He continued, “When they told us we couldn’t take them in, we just refused to go without them. We said no, we want our Bibles back.”

Within minutes, police and Americans hit a stalemate.

The Americans were sent to a private room in the airport. They spent the next 20 hours negotiating in relatively comfortable digs with leather sofas, air conditioning and TV. They watched the Olympics.

“It was all about China. American athletes were shown only for three or four seconds,” said Klein during an interview on his cellphone a week after the incident.

Chinese authorities allow limited numbers of Bibles into the country. They are available at officially sanctioned churches but the sale of Bibles is forbidden in public bookstores, he said.

“They were adamant about not giving them back until we left the country and here they were being the loudest about having religious freedom,” said Klein.

“The Chinese leaders keep telling the world the Chinese people have religious freedom. To even prevent them from receiving Bibles certainly contradicts that claim,” Klein said.

The police spoke limited English. As negotiations wore on, even the grandson jumped into the talks.

Higginbotham recalled, “He was wanting to tell them what he thought but the Chinese are not great ones for letting 15 year-olds talk to them. They wanted to talk to our leader and Stephen would speak up every once in a while.”

He added, “Since they were so strict and took such a firm stand and since we gave them kind of trouble, we were afraid the Bibles would be burned. And they were too valuable to be destroyed,” Higginbotham said.

During the stand-off, Higginbotham, who has been to Nepal, Hong Kong, Laos and other countries, said he didn’t feel threatened.

“Having an American passport is a great advantage. I’ve not been to Muslim countries but I think it would be very dangerous,” he said. “But all that happens to us is that we get things taken away from us.”

Incident of Olympic proportions

Being American citizens protected the group, said Daniel Burton, senior staff writer with China Aid which draws attention to China’s record on human rights violations against Christians.

“If they were Chinese, they would be in prison right now so they’re blessed the Chinese didn’t want an incident during the Olympics,” said Burton.