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Banned or Unselected?

Sep28

The American Library Association insists that parents and other citizens attempt to “ban books” while librarians are trained to “select books.” In other words, there’s a subtle difference between me as a citizen petitioning the library to NOT spend my tax money on a book that I believe to be useless or pernicious and Molly Librarian (something I was once upon a time) deciding that a book is useless or pernicious and not buying it for the library collection.

I agree that the difference is subtle, and I even agree that there’s a difference. The citizen petition is made in public, usually discussed and debated in public, and and a decision is made about the material in question. Usually (about 90 percent of the time) the decision goes against the citizen request. The librarian’s decision, however, to buy or not to buy a particular book is made in private and usually is unquestioned. Good libraries have a selection policy, but it ‘s usually written in such general terms that it can be interpreted to defend or to deny just about anything that may be challenged or requested. The general idea is that we should just trust the professionals to be unbiased and fair about these things and not worry our pretty little heads. Well, I did just a little bit of research and came up with some evidence of bias and unfairness that looks compelling to me.

I said that I wouldn’t write anything else about Banned Books Week, but I just can’t resist. This idea from Focus on the Family is too good not to pass along. Click on the previous sentence to get details, but basically the idea is for you, as a citizen to donate books to your local library that “offer contrasting, alternative perspectives and that reflect your family’s viewpoint.” There’s a sample Book Donation Comparison Chart that gives some ideas of what to donate specifically on the subject of homosexuality. It’s set up so that you can compare what books your library already has to a list of comparable books that express an opposing viewpoint.

I checked the two side-by-side lists against the catalog for my entire library system, a huge library system (Harris County/Houston). Guess what? I’m not really surprised that my entire library system carries every one of the books on the left, pro-homosexual rights side of the list, and it carries exactly ONE copy of ONE of the books in the right hand column, books written from a Christian conservative viewpoint. I then looked under the subject heading “gay marriage.” (Maybe the library system has other books from a Christian/traditional marriage point of view, books that are not on the FOTF list.) Except for the one book already noted, all sixty-two of the titles listed in the catalog were titles favoring the concept and the legalization of “gay marriage.” Oh, one other book on the list was a tome called Same Sex Marriage: Pro and Con, edited by Andrew Sullivan. I haven’t read it to see how unbiased it is, but Mr. Sullivan is a well known advocate of the legitimization of gay marriage.

So, as far as I can tell, my entire library system has ONE book that presents the case for a traditional definition of marriage and more than fifty books and other media, in multiple copies, that present the case for a re-definition of marriage.

Exactly whose books are being “banned” here and by whom?

Poetry Friday: The Choir Invisible by George Eliot

Sep10

I looked for a while to find a poem that I thought appropriate for this day, a day which certainly, in FDR’s words about another event, lives in infamy, but also reminds us of our own mortality and of the evil that inhabits our own hearts and those of others, the sin that sometimes escapes all bounds and produces tragedy.

May we all join the Choir Invisible, the one Eliot writes about and the one in Revelation in the Bible, as souls forgiven by the grace of God.

Oh, may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men’s search
To vaster issues. So to live is heaven:
To make undying music in the world,
Breathing a beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of man.
So we inherit that sweet purity
For which we struggled, failed, and agonized
With widening retrospect that bred despair.
Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued,
A vicious parent shaming still its child,
Poor anxious penitence, is quick dissolved;
Its discords, quenched by meeting harmonies,
Die in the large and charitable air,
And all our rarer, better, truer self
That sobbed religiously in yearning song,
That watched to ease the burden of the world,
Laboriously tracing what must be,
And what may yet be better, — saw within
A worthier image for the sanctuary,
And shaped it forth before the multitude,
Divinely human, raising worship so
To higher reverence more mixed with love, —
That better self shall live till human Time
Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky
Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb
Unread forever. This is life to come, —
Which martyred men have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow. May I reach
That purest heaven, — be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense!
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world.

Ramadan Prayer

Aug26

Sunday, August 22, was the beginning of the Muslim observance of Ramadan, a time of prayer and fasting for Muslims around the world. It was also the beginning of a now-annual effort on the part of Christians around the world to pray especially for Muslims. If you want to join in this concert of prayer during the 30 days of Ramadan, you can find a prayer guide here.

The first day’s devotional thoughts were particularly convicting and useful:

Faith is important, but do I also love Muslims? What is my
most profound reaction when I meet them, when I see them
on television? How would I react if a man in Islamic clothing
came to my church? How would I react if a new believer from
a Muslim background wanted to marry into my family? Would
I be willing to give a thousand dollars so someone could proclaim
the Gospel among Muslims? Would I be willing to sit and
eat with a Muslim in a crowded restaurant? Have I been involved
in criticizing them without knowing them? Am I fearful
of Muslims? Is my main attitude toward them one of mistrust?
Am I able to do as Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself”? Is this my desire, is this my goal?

I know that some Muslims might find this prayer focus offensive or patronizing. Please know that this time of prayer is about “Christians learning about, and praying for our world’s Muslim neighbors during their holy month of Ramadan; doing so in humility, and without fear or ill-intent.”

May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, reveal Truth to us all and help us to know how to love each other.

Ya Gotta Laugh . . .

Aug14

From Israel: The following joke is making the rounds in the Prime Minister’s Bureau these days: What do Americans do when something breaks down in their home – when the sink is blocked up, the toilet overflows, a fuse burns out?
Simple: They ask Barack Obama to give a speech and the problem is solved.

Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake.”
Barack Obama says, “Let them eat arugula.”

From “The Late Show with David Letterman,” July 24, 2009:
Anybody see President Obama’s press conference last night on television about the health plan? Here’s the deal: it will cost a trillion dollars, but that will be in three easy payments of $330 billion a month, so it’s not that bad.

Obama Health Care reminds me of this old joke, slightly reworked for the New Era of Change:

The Pope, a boy scout, and Barack Obama are in an airplane. The pilot comes running back and tells them, “The plane is going down, and there are only 3 parachutes.” He takes one and jumps overboard. Obama says, “I’ve got the best brain in the world, and must be saved.” He grabs a chute and jumps. The Pope looks at the boy scout and says, “I’m an old man, but you have many years to live. You take the last chute.” The boy replies, “No, there are still 2 chutes. That guy with the great brain took my backpack instead of a parachute.”

What’s the problem with Barack Obama jokes?
His followers don’t think they’re funny and other people don’t think they’re jokes.

Health Care, Reading Skills, and Responsibility

Aug5

I just sent the following questions to my congressman and to my two senators:

I have two questions:

1) Will you vote to require members of Congress to be included as participants on any bill dealing with health care? Please give me a yes or no answer.

2) Do you have a policy of reading any proposed bill before voting in favor of it? If so, will you vote against or abstain from voting on any bill that you are unable to read before a vote is taken?

Thank you for your time and for your service,

If you are interested in answers from members of Congress to either or both questions, I would suggest that you email your members of Congress or call them and ask the same two questions. I do not think it at all unreasonable to ask that members of Congress read the bills that they are voting to enact. And if the Congressional leadership does not give the members sufficient time to read the bills, they should vote “NO!”

I also believe that if the current health care bill is so great for the poor and the uninsured, Congressmen and their families should be happy to sign on to receive the same health care and have the same access to health care that their constituents will get.

Links and Thinks

Jul27

On paying for college, courtesy of Mental Multi-Vitamin.

What do Stephen King and Jerry Jenkins have in common? Well, they are both writers who’ve both sold a lot of books. Other than that, I’m not sure I would ever have thought of them in the same room, but Writer’s Digest did a joint interview with the two best-selling authors, and it’s a good read.

What happens when the doctor becomes the patient? It’s a brief trailer for the new season of House. I was actually afraid after the last episode of last season that the Powers That Be would just end it there. But it looks as if Greg House is not to be written off so easily.

Dutch researchers find that fetuses have memories. “A call to NARAL Pro-Choice America for comment on the implications of the research were [sic] not returned.”

And finally, little did I know that my Top 100 Hymns Project may have revolutionary implications. In Fiji, it’s looking as if the police and the government are afraid an annual hymn-singing contest and Methodist conference may spark a revolution or a change in government or something. If the Methodist choirs can’t sing in Fiji, what’s next?

Obamamed

Jul23

Bill Kristol: “The juvenile happy talk reached its peak with this presidential statement: ‘If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?’
Now, there’s good idea. Why hasn’t anyone else thought of that? For this reform, we need to spend $1 trillion?”

Norma at Collecting My Thoughts: “I’ll believe he’s serious about improving health insurance when he says, ‘I know this can work, and we’ll start with all federal, state and local officials, elected and appointed, me and my family, Congress and SCOTUS included, and civil service staff, run it as a model for 5 years to tweak and improve it, just to show to you it can work.'”

Richard Land: “Unless Congress specifically prohibits abortion services being covered as an ‘essential benefit,’ government bureaucrats will inevitably create an “abortion mandate” for both public health insurance plans and publicly subsidized private plans. Then tens of millions of Americans will be forced to pay through their taxes for that which they find morally reprehensible.”

The Senate will NOT vote on the health care legislation until after the August break. In the meantime you can do something to stop this ridiculous legislation that will give the federal government control over something that they have no right or responsibility to control: our health and the doctors and hospitals that dispense health care.

What you can do if you DON’T want Obamamed:

1. Pray
2. E-mail and write letters to your Representative and two Senators.
3. Call the Washington office and the local office of your Representative and two Senators.
4. Spread the word! Distribute this flyer to everyone you know and use Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail samples.
5. Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper.

Finally, Mr. Obama Speaks

Jun23

From the White House, today, June 23, 2009:

Today, I want to start by addressing three issues, and then I’ll take your questions.

First, I’d like to say a few words about the situation in Iran. The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost.

I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.

The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future. Some in the Iranian government are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the United States and others outside of Iran of instigating protests over the elections. These accusations are patently false and absurd. They are an obvious attempt to distract people from what is truly taking place within Iran’s borders. This tired strategy of using old tensions to scapegoat other countries won’t work anymore in Iran. This is not about the United States and the West; this is about the people of Iran, and the future that they – and only they – will choose.

The Iranian people can speak for themselves. That is precisely what has happened these last few days. In 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to the peaceful pursuit of justice. Despite the Iranian government’s efforts to expel journalists and isolate itself, powerful images and poignant words have made their way to us through cell phones and computers, and so we have watched what the Iranian people are doing.

This is what we have witnessed. We have seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands Iranians marching in silence. We have seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and their voices heard. Above all, we have seen courageous women stand up to brutality and threats, and we have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect those rights, and heed the will of its own people. It must govern through consent, not coercion. That is what Iran’s own people are calling for, and the Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government.