[Gideons] jailed for [distributing Bibles] on public sidewalk

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."

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.

"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.

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.

Thank you for posting this outrage.

I'll be forwarding the following to the prinipal, School Board, Sheriff and ADF.

Volume 18, Issue 1
January, 2000
REPORTS FROM BELARUS
The following testimonies were submitted by International Field Representative Victor Goncharenko
following his visit to the former Soviet Republic of Belarus:
NOVOPOLOSTSK:
“Novopolostsk is a wonderful camp where the brothers take the word of God to their city with no fear.
When the local Gideons went to one of the schools to make a distribution the director would not allow
them to go into the classrooms. The Gideons stood in the hallway of the school giving New
Testaments to the students. The director saw her students form a long line to receive The New
Testaments. She then asked The Gideons to go outside and quickly there was a line there as well.
Seeing this the director asked The Gideons to leave the school property. When The Gideons left the
school property the students followed and formed a long line to receive God’s Word. The director
became very upset and called the police. The police came, arrested The Gideons, and took them to the
police station. When they arrived at the police station and found out what had happened, the
policeman in charge asked The Gideons to distribute The New Testaments at their station. When this
distribution was completed they drove them back to the school and asked them to please finish the
distribution.”
VITEBSK:
“The Vitebsk, Belarus camp is a great camp where Gideons work unselfishly distributing Scriptures in
their city. During a recent distribution in the women’s prison I saw many women kiss The Gideon
New Testament and many accepted Christ as their Savior. While placing the Scriptures in the hospital,
I witnessed many patients crying when they saw The New Testament at their bedside. These people
thank The Gideons for giving them a chance to read God’s Word which brings hope to their seemingly
hopeless situations.”
POLOTSK:
“This camp is beginning to understand the effectiveness of The Gideon ministry. When we were
distributing New Testaments at the local police station, the chief said, ‘I think most of us here are
atheist but you Gideons are trying to do something we also believe in.’ I spoke to these men for ten
minutes and at the end asked those who believed that there is a God to raise their hands. More than
50% raised their hands. The chief of police thanked The Gideons for not being afraid to come and
distribute Scriptures at the police station.”
Page 2
MOGILEV:
“This is a good camp. However, the economy of this region is really bad. Prices are very high (one
gallon of gas cost over three dollars) and their monthly salaries are very low (thirty to forty dollars a
month). These Gideons make various sacrifices to buy gas for their cars and to go and distribute The
New Testaments. We came to one of the local colleges and prayed that the Lord might work out a way
for us to have a distribution. There were over five hundred students in this school. As we came to the
door of the school one of the teachers came out and asked about the contents of our boxes. We told her
what we had in the boxes and she became very excited. She hurried to the director with us and said,
‘These are the people who can tell our students about the two thousand years of Christianity in the
world and will give each of our students a copy of God’s Word.’ The Lord used this teacher to open
the door. The teacher went before us to every classroom making sure that we could distribute New
Testaments to every student of this college. She was happy to do something for the Lord.”

My son came home from school (6th-9th) a few months ago with a small New Testament that he got from the Gideons sitting on the sidewalk outside his school. He said many kids picked one up and said "Wow - I've never had a Bible before". I think my son likes his as its a bit different from the ones he's gotten from us and church as its more HIS!

One older kid did complain to the school - which is understandable. The teacher explained to all of the kids the next day that they were within their rights to hand out literature on the sidewalk and a little lesson on free speech, etc. She also went over some of the safety issues involved with talking to strangers, taking things from strangers, etc. I thought she and the school handled it well.

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