As students pulled out of the Dougherty Ferry and Essex parking lots last Tuesday, several men waved them down and handed them orange copies of the New Testament. When a few Call staffers questioned the men, they told us they were members of Gideons International, a religious group dedicated to distributing Bibles and New Testaments. According to the Gideon website, members are participating in a “Flood The World With Scriptures” campaign during October, and they distributed at the high school and middle schools Oct. 19. The Kirkwood School District had no prior knowledge of the Gideons’ visit, and, as the men were on sidewalks outside school property, the action was legal.
As I left the parking lot, I was handed two copies, one for me and one for my brother in the passenger seat. As I held the book in my hand, I felt the discomfort in my stomach growing.
In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint challenging the South Iron School District’s three-decade practice of allowing Gideons International to come into fifth grade classrooms to distribute Bibles. In 2008, a federal judge ruled that it’s unconstitutional for the district, located in Missouri, to allow Gideons International in the classroom.
“Religious liberty is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights,” Leonard Frankel, cooperating attorney on the case, said. “And religious liberty is best protected by keeping the government out of the realm of religions. Public schools should leave religious training to parents and churches.”
While the Gideons were not on school property last Tuesday, they stopped cars leaving the school. I am an almost rabid defender of the First Amendment and religious expression, but that same First Amendment guarantees an individual freedom from religion. A public school is a secular place. When a group is clearly targeting schoolchildren to spread religious material, this crosses the line, even if members do not stand on school property. Laws prohibit drugs, guns and sex offenders not only in school boundaries but within a short distance. How is religious distribution any different?