In the vein of the American Atheist’s complaint against NASA, a variety of similarly-minded groups continue to bring accusations of wrongdoing against government-associated religious organizations.  For example, the ACLU has criticized the Gideons providing religious materials while in some association with a government entity (including the Gideons’ interaction with the US military).

Controversies notwithstanding, the ubiquitous nature of the Gideons ministry almost inevitably leads to the never-gets-old joke:

How do they get those Bibles in all those locked hotel rooms?

Well, in 1996 evidence arose that the Gideons were successful in getting a Bible into one of the most inaccessible nightstands in the world; in fact, it’s not even in the world.

NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid spent 188 days in space onboard Russia’s now defunct Mir space station in 1996. (Lucid was born in China as the daughter of missionaries. She is still currently an astronaut.)  As noted on NASA’s history site, Lucid said that she always carried a small Bible with her, and during her stay she also noticed that a Cosmonaut had a Gideon’s New Testament, in Russian, in his “nightstand”…

As an aside, another “urban legend” of the Gideons also involves the space program.  After Apollo 8’s controversial reading of the creation account from Genesis (again, recently highlighted by the American Atheists), a Japanese reporter called asking for the text of the transmission.

A Japanese newsman telephoned the National Aeronautics and Space Administration newsroom in Houston moments after the Apollo 8 space crew read the first verses of Genesis to earth on Christmas Eve while orbiting the moon.  He explained that he didn’t have time to come to the newsroom because of a fast-approaching deadline and asked if someone would read him a transcript of the message.

The NASA public affairs officer asked, “Where are you?”  The newsman replied, “In my hotel room.”

“Look in the bottom drawer of your bureau,” the newsman was told.  There lay a copy of the Gideon Bible.

“Ah,” sighed the newsman. “NASA public affairs [is] very efficient.  [They] suppl[ied] an exact transcript right in [the] hotel room.”

This story apparently first appeared in Aviation Week and was quoted in 1969 issues of the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle, 19 March 1969 (page 4), and FLIGHT International, 16 January 1969 (page 116).