'Moon Bible' Battle Highlights Historic Prayer Movement at NASA
05-01-2017
Ten microfilm Bibles barely larger than postage stamps are the object of court battles between Texas and an Oklahoma woman. The question: Who owns these very special Bibles that went to the moon?
Eight of the 10 tiny Bibles landed on the surface of the moon during NASA's 1971 Apollo 14 mission, carried in a pouch by astronaut Edgar Mitchell.
They're being stored at the Tulsa County courthouse, awaiting a May 3 hearing to determine whether they belong to the state of Texas or to Tulsa author and businesswoman Carol Mersch.
Mersch was a friend of the late NASA chaplain John M. Stout, co-founder of the Apollo Prayer League, which took its mission statement from
: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
As the Bible dispute hits the courts, it's shining new light on that little known prayer movement that was a sort of spiritual fuel in the early days of America's space program.
Both the "Lunar Bibles" and the "Apollo Prayer League" began because of a national tragedy, when three astronauts were killed in the Apollo 1 fire.
Reverend Stout formed the Apollo Prayer League in 1968 as a tribute to the astronauts and to pray for the success of the space program.
Mersch has written about the Prayer League in a book called The Apostles of Apollo.
"The idea of taking a Bible to the moon germinated after the fire that took lives of Apollo astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967, on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy," the book website explains.
"From the vast ranks of NASA personnel emerged a chaplain and scientist, Reverend John Maxwell Stout, with a vision for the Apollo Prayer League and a quest to land a Bible on the moon, something Ed White dreamed of doing before his death."
The moon Bible battle is taking place because, after the Apollo 14 mission, Stout gave many of his valuable artifacts away to family or friends.
Mersch, who was writing a book about attempts to take the Bible to the moon, claims the late chaplain gave her the tiny Bibles, and she keeps a certificate of authenticity signed by Stout and astronaut Edgar Mitchell as proof.
The state of Texas argues that Stout and his wife became wards of the state when their health declined in their final years and that their son Jonathan Stout should inherit the Bibles.
Texas' attorneys have accused Mersch of cheating Stout out of the Bibles.
Mersch, who estimates she's racked up $500,000 in legal fees so far, told the Associated Press that the thought she would "steal an elderly couple's priceless artifacts for personal gain is unconscionable."
She said if she wins, she'll donate some of the Bibles to museums or seminaries around the world, per the chaplain's wishes.
