Removing Books from School Libraries

 

Bathsheba

Friend Xerxes is amused that state laws meant to give parents the opportunity to object to books in grade school libraries have now been used, in a couple of instances, to ban the Bible, for containing sex and violence.

He points out examples of sex and violence in the Bible.

To suppose that the issue is sex and violence, however, is to obscure the issue. The problem is that we pretend that morality does not exist. Which reduces us to talking about sex and violence as “inappropriate.” Of course, the Bible contains sex and violence. Heck, it describes someone being executed slowly on a cross, his genitals on public display. I remember throwing up at the description in grade school.

Traditional fairly tales too are violent, even though they have in recent centuries, unfortunately, been bowdlerized. The wolf eats Grandma; the Wicked Queen poisons Snow White. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned twice by their parents to be eaten by wild animals. A witch tries to eat them. And what about  Tom and Jerry or Roadrunner cartoons? There is little about sex in children’s literature, true; but that is plausibly because children would not understand what is going on without elaborate explanations. And probably would not be interested.

Many parents want some books removed from school libraries (not “banned”) because they teach immorality; they encourage children to experiment with sex. 

The Bible, of course, does the reverse.

If Xerxes or others want to argue that parents have no right to teach their children morality, or guard their children’s morality, or protect their children from sexual predators, they must also object to parents interfering with what their children watch on TV, or explore on the Internet, or discuss with strangers on the street. That is an uncommon opinion, and probably needs to be justified.