Censorship Challenge: Texas Pastor Seeks Restrictions on ‘Dangerous’ Library Books
Even though I don’t like books and shows about sparkly vampires, that doesn’t mean we should censor them.
Back in the 1990s, some Religious Right activists in Virginia got the bright idea to begin attacking America’s public libraries. The idea was to demonize public libraries in the same way that public schools have been successfully demonized by fundamentalists in some parts of the country.
The effort, dubbed “Family Friendly Libraries,” fell flat. Americans simply weren’t interested in allowing a bunch of far-right Christian fundamentalists to determine what books they or their children could read.
That doesn’t mean the effort is dead. Public libraries remain in the Religious Right’s crosshairs, as a recent story from Cleveland, Texas, proves.
KTRK-TV in Houston reports that Pastor Phillip Missick of King of Saints Tabernacle, is complaining about several books in the Austin Memorial Library. Not surprisingly, the tomes Missick has targeted deal with supernatural themes.
Apparently, the vampire craze that populates much young-adult fiction is still going strong. This bothers Missick. He is especially disturbed by the Twilight series and similar books titled Blood Promise and Vampire Knight.
More: Censorship Challenge: Texas Pastor Seeks Restrictions on ‘Dangerous’ Library Books