Gideon Bibles in school

[BusyBeez99]

DS12 came home with a bible today presented by the Gideons. It's New Testament and Psalms. Why are school children getting free bibles and who is paying for them?

My AIBU is why aren't they giving out other faith books .... or, from an atheist viewpoint (me) , why are they giving them out at all?

Thanks for recommending I start a foundation
I barely have time to post on MN let alone do that... but... a seed may grow! Happy for someone else to nick the idea and start this new cult/organisation!

My SIL is a nurse and said that they have them in all the bedside drawers in her hospital too. She's in a post surgery ward and says most nurses hate them because they think they are horrible, grubby, germ factories due to them being ancient, absorbent and impossible to clean. Makes zero sense to have them in what's meant to be a fairly sterile environment for seriously ill people.
Most people of faith tend to bring their own books/bibles apparently so the Gideon ones never get read. They just sit there gathering bacteria

Its a bit offensive. My DS copy went straight onto the end of year bonfire. Thought we should have left this kind of religion behind by now.

Thanks for this thread. It's just brought back the memory of a younger me being asked to leave a classroom for 'cross examining the Gideons'

It's just another story book

My AIBU is why aren't they giving out other faith books .... or, from an atheist viewpoint (me) , why are they giving them out at all?

YABU because the Gideons are a Christian charity whose aim and purpose is to give out copies of the Bible.

I quite enjoyed mine when I first had it in my teens- it had some good advice and recommendations for passages to read in certain situations and moods etc. Haven’t actually looked at it since then, mind...

"They don't hand out books on evolution for free...."

We don't need to. We have libraries and schools and education and intelligence and science.

I remember being a drunk student and running out of king sized rizzlas. The thin pages from Gideon let us roll cigarettes. They saved the day!

Gove’s big bible initiative got him into trouble. Perhaps he was straying onto the Gideon people’s turf?

As soon as I saw the thread title I knew that it would be full of competitive bible destroying stories, it's all so narrow minded.

It's a historical book, which is quite interesting in places, it doesn't have magical powers to convert your children into Christians.

It's a historical book
Which is why no one teachs it in the the subject called 'History'...

Maybe other religions do not visit schools handing out copies of their religious texts, as they do not have an organisation equivalent to that of the Gideons?

I honestly don’t know the answer to the above question.

Perhaps the Gideons continue to carry out their work in schools, as the UK is still a ‘Christian’ country, and so they feel safe to conduct their work.

Whilst many people of Christian origins in the UK are secular, our country isn’t. In France, laïcité is practiced (separation of state from religion), and all public buildings and activities within them must remain secular. This means that school is school, and children are children, and you can’t easily look at a child and distinguish their religious origins thanks to the assistance of a gold crucifix or a hijab marking their differences.

Perhaps if the UK followed a secular model, the Gideons would no longer be allowed into schools.

My DS copy went straight onto the end of year bonfire. Thought we should have left this kind of religion behind by now.

I don't know if you're joking, but if not - you burn books, and consider yourself to be the enlightened, progressive one?

You don't have to believe in the bible at all to think it's a pretty historically and culturally important book. If you're not going to let your child interact with it then you're basically ensuring that they'll never fully understand most of English history and literature - which I guess is your choice, but it's not one to boast of.

It's not a historical book. It's a story.

Our pupils were told when the Gideon's were coming and then choose whether or not they wanted to get a free Bible, it wasn't done in assembly you had to actively seek them out. But they also have away free donuts with each Bible so they mostly went for those

They are not forced to take one. I have sat through many Gideon assemblies. They watch a cartoon, two old blokes witter on and then they are given the option of taking a bible.
Most kids take one.

It's not a historical book. It's a story
Most historical books are....

Historical means old not " factual".

If you see it as a work of fiction it's fine

It's not a historical book. It's a story.

It clearly has some historical elements, but more importantly it's a historical artefact. If you refuse to acknowledge its existence and importance good luck understanding Western history, or indeed modern world history.

I am a steadfast atheist, but I find it very distasteful to burn a Bible and then openly brag about it.

I would say that about any religious book, there are people who feel very strongly about the symbolism the book represents.

The Gideon bibles are great for RE lessons. Schools, as they have little funding, save having to buy and lend out bibles for homework. If you think this is wrong please supply schools with other faith books, books on evolution etc I believe most schools would be delighted to accept them.

As a historian (and an atheist) I do use the bible often.

Not in terms of the stories within (although there is archeological evidence to suggest that some of the events may have happened) but in understanding past behaviours and beliefs and also the present day. It has inspired art, poetry, politics, society etc... Religion has been such a fundamental part of our history that I would be surprised if any historian discounted it.

Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too).

Very narrow minded and angry attitude towards a book. Have we learned nothing about tolerance?

Very narrow minded and angry attitude towards a book. Have we learned nothing about tolerance?

Agree completely with this. How can you discount someone views based on their beliefs if you are completely ignorant as to what those beliefs are?

It's a historical book

Only like The Brothers Grimm, and Hans "Christian" Anderson are ...

I mean talking snakes ....