Parents, reject label of 'book banners' as smoke screen
Books are being removed from library shelves. Is this always a bad thing? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Like many aspects of education, everything depends on the values behind the actions.
As believers, we know that we are to put nothing sinful deliberately before our eyes. It should go without saying that we should take every measure to keep our children from visual and textual material that will corrupt their hearts and minds.
And there’s so much of it today, sadly, within public schools and libraries.
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For those who have children and grandchildren in public schools, the question becomes, how much can you trust teachers and library staff to provide wholesome, uplifting, appropriate and truthful books and videos for your children?
Short answer: today, you can’t. There’s an old saying attributed to Ronald Reagan, “Trust but verify.” In the current educational climate, the operative approach should be, “Don’t trust and thoroughly verify.”
The annual observance called “Banned Books Week” by the American Library Association tells us everything we need to know about the deep compromise of the current library profession. Yes, you can still find a librarian or two who knows pornography and other agenda-laden material is inappropriate for minors, but these people are rare.
Most librarians are thoroughly on board with the ALA’s position of not just allowing but actively pushing novels that include teen sexual behavior, “LGBTQ” identities, anti-American sentiments, racially divisive stereotyping, Marxism, and so on. Today many books combine leftist views with pornographic passages and even illustrations.
Yet parents who object are called “book banners” and even “racists” if the characters are people of color. The ALA and their partners-in-crime, the teachers’ unions, accuse concerned parents of denying “diversity.”
It’s a smoke screen for the real agenda, for several reasons. One is that pornography is not “diversity.” One can conceivably publish novels including “LGBTQ” advocacy that are not sexually explicit, and in fact, 15 or 20 years ago, many were not. That’s a rarity today as porn and leftist political content often go hand in hand.
I am not saying one couldn’t and shouldn’t object to homosexual and gender ideology on those grounds alone, and in fact, books for grade school children are almost never sexually graphic, but many do promote these sinful lifestyles and behaviors.
Christians should object to these books as well. And many parents do so, some declaring serious offense to our faith. Good for them! We still have Constitutional rights to freedom of religion and our children shouldn’t have media shoved at them, or even read to whole classes, that teachers know will certainly offend some of the families.
This recklessness and disrespect for conservative Christian values is deliberate, as “LGBTQ” advocates have been advised: “Push the agenda regardless of the First Amendment. THEY are wrong, WE are right.” And so, teachers and librarians will assign pro-transgender books, or set up sexually deviant book displays for “pride” month and more, for as long as they can get away with it until someone objects.
For all these reasons, a growing number of school districts and libraries are disaffiliating with the American Library Association. This includes libraries in Missouri, Texas, Montana and Florida.
You need to join the many other parents who are now objecting. Because if we don’t, the government will mandate that this material remain in schools.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (with presidential aspirations, let’s not forget) just signed a bill mandating that “LGBTQ” books cannot be removed from schools. Contrast that action with that of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed several bills limiting teaching that includes the topics of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” One is respectful of religious faith; the other is not.
Many parents are not fully aware of the depths of depravity in today’s youth publications. To get a quick sample from the research done by my friend Deborah DeGroff, author of Between the Covers: What’s Inside a Children’s Book, go HERE. Brace yourself. These are horrible passages but they are not a small representation. Many, many more well-publicized titles contain similar heartbreaking material, as Deborah details in her many articles and her in-depth book. Many receive glowing publishing reviews because there’s an incestuous round-robin of book review sites supported by the ALA and big publishers.
And the NEA, ALA and others defend this material. Just let that sink in. And then understand that you, parent, need to be on the front lines to defend your child and others. Today, thankfully, you are not alone.
But let’s just spend a moment on the issue of so-called book “banning.” A couple of key points to remember. As sewer-drenched as many of these books are, they are not being “banned.” To ban a book as happened in Nazi Germany, the government would have to confiscate all copies, destroy them and prevent any printing of new copies. That is happening nowhere in America. The books in question are still widely available, and too bad for the children whose clueless parents allow them before these young eyes. They need our prayers.
Second, the action of selecting some material in libraries and lessons for children, and not choosing other material, has taken place and continues now in every school in America. It’s called material and curriculum selection and it’s ongoing. No one refers to this as “banning,” yet in the context of the wildly deceptive claims of the ALA, this fits their description.
We are left with only one possible conclusion. With all the publicity about atrocious books like Gender Queer, A Court of Mist and Fury, All Boys Aren’t Blue, and Push (which describes babies being raped in detail — I am not kidding), librarians and teachers can’t claim to be unaware. So, it must be okay to put porn in front of children, in their view. What else are we to believe?
These are some hard, jaded hearts, but that’s the conclusion we come to. And if you, like many other parents, face this reality, you may decide to school your children at home or enroll them in responsible Christian schools.
But if not, you must be out there, because the spiritual, mental and emotional futures of our children are at stake.
Linda Harvey is President of Mission America.
