Not a Ban

The Bible instructs us to make sure we keep watch over our own hearts and souls, not allowing thoughts and impressions to take root in our minds that would damage our walk with the Lord. Psalm 101 says this:
(1) I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
2 I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.
3 I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

And, I believe that for parents, the responsibility for our own souls also extends the souls of our children. The Bible establishes that as an expectation and we should be careful to make sure that we are training them in accordance with Biblical values and protecting them from influences that could be harmful. That will perhaps sometimes involve having a discussion about cultural trends and messages that are contrary to Scripture, making sure that the Biblical worldview is exalted and established.

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In the second chapter of the book of 1st Peter, the writer explores the proper, Biblical role of government. We can read these words:
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme,
14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.
15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men--
16 as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

Unfortunately, you have those who will use "free speech" as that "cloak for vice, where people cry "censorship" when objectionable material available to children becomes publicly exposed.  Concerned parents and lawmakers are continuing to highlight content in libraries that would be considered to be objectionable due to its obscene content.  I have been shining the spotlight on local efforts not to "ban" any books, but to place certain books in a reserved section of a local library where they are not accessible to children without parental supervision.  

The fight over books even reached a Congressional committee the other day.  According to CBN News, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, some lawmakers "argued for age-appropriate protections against some books, highlighting the explicit nature of some books available to children in public schools and libraries."

In the hearing, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias stated, "Book banners say they want 'local control,'" adding, "What's more local than controlling what takes place in your own household?" To which Sen. Lindsey Graham said, "Are you telling taxpayers of this country to shut up?" The article notes that, "Graham said governors, local leaders, and parents have a right to make sure 'agendas are not being pushed' on children.

Sen. John Kennedy "read some select pages from a couple of explicit books into the congressional record, including a paragraph from the books All Boys Aren't Blue and Gender Queer: A Memoir, which have been opposed by parents' organizations all over the country." Giannoulias said that, "Those words are disturbing coming from your mouth."

This is a similar reaction to instances in which parents have read objectionable passages in public meetings and attempts have been made to silence them.  So one has to wonder why parents are being told to be quiet, yet this material is OK to be available to kids without parental consent in a local library. 

Recently, according to 1819 News, the Alabama Public Library Service board attempted to address the issue.  Board member John Wahl...

...brought a motion to allow APLS to collate a list of books that may contain sexually explicit material to be available to local libraries. The list would not dictate what books a library may use. Instead, Wahl said it would prove guidance. The vote passed unanimously.

The article continued:

"We're at a time in history where it's important that we do protect our children," Wahl said after the meeting.

He continued, "Good government represents the people. And I think that's one of the areas that was very important. This is a common sense issue. There's always been inappropriate material for children. We rate movies. We rate video games. And this is just one of those areas where we are looking for a way to be able to share with local the libraries that there may be inappropriate material in books, and flag it for them so they have some guidance as they're looking at their collections."

Wahls also said the board was still waiting on an opinion from Attorney General Steve Marshall's office to find further what authority APLS has in policing this issue.

But, while some are characterizing parents desiring action from officials regarding books containing obscene material from being readily available to children as "banning books," the truth is, according to a study from earlier this year, conducted by the Heritage Foundation, that is simply not the case.  Jay Greene of Heritage wrote at The Daily Signal:

“What we’re seeing here is a resurgence of widespread censorship in America,” Nadine Farid Johnson recently told The Wall Street Journal. Johnson is the Washington director of PEN America and co-author of its report claiming to identify 2,532 books banned in public schools during the 2021-2022 school year.

But, Greene exposes this and similar claims as promoting a false narrative, writing:

It is simply false that 2,532 books were removed from schools during the 2021-2022 school year. We know this is false because we examined online card catalogues and found that 74% of the books PEN America identified as banned from school libraries are actually listed as available in the catalogues of those school districts. In many cases we could see that copies of those books are currently checked out and in use by students.

Greene also noted:

...many of the books we were unable to find in card catalogues were works that would strike most reasonable people as unlikely to be age-appropriate for school libraries. Works like “Gender Queer,” “Flamer,” “Lawn Boy,” “Fun Home,” and “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health” either contain images of people engaged in sex acts or graphic descriptions of those acts.

People who don’t want these books available to children in school libraries aren’t book banners. And people unwilling to defer to the unilateral authority of teachers and librarians to decide what children should have access to without democratic oversight or parental input are not fascists.

Determining what books are age-appropriate and educationally valuable enough to be purchased and kept in school libraries is inherently contentious even among well-intentioned people. But having a productive process for adjudicating these disputes is rendered impossible by false and hysterical claims from organizations like PEN America that there is “widespread censorship in America.” The vast majority of books allegedly banned from school libraries haven’t been banned at all.

According to CBN, at the Senate hearing...

...In his opening statement before the committee, Max Eden, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said, "To put it bluntly, books aren't being banned..."

"The media keeps using the word 'banned,' but that word doesn't mean what you think it means. In common usage, 'banned' means 'made unavailable.' Yet the most banned Gender Queer is still available on Amazon. The same can't be said for Ryan Anderson's When Harry Became Sally. Only books on one side of that issue it seems, actually get banned," Eden explained.

"Rather, this conversation focuses on school library availability. If ban means made unavailable, then virtually every book ever published has been effectively banned in school libraries. But that's not even what this word means here," he said. "Indeed, a book can be both banned and totally available in a school library. That's because the media has accepted the expansive definition of ban offered by Pen America."

I am thankful for those who are involved in bringing this problem to light.  Yes, parents, according to Scripture, should be responsible for their overall training of their children.  How can they fulfill this when material that is in conflict with their values is made available without restriction to children in public libraries and school libraries.  So, when activists contend that parents have the final say - I agree with that, by the way - their solution, unfortunately, is to respond by saying public officials should not have a role in protecting children.  I say this is an important role that they have, in order to empower and partner with parents, informing them about influences that would be harmful to their kids. 

Attempts to hold public officials accountable for library content are being made all over America - in Alabama, you have certain lawmakers that have shown a healthy interest in this issue.  Governor Ivey has requested some answers from the director of the Alabama Public Library Service, who has reportedly issued a response.  The group, Clean Up Alabama, which grew out of an ongoing library controversy in Prattville, is continuing to call for a relocation of objectionable material and for Alabama to follow the lead of four other states in withdrawing from the American Library Association. 

The government is charged in Scripture with maintaining order and punishing evil.  To market sexually explicit material that can corrupt young minds is irresponsible, and parents are right to speak out and appeal to their authorities, who have a God-given responsibility that is hard-wired in the U.S. Constitution - it's responsible action within the context of a democratic republic.  We can be grateful that people are listening.