Censorship in Middle America: Because the Bible is more equal than anything else

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Tiassa, Aug 4, 2011.

  1. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    37,882
    The land of the free, the home of the brave. Also known as "Real America" and "Middle America"

    Also known as the land of religious-base censorship.

    Rob Boston brings us the report for Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

    Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five is considered a modern classic. That doesn't mean it's a particularly easy read. Indeed, it deals with some fairly heady topics. When I first encountered it in high school, I wasn't sure what to make of it. But it sure made me think, which, in my view, is what a good novel should do.

    Funny thing about that thinking – some people see it as dangerous. And a few of those people sit on the school board in Republic, Mo.

    The board voted 4-0 recently to ban Slaughterhouse-Five and another book, Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer, after a local resident complained that the books teach ideas contrary to the Bible.

    Wesley Scroggins had originally targeted three books, but the board voted to keep one, Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning Speak, on the shelves. According to the Springfield News-Leader, Scroggins "challenged the use of the books and lesson plans in Republic schools, arguing they teach principles contrary to the Bible."

    Could somebody please tell me how this works:

    • In this society, the supreme law of the land guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

    • In this society, the supreme law of the land requires that we all are equal before the law.

    ∴ We must suspend some people's freedom of speech in order to to ensure another's religious supremacy.​

    I mean, that's what it looks like. It goes back to a seemingly contradictory principle: My First Amendment rights are not fulfilled unless someone I disagree with is silenced.

    This is the underlying argument. After all, what does it matter if any particular book strikes one as contrary to the Bible? Really, so what? So some guy in Missouri thinks Slaughterhouse Five is contrary to Biblical principles. That's his right, to be certain.

    But the book is allegedly contrary to Biblical principles, which somehow makes it special, apparently.

    Or not. Maybe there is nothing special about Biblical principles in this context. Perhaps we should censor cookbooks that include beef for offending the sensibilities of some individual Hindu. Or most of American literature because it offends a Muslim somewhere. Oh, and, hey, no more of those Muhammad cartoons, y'know?

    Oh, right, right. That is unreasonable. It's only reasonable to censor Slaughterhouse Five because it has offended a Christian's sensibilities.

    At least, this is what it all looks like.

    Boston considers the constitutionality of the school board's decision:

    In 1982, the Supreme Court struck down a book censorship plan at a New York school district. Members of the school board in Island Trees had banned eight books, including Slaughterhouse-Five, after a statewide right-wing pressure group started a campaign against them. Board members agreed, calling the books "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy."

    Justice William Brennan led a court plurality in striking down the censorship scheme.

    Brennan wrote, "In brief, we hold that local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to 'prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.' Such purposes stand inescapably condemned by our precedents."

    In 1993, a school board in Olathe, Kan., ordered the removal of the book Annie on My Mind from a school library because it deals with homosexuality. Parents who supported the novel sued and won. A federal court ruled that public schools may not ban books "based on their personal social, political and moral views."

    It sounds like the school board in Republic did exactly that. One fundamentalist complained that the books offended his interpretation of the Bible – so out went the books.

    And, meanwhile, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is asserting itself on behalf of students:

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    Perhaps it is time that "Real America" got real. Moved past the labels. Stopped trying to be "real" or "Christian" Americans, and give a fair chance to just being Americans.
    ____________________

    Notes:

    Boston, Rob. "Yielding To Censorship: Mo. School Board Bans Books That Are 'Contrary To The Bible'". The Wall of Separation. August 2, 2011. Blog.AU.org. August 4, 2011. http://blog.au.org/2011/08/02/yield...-bans-books-that-are-‘contrary-to-the-bible’/

    Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. "Stop the Madness". (n.d.) VonnegutLibrary.org. August 4, 2011. http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/
     
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  3. NMSquirrel OCD ADHD THC IMO UR12 Valued Senior Member

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    another case of stupidity influencing our laws..

    when are they gonna get it?
    anything good, forced on another is bad!
    yadda,yadda,bitch,complain,grumble,rant....(it gets old..)
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    If there's a ban the people there must file a complaint about it in their local courthouse to be addressed by the court system. That way the courts decide who's right and wrong not the school system. If the case doesn't go the way the people think it should then they can take their case and appeal it to a even higher court. Eventually it might land in the Supreme Court and then it would become a law of the land.

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  7. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    Don't tell me they've banned all the classics.
    Surely they haven't banned....................

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