As I’ve mentioned before, for someone who’s not religious I have in my possession, a lot of Bibles. I know how I obtained most of them. But this one just kind of dropped out of the sky:
In case you’ve never seen one before, this is a Gideon’s Bible. A Gideon’s Bible contains only the New Testament, Psalms and a WHERE TO FIND HELP, When section. The actual story of Gideon is in the Old Testament which is a little strange but whatever.
The initial goal of the Gideon’s (a group of Protestant men who must be over 21 and either a businessman or a professional) was to distribute these bibles to hotels, hospitals, jails, reformatories, schools — any place where there might be a soul who needs saving.
The Gideons were founded in the late 1800s by a couple of traveling salesmen or so the story goes. Their purpose was to provide solace for those far from home and on their own. I could applaud their efforts except for this:
Why is the American Flag inside the cover? I’m one of those folks who firmly believes the United States is not (and should never be) a “Christian” nation. We should adhere to certain core values of Christianity – charity, honesty and compassion – but those are the core values of most other religions. I wish they would have said “The Bible was written by groups of men claiming to have had revelations from a supreme being who’s called by many different names. Many people find comfort and strength from various passages of this book. May you be one of those people.” Not “you’re a sinner but here’s your chance to be saved.” The Gideon’s are still around but there aren’t too many of them. I suppose not allowing women, Catholics or union members to join might have something to do with that!
Meanwhile we are having a brief break before a string of storms (the atmospheric river) moves in. When the sun does break through and hit the green hills, it’s gorgeous. However, those hills are closed to hikers … too many mudslides. I hope wherever you are the weather is a wee bit dryer! I feel like I’m about to sprout gills.
Saying nothing in particular 
I’ve always known Gideon bibles were in hotel rooms but not being religious, I never picked one up. As for the flag, apparently they were only interested in saving red blooded American patriots.
🤣
Beautiful road photo.
It’s snowing here as I write, but we’re only supposed to get a dusting.
Thanks! The car was going too fast to get pictures of the many mud slides.
It amazes me that the same people who rail on about making this a Christian nation also go on about upholding the Constitution (the parts they like and not the parts they don’t like apparently).
Thanks for this post, Jan. I often see the Gideon’s Bibles in hotel rooms, but never really looked through them, didn’t know their origin, and definitely never saw that first page!
I really don’t know where this bible came from as hotels on west coast rarely provide them! I certainly would have never taken one home!
Don’t sprout gills. It’s not a good look!
Ha! So last season.
And now Rocky Raccoon, he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon’s Bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky’s revival, oh, ooh, yeah, yeah
You know, Anon, I was a huge Beatles fan and I had forgotten about good ole Rocky and close call with the Gideons!
Gideon’s Bible always reminds me of “Rocky Raccoon”… 😉
I wonder how the Gideons feel about that song!
They porbably crossed themselves… Oh. No. They weren’t Catholics… LOL
They’re definitely not Catholics!
Lawd, Lawd, bless mah soul… 😉