Yielding To Censorship: Mo. School Board Bans Books That Are ‘Contrary To The Bible’

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://blog.au.org/2011/08/02/yielding-to-censorship-mo-school-board-bans-books-that-are

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.” (more at link)

[msongs]

1. the bible contains incest, beastiality, genocide, rape, torture. those are ok family values though n

[Journeyman]

2. "There are no dangerous thoughts;" Hannah Arendt observed, "thinking itself is dangerous."

[Posteritatis]

3. One complaint. ONE complaint, and they pull them.

Another thread on this the other day had a poster chipping in who was in the town where that happened; apparently the guy filing the complaint is a university instructor who homeschools his kids and thus at least doubly shouldn't have a say there in the first place.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. Look at the fuckwad. That quote by Superintendent Chalmers (Simpsons) was made just for him.

"The stick up that man's butt has a stick up its butt!"

[FiveGoodMen]

4. Separation of Church and State, Motherfuckers!

[dtexdem]

5. Hear, hear.

Yeah, all the other issues -- but this is the bottom line.

[democrat_patriot]

6. I thought the supreme ruled books can't be removed...1st amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court considered the First Amendment implications of the removal of the book, among others, from public school libraries in the case of Island Trees School District v. Pico, <457 U.S. 853 (1982)>, and concluded 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.'"

[Posteritatis]

13. The school would probably fall back on the standard "it's disruptive" carte blanche

Or fear that the dumbass challenging would sue them over it, which is usually the reason school districts instantly fold.

[qb]

7. How pathetic to have a faith so fragile that it can't bear an opposing viewpoint.

:eyes:

[MatthewStLouis]

14. Good point. Those fundamentalists love their sharia law...as long as it's their own.

[ZombieHorde]

8. Yet another reason why American non-Christians get upset over Christianity. nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Bingo.

[ZombieHorde]

18. I love that guy. nt

[nykym]

9. This is what happens

when we stay home on election day. The right wingers are now filling up all the local power positions in all states. Getting on school boards and wrecking havoc with curriculums, town boards, starting off small like allowing a prayer before limiting your use of local parks, and so on. They have learned that they can start small and infest our government. Like the frog in the pot of boiling water - throw him in and he jumps out, put him in and slowly heat the water - he thinks this is nice then its frogs legs for dinner.

[gordianot]

10. Republic Missouri consider the source.

There are several obscure Southwest Missouri sects that encourage father daughter incest based on even more obscure Biblical interpretations. I find this so putrid I manage to ignore the details. They do not advertise this horror to outsiders. Whenever I travel in Southwest Missouri my paranoia picks up and I keep an iron bar under my car seat. Springfield Mo including Republic is a hotbed of Christian fascists. Been there, live there no more.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Hope the ACLU sues. Unconstitutional.

[MatthewStLouis]

12. I went to school with morons such as these...

I am sure most of those people have never read the Bible either, at least in its entirety. They are proud of their ignorance, wallow in stupidity and are full of opinions. They would probably be the first to tell you that guns don't kill people, books do!

[FiveGoodMen]

15. "those people have never read the Bible either, at least in its entirety"

Most of the people who do read it from cover to cover give that as their explanation for why they became atheists.

[tblue37]

19. This strikes me as a clear violation of the separation between church and state. nt

[slay]

20. So it's banning all non-fiction books?

cause "the bible" is the biggest, worst piece of FICTION that has ever existed.

[Goblinmonger]

21. Where's whats-his-name telling me religion isn't forcing itself on anyone

If they would just leave their religion the fuck out of things, nobody would be upset with them.

And Slaughterhouse is one of the best American novels.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. I don't know, but bare wood or stone floors are better for your lungs.

Don't you think?

[laconicsax]

23. Conspicuously absent, as usual. n/t

[Taverner]

24. Time to get rid of all the math textbooks then - after all "pi" is contrary to the bible!

[laconicsax]

25. So is basic arithmetic

We know from Ezra 1 that 30+1000+29+30+410+1000=5,469. Now basic arithmetic says that the sum is 2,499, but who are we to argue with the Bible.

Also, Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 both say that 42,360 people came back from the Babylonian exile, yet when you use arithmetic to check the total, you find that Ezra lists 29,818 and Nehemiah lists 31,089.

Mathematics has yet to discover the secret by which both 29,818 and 31,089 equal 42,360.