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October 9, 2009

Banned Books and Blasphemy

Being offended by the right things, and letting God handle the rest.

Ruth Moon

If you want to read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, now is the perfect time to start. Last week was National Banned Books Week, designated to promote these and other books once or currently banned from libraries around the country.

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Sounds like a good idea, right? Oh, and others on the list include Hang-ups, Hook-ups, and Holding Out: Stuff You Need to Know about Your Body, Sex, and Dating, Sex for Busy People: The Art of the Quickie for Lovers on the Go, and other publications of questionable literary merit but attention-grabbing content.

Still, all things considered, celebrating freedom of speech with Banned Books Week seems like a no-brainer to this journalist and English major. A week to celebrate works of great literature rejected by the uncultured masses who don’t understand them? Sign me up. And if, as one Christian philosopher once wrote, “All truth is God’s truth,” we have nothing to fear. Once the dust settles from the resulting collision of ideas, the truth will still be standing.

But amid the hullabaloo about John Steinbeck and Harper Lee, maybe we’re missing something. It’s easy to support a week celebrating banned high school books; it’s a little harder to put your money where your mouth is when safety and sanctity are on the line.

The Danish cartoon fiasco is one example. The cartoons caricaturing Muhammad created an uproar four years ago when artists received death threats for creating them. Last month, Yale University Press omitted the cartoons from an upcoming book, The Cartoons That Shook the World (H/T to Mollie Ziegler Hemingway at GetReligion for pointing that out).

Yale's reason for cutting the cartoon — “There existed a substantial likelihood of violence that might take the lives of innocent victims” — seems plausible, given recent history. But, as Hemingway points out, it’s a little bit scary that book publishers would be cowed by it.

Al Mohler took note of International Blasphemy Day a few weeks ago, created in response to the Danish cartoon controversy. The goal? “To expose all religious beliefs to the same level of inquiry, discussion and criticism to which other areas of intellectual interest are subjected.” The day's organizers asked participants to video-record themselves damning themselves by rejecting the Holy Spirit and post the video online.

That might hit a little closer to home for Christians. A week designated to celebrate esteemed literature sounds like a good idea. A day in honor of mocking all that we hold worthy of reverence crosses the line, right?

Maybe. But maybe not. Christians like to defend God; whole strands of apologetics are devoted to getting better at it. Maybe we can step back once in a while, and, to quote U2, “Stop helping God across the street like a little old lady.” If we are going to get up in arms (rightly, I would argue) about banning things that are offensive to others, we at times have to be willing to take criticism and swallow offense ourselves. If all truth really is God’s truth, well, the truth can set us free, if we let it.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty on October 9, 2009 9:53 AM

Comments

"..as a journalist and English major.." you join a group of people who over the years have elevated their sensibilities above the rest of us (and frequently above the Divine as well). 'Banned' (always available anyway) books in our culture (as opposed to oppressive regimes) reflect a seemingly futile attempt to stop the sewage of our culture from becoming established in the knowledge-base of our children. Thanks for knocking down that damworks.

Posted By: Paul | October 10, 2009 1:43 AM

Nazi Germany strikes again!! Banning books has destroyed some of the greatest works works of mankind. I for one hate the idea of someone who wants to ban a book because it offends them. There is so much to be learned from books and they are a road map of history. Thanks to some Pius men many books were never added to the Holy Bible, that now are being looked at and being printed and maybe added to our Holy Scriptures. People who want to ban books should themselves be banned.
Yours in Jesus Christ
Clifford Hess

Posted By: Clifford Hess, Sr. | October 10, 2009 11:06 AM

Actually, banned book week really irritates me. None of the books were banned (as in made unavailable for public consumption). The ALA puts any book that is "challenged", legitimately or not, on their banned book list. Almost all challenged books were challenged because of their placement in school libraries or children's sections of public libraries. So most of the banned books were simply books that people asked to have put in adult sections rather than offered as reading for kids. Some of these challenges are obviously ridiculous like the Harry Potter books. Some challenges resulted from the disagreements that are playing out in our culture like the "heather has two mommies" sorts of books. And some were legitimately problematic like certain "young adult" novels aimed at teens that are filled with graphic descriptions of unusual sexual behaviors. By labeling all questioning of what books ought to be offered to our children as appropriate reading as attempts to "ban" books, the ALA is essentially telling parents to just shut up. And isn't telling people you disagree with to shut up the very thing that read a banned book week is supposed to be protesting against? While a few people are heavy handed and inappropriate in their protests against certain books, having a discussion about what is appropriate for our kids to read is very legitimate and simply fulfilling our duty as parents and communities to raise our children well. So, while I completely agree that God does not need our protection, I very much disagree with the assumption behind ALA's read a banned book week that our children do not need our protection.

Posted By: rebeccat | October 11, 2009 12:14 PM

On a related matter the following is a link to You Tube that covers a news article on a church in N.C. that is planning to have a book burning session on Halloween night. They intend to throw any version of the Bible that is not KJV 1611 into the pile as well as books by numerous Evangelical authors such as Rick Warren, Billy Graham etc. Scary isn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FkbgeR8LKs

Posted By: Basil | October 15, 2009 2:40 PM

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