Open a drawer in a motel room and there’s a Gideon Bible, right?  Not always. 

In the class of motel I frequent there is often nothing, but on a recent trip I found Gideon has some competition.

This was a new one on me:

Here’s the Amazon description of this book:

“The Bhagavad-gita is the main source-book on yoga and a concise summary of India’s Vedic wisdom. Yet remarkably, the setting for this best-known classic of spiritual literature is an ancient Indian battlefield.

“At the last moment before entering battle, the great warrior Arjuna begins to wonder about the real meaning of his life. Why should he fight against his friends and relatives? Why does he exist? Where is he going after death? In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna, Arjuna’s friend and spiritual master, brings His disciple from perplexity to spiritual enlightenment. In the course of doing so, Krsna concisely but definitively explains transcendental knowledge; karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, dhyana-yoga, and bhakti-yoga; knowledge of the Absolute; devotional service; the three modes of material nature; the divine and demoniac natures; and much more.

“Bhagavad-gita As It Is is the largest-selling, most widely used edition of the Gita in the world.”

And then there’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I found this card in the drawer of another motel.

The venerable Gideon bible distribution concept began in 1898 with two traveling salesmen sharing the same hotel room in Boscobel, Wisconsin. 

(I know that in 2026 that statement carries some meaning that it probably did not have in 1898 and I say that because I have a cousin whose wife’s family still owns a stagecoach stop/inn on the Boston to Montreal run that has ledgers that showed men used to share not only rooms, but beds, back in those days, because it was cheaper. In the case of these two it is explained they had to share a room because there was a convention in town and rooms were scarce).

Anyway, John H. Nicholson of Janesville and Samuel E. Hill of Beloit  became friends and decided to form an association to unite traveling salesmen in evangelism.

Nicholson and Hill, along with a third man, William J. Knights of Janesville, formed The Gideons International as an evangelical Christian association for men in 1899, taking the name from the figure Gideon depicted in Judges 6.  Bible distribution began in 1908 in rooms at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.  These days it distributes complete bibles or portions thereof in over 100 languages, in mostly lodging rooms, in addition to medical facilities, schools, military bases, as well as jails and prisons

As of 2022, The Gideons reported having 269,500 members in 200 countries and territories. Membership is of current or retired business or professional men (except clergy) aged 21 or older who are members in good standing of an evangelical or Protestant church and adhere to the core spiritual beliefs of the organization.  Wives of Gideons may similarly join the Auxiliary of The Gideons International.

For more about The Gideons, here’s a book suggestion: