Something Serious

By now any loyal reader of my blog knows where I stand on the subject of censorship of all kinds. In a recent New York Times article, the world became aware that the Federal government (Yes, OUR government.) has decided that it has the right to systematically purge the chapel libraries in the federal prison system.
This purging does not only target texts with a violent philosophy, because the government didn't have the wherewithall to actually read all of the titles that were already in the prison chapels. So they created a very limited list of "approved" texts and are removing all other titles from the shelves. In the article, a professor of law, Douglas Laycock, summed up the situation this way:

“Government does have a legitimate interest to screen out things that tend to incite violence in prisons,” Mr. Laycock said. “But once they say, ‘We’re going to pick 150 good books for your religion, and that’s all you get,’ the criteria has become more than just inciting violence. They’re picking out what is accessible religious teaching for prisoners, and the government can’t do that without a compelling justification. Here the justification is, the government is too busy to look at all the books, so they’re going to make their own preferred list to save a little time, a little money.”

Please take the time to read the Times article, and then go here to e-mail the appropriate federal official and tell our government that ours is a country of religious freedom!

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
092107