We live today in a divided, judgmental, and unforgiving age, and it seems to be getting worse rather than improving. No ideology is immune — the darkness seems to be wedded to the culture — and extremes of left and right are especially culpable. As for religion, it’s disappointing but hardly surprising that conservative wings of all of the major faiths play their part in the sordid game. One would hope that books and literature would be free from attack but, alas, that’s simply not the case.
In late May in Brandon, Manitoba, for example, the city school division had to deal with an attempt to impose censorship of books dealing with sexuality and gender. This was after a former trustee requested that a committee be established to remove, "any books that caused our kids to question whether they are in the wrong body."
The meeting lasted a long time, was attended by a great many people, and while the proposal was eventually defeated, it had many supporters and wasn’t voted down unanimously. We can also be sure that this won’t be the last such challenge in Canada. That’s because of the US experience, where the book-banning fetish has never been as prominent. According to PEN America, between July 2021, and March 2022 alone there were 1568 book bans in the US. Texas and Florida were among the leaders but it might surprise some to know that Pennsylvania, considered urban and outside of the usual areas we’d suspect, was in second place. Most of the condemned books dealt with LGBTQIA issues, or the origins and problems of racism.
While it’s deeply troubling that so many of the charge leaders are Christian it’s also, if we observe the situation intelligently, also deeply inconsistent. Because in the 774,000 words of the Bible there’s an extraordinary amount of violence and depravity. And sex, perversion, ethnic cleansing, genocide, rape, infanticide, incest, and pretty much everything else you can imagine. Much of it is condemned, of course, but not all; there are heroes in the texts who behave in such a way that would see them thrown out of any self-respecting conservative church. Mind you, that’s hardly an exclusive club! I should know, I’ve been on the receiving end of right-wing Christian abuse more times than I can count.
But for any authentic Christian who takes the faith seriously this is a dreadful misunderstanding and twisting of what scripture is about. Christians should, if we follow it properly, believe scripture to be the inspired word of God, but not divine dictation. It’s a library of poetry, biography, history, and philosophy. A supreme literary gathering of wisdom and story, literal truth and swimming metaphors. Most of all, Christians should believe that it’s given to us by God through his followers down the ages, to be understood through debate and understanding, not robotic response. We’re made to discern, not disown. What we should discern most is the inherent love, kindness, and grace.
Seemingly unaware of the irony, however, there are Christians who try to silence opinion that they fear will challenge their points of view or prejudices. Book banning is usually the step before people banning, just as book burning comes before people burning. If you doubt me, study even recent history.
There was a time, not very long ago, when I considered all of this a ghost of horrors past. Now it’s obviously the ghost of the present and the ghost of things to come. If right-wing governments are elected in the US and in Canada, the gates of intolerance will be opened. Perhaps Canadian national leaders don’t support all this but they know their electoral base, and they empower all sorts of unsavoury ideas and actions.
Children need guidance and advice, and they’ll find it one way or another. Far better under the tutelage of a caring teacher or empathetic librarian than from the morally indifferent internet or someone who doesn’t care at all about their interests or safety. Because find it they will. Hysteria and tabloid sensationalism will do no good at all, and almost certainly a great deal of harm.
If anything should be banned, it’s ignorance, fear, and hatred. That’s the sort of wisdom I learn every day when I read my Bible. Perhaps that’ll be next on the list of prohibited books, unless read with reactionary and dangerous blinkers. The next few years are going to be challenging on so many levels. Thank God for books, learning, and literature. We’re doomed without them.
