is hardly bullying. The bullies are the people in authority who suppressed the right of the Gideons to distribute Scripture. They, and not the Gideons International nor the Alliance Defense Fund, are at fault in this matter.
As for the Founding Fathers, the fact that the Continental Congress funded the printing of Bibles would indicate that they were receptive to the distribution of Scripture. Until the leftist Warren Court concocted a doctrine of separation of church and state that effectively banned religion, specifically the Jewish and Christian faiths, from the public arena during the 1960s, the Gideons and other groups were free to enter public school campuses. I dare say the Founders would side with the Gideons International on this matter.
DOES a public sidewalk exist, where the two God fearing men were standing?
I am prtetty sure that reading, writing, math, science and social studies is on the agenda of PUBLIC schools. Leave the religion education to the churches. People can decide for themselves which is right for them; they know where to go.
They approched me in the parking lot.
I am sorry, I still had more to say before I posted. Is it at all possible for you to live in the HERE and now. I am sorry things are not the way they were hundreds of years ago. Mrs, Martinson, as a community leader, must respond to the parents of her school community, otherwise she would not have a job. Just because you have your way, doesn't make it everyone elses way. I am now 100% convinced that EVERYONE ON THIS SITE WHO IS SO APALLED ABSOLUTELY WANTS, WANTS, WANTS this to be an injustice done because of the Bibles. You all NEED it for something to do, something to complain about. Never mind the possibility of something far more innocent. You crave this, you will slant it to be something evil. No one can convince you otherwise. I think most of you will die young of anxiety, heart attack, whatever and might have missed out on just chilling out and enjoying the little things life has to offer. I truly am so sorry for you. I have let you all drag me from my family, the sunshine, good music, my dogs etc. I wish you all well.
Key Largo is 2 hours away from Key West where most of the homesexual reside. However, in Key Largo we still respect the rights of homosexuals to live a life that is right for them. They will NOT be allowed on campus to give anything away to our students or parents the same as anyone else.
This site showed up on many teachers' e-mail at the school. I have a close friend who teaches there and she was told SHE should be ashamed. Innocent people are being dragged into something that had nothing to do with them. How truly rude you are!
I agree that instruction in said subjects is the principal role of public schools. However, another aspect of public schools is instruction in ethics and civic responsibilities. Ethics and the duty of a person to others and society at large bring questions of a metaphysical nature into play. Why obey the law or why should I not covet my neighbor's wife or goods are questions that cannot be answered apart from one's beliefs regarding the fate of man and his eternal destiny. There are many Lutherans, Ba'hai adherents, Seventh Day Adventists, agnostics, and Buddhists obey the law and do not covet their neighbor's wife or goods, but for different underlying reasons.
In that regard, having a local pastor or rabbi address students can be considered as part of a good public education. It is true that in the 19th Century, a generic Protestantism was the de facto religion in the public schools in many area, complete with the King James Bible and an anti-Catholic bias in the history textbooks, a fact that generated the rise of the Catholic school system. However, offering the classroom on an occasional basis to a Gideon representative, a Mormon missionary, or an advocate of atheism can be a part of a public education. The key is showing a broad spectrum of views, unlike the case in the era that the public school system was established.
Both Key Largo and Key West are in Monroe County, as you are no doubt aware. The same sheriff's department that suppressed the Gideons in Key Largo apparently does not take issue with vulgar displays at Gay Pride parades in Key West. There is a real disconnect between busting two men wearing ties and jackets giving out Bibles and turning the other way when public lewdness laws are flouted.
I know Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, your Congresswoman (Republican) is endorsing pro-gay "anti-discrimination" legislation, too.
So the GOP label doesn't matter to me in this case.
Monroe County is a little San Francisco and it shows in the attitute of at least one GOP politician that I detect. Maybe your sheriff is in that club, too.
Key West has its own Police Department
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