Leviska is a member of Gideons International, an organization that distributes free copies of the Bible world-wide. It has given out over 2.5 billion Bibles so far, according to the organization’s website.

The Bibles have stopped people who “were going to go do criminal stuff,” Leviska said. He recently heard a testimony from a would-be bank robber who, anxious before the big heist, cracked open a Bible. By the time they looked up, Leviska said, the bank door was closed.

The titular ‘Gideon Bible’ has carved out a place in cultural iconography. It’s been referenced in movies, TV shows, and even a Beatles song. These days, however, Bible distribution is winding down. Fewer hotels are accepting Bible donations, and even then, Gideon Bibles are in competition for nightstand space with other religious reading material.

Still, the Gideons came out to MSU in full force. By one estimate, over 70 arrived at the university Wednesday to distribute 5,000 Bibles. They stayed from 8 a.m. to early afternoon, hawking down students with miniature green booklets of psalms and proverbs.

It wasn’t always easy. 

Students can be “apathetic,” said Arlyn Glewen, a member of Moline Christian Reformed Church, standing outside Kedzie Hall. Most students turned him down, while some ignored him altogether.

It appeared to be a source of frustration for some.

“A lot of people here don’t want a Bible,” said Mark Jewell, a former welding instructor, who was outside the Union. “While overseas, they’re begging for them.”

Michigan’s Gideons travel to multiple campuses a year. They’re received differently at each one.

Western Michigan University is more “receptive to scripture,” Glewen said, while at the University of Michigan, “they think they’re all smart,” Jewell said. Central Michigan University was “very friendly” — even Muslim students took Bibles, Jewell said — as was Ferris State University, where Susan Van Wieren said she had a great conversation with members of the football team.

Only “business and professional men” who have been endorsed by their pastor can be Gideons. Women — generally the wives of the Gideons — can get involved through the Gideon International Auxiliary, a support organization that prays for the Gideons and sometimes helps them distribute Bibles. 

There were several husband-wife duos at MSU. Gideons International “likes the men to be married,” Leviska said.

“It's good to have husbands and wives working together,” he said. 

He credits God for his marriage to his current wife, Gaye. Three days after praying to meet someone, “my heart went pitter-patter over a blond-haired French horn player,” he said.

For Harvey Mattson, a retired Saginaw Public Schools teacher who was handing out Bibles outside the Union, it was troubles in his relationship that first drew him to Christianity.

For the first decades of his life, he thought he “could handle every single problem on the planet” without God.

“The only thing I couldn’t handle was my wife running around on me in 1989,” Mattson said. “So, I did a one-line prayer to God. I said, ‘God, if you're real, save my marriage.’”

His wife left him for 18 months to live with another man, he said. But, after the prayer, she came back and they remained married until her death on Christmas Day, 2018.

“She was unfaithful, but I know she's in heaven.”