Promoting Virtue or Vulgarity?

By: Steve Huston

“Banned Books Week (BBW),” a misnomer if ever there was one. The books brought into question are certainly not banned, they can be purchased in stores, found online, and are available for the general public. Again, NOT banned; but rather, they are brought under scrutiny to see if such reading material is appropriate for the public before which these “literary” offerings are made available, primarily school children. Particularly since most books brought into question are those aimed at shaping impressionable minds, and that, most often in a setting outside the reach of a parent’s awareness or influence. As Thomas Sowell so aptly states, “Parents have not only a right but a duty to object when their children are being used as objects for other people’s ideological crusades, especially when brainwashing replaces education in the public schools. Let the ideologues argue their ideas openly with adults in the marketplace of ideas, not take cowardly advantage of children behind their parents’ backs.” (Emphasis mine)

A Marxist ploy: Not discounting the many good individual librarians throughout our nation, the American Library Association (complete with a Marxist lesbian president) has long been overtaken by Marxist ideology bent on warping the minds of Americans, particularly young Americans, in order to bring about the moral fall of America; which in turn, brings down America. Like the tree whose insides are rotted cannot stand the test of a tempest storm, neither can a nation long stand when its moral strength and virtue have met with decades of decay. So yes, parents have the duty to speak out against harmful ideologies, protecting their children and the future of their nation.

The word “banned” is used because it arouses strong feelings within the breast of Americans, it’s emotionally akin to book burning. We’re free and don’t want anyone to trample on our freedoms, whether physical, intellectual, literary, or other. Yet, to protect those very freedoms it’s important that we maintain virtue in the public square with a free discussion of opposing opinions. BBW hopes to circumnavigate such confrontations, arousing feelings rather than resting on facts, by-passing truth for error, and desecrating fertile minds with books that plant seeds of perversion, sexual self-gratification, and physically/emotionally damaging ideologies meant to germinate within the young person regardless of whether such content is age-appropriate or not.

All things being equal: Sowell continues by pointing out the ludicrous nature of “Banned Books Week”: “There is no point arguing about whether this book or that book should or should not have been taken off the shelves. There would not be an issue in the first place if different people did not have different opinions on that point. The question is why some people’s opinions are called ‘censorship’ and other people’s opinions are not.”

A 1997 article from First Things magazine entitled A Mirror of the National Soul shows how one-sided and hypocritical a school system can be when it comes to crying out, “Banned Books!” “A release from the Rutherford Institute reports that the Montvale Elementary School of Bedford, Virginia, now bans books other than those in the school library. For the period of “recreational reading time,” children had been bringing books of their choice. One day fifth-grader Jason Gardner brought Limbaugh’s The Way Things Ought To Be. That was too much, and the teacher confiscated the book. The new policy limiting children to books in the school library makes sure that they will not be exposed to subversive literature. It’s a liberal thing; you wouldn’t understand.”

My own run in with library censorship: I had taken the DVD movie 180 to my own small-town library in hopes of them putting it on the shelf. It was neither put on the shelf nor returned to me. Not that it would do any good but perhaps I should cry out “Unfairly banned!” or “CENSORSHIP!” like they do if asked to remove an offensive book or even if simply it must be shelved in a different location. To see why my movie didn’t align with their motives and likely why it was not allowed on the shelf watch this trailer.

It’s war: Mr. Sowell continued by identifying BBW for what it is and then ending his article stating that it should be called “National Hogwash Week.” “All this is just one more skirmish in the cultural wars of our time. In war, someone pointed out long ago, truth is the first casualty. Those who are spreading hysteria about book-banning and censorship know that they are in a war, but too many of those who thoughtlessly repeat their rhetoric do not.”

Where do we go from here? First, know the truth for the truth sets you free. It sets you free from deception, gives you the boldness to confront falsehood, and, when recognizing the personal and national dangers of deception, puts an urgency within you to act. Second, pray for wisdom and for those caught up in deception or ignorance. Third, don’t leave things up to the “professionals,” know what your child is reading and let your voice be heard as to what is appropriate and inappropriate. Know and trust the Word of God. Finally, fully rely on God and recognize that similar deceptions have been around since the beginning of time, even in our nation. Unbridled liberty has always been a temptation, as my closing quote points out.

“There is an inseparable connection between publick virtue and publick happiness: Individuals, we are assured, must render an account hereafter of every part of their moral conduct in this state; but communities, as their existence will cease with this world, can neither be rewarded or punish’d as such in the next: It therefore appears rational to conclude, that present rewards and punishments are distributed to them, according to their present moral behaviour. Hence we see the importance of morality to a community: It should engage the serious attention of every individual, and his endeavor, to do all that lies in his power in his own sphere to encourage and promote it: and I think it is worth consideration, whether the decay of morality, which is too visible among us, is not very much owing to too much laxness in family government:”

This anonymous author continues, “A good deal depends upon the youth of a country being train’d up in virtue and good manners: They are to act upon the stage of life, when the present generation is gone: It ought therefore to be the common concern of all – magistrates – ministers of the gospel & heads of families – all who have a regard for the future happiness of their country – and may I not say, all who wish that the Supreme Being, (who hath shown so much favor to New England in former and later times) may be honer’d by its posterity, to use all possible means to destroy vice & immorality of every kind, and to cultivate & promote the fear of God and a love to religion in the minds of our young people – I cannot help thinking that this chiefly depends upon the good government and instruction of families: public laws are made for the punishment and terror of evil doers: if every family was duly instructed and governed; if the youth were restrained by those who have the care of them at home, from acting in public, contrary to the declared mind of the public, there would be less occasion to put the laws in severe execution: but when the laws of God and man are openly violated, and those who are entrusted with the execution of them, are abused and insulted, it is high time for all orderly citizens to unite in a proper defence of them, and as openly to countenance them in bringing such notorious offenders to punishment – otherwise, what mischief may we not expect! The contagion will spread like the leprosy and infect the whole land!”

The preceding are excerpts from a Boston Gazette article (September 17, 1764) reprinted by Liberty Fund in American Political Writing during the Founding Era 1760 – 1805 Volume 1 (pages 38-40).

Please check out the following resources for more on BBW and appropriate responses to it:

Al Mohler’s The Briefing here and here.

https://safelibraries.blogspot.com/

 

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