Month: August 2024

A Step Beyond Book Bans

I know I’ve written more than enough about book bans, but there’s a frightening new step happening in Florida that cannot be ignored. Last week New College of Florida, the tiny liberal arts college where Governor DeSantis appointed a new governing board, threw out books. “‘We abolished the gender studies program. Now we’re throwing out the trash,’ Christopher Rufo, a DeSantis appointee to the Sarasota college’s governing board, posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter.” (apnews.com)

Although the administration claimed that the books were put out to be donated since the college’s gender studies program has been eliminated, student Natalia Benavides and others said the boxes were moved to near the dumpsters to be discarded before they rescued them. “‘Primarily what was in the dumpster were library books —- they were stamped with `discard’ and they were bound so that you knew they were from the library,’ said Benavides, a fourth-year student. ‘They seemed to be of every topic under the sun: art history books, books on aesthetics, psychology books.’” The discards included LGBTQ books, books on slavery, a collection of Jewish stories and three copies of the Bible. (Ibid.)

A report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune was more damning, claiming a dumpster in the library parking lot overflowed with books and collections, and a video captured in the afternoon showed a vehicle driving away with the books before students were notified. In the past, students were given an opportunity to purchase books that were leaving the college’s library collection. New College spokesperson Nathan March referenced Florida Statute 273 as the reason books could not be donated or sold. However, FS 273 states that New College could dispose of state-funded personal property by “selling or transferring property to any other governmental entity… private nonprofit agency… (and) through a sale open to the public.”(herald-tribune.com)

In an interview, Natalia Benavides, said, “Unfortunately they took the whole bin to the landfill in front of our eyes, and we couldn’t do anything about it”(youtube.com)

One of the discarded books was co-authored by U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Patty Murray (D-WA), Nine and Counting: the Women of the Senate. They issued this joint statement: “We were stunned to discover that the state of Florida chose to discard Nine and Counting from its collection of books at New College—this is a book we penned together with our Senate colleagues to tell our stories as women senators, at a time when there were far fewer of us, to help inspire the next generation of women to pursue public service. We stand against the senseless banning of books. Such actions go against our constitutional values and the idea that our universities should be places where the freedom of speech is allowed to flourish and perspectives of all kinds are heard.” (collins.senate.gov)

Have we come this much closer to Ray Bradbury’s nightmare vision in Fahrenheit 451? Authoritarian regimes may start with banning books but destroying them to remove them from circulation completely is yet another step. “In Nazi Germany, many books were considered so dangerous that they were publicly burnt. Liesl Meminger, the Book Thief of Marcus Zusak’s bestselling novel, steals a half-burned book from the edge of one of these bonfires.” (theguardian.com) Brazil, Hungary, the Phillipines, Turkey, and Russia have all removed books that challenge their values, often replacing independent history texts with those produced by the state. In 2019, Turkey’s education minister “revealed — proudly — that 301,878 books had been taken out of schools and libraries and destroyed. All these books were purportedly connected to Fethullah Gulen, the cleric blamed for the failed coup attempt against Erdogan’s government in 2016.” (nytimes.com)

My heart aches when I read these articles. Destruction and removal of books limits the perspectives learners can develop. Be they children or even college students, readers can learn about other worldviews from books. “Books from a variety of viewpoints can be incredible tools to help children learn, independently or in a classroom, and limiting these discussions only hinders the nuanced discussions that inspire growth. Banning Shakespeare and other classic literature based on a few excerpts doesn’t protect children, it limits their learning. Banning books about LGBTQ+ and racial-equity topics doesn’t stop children from being curious about different topics, it merely blocks an important medium through which they can learn.” (firstfocus.org) Shame on New College!

Threats to the First Amendment

The United States is not a Christian country, despite constant conservative assertions to the contrary. Our founding fathers sought freedom of religion. In 1789 they adopted the Bill of Rights, whose First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Although many of those who call our country a Christian nation often assert the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, they are too often ready to ignore the very first line.

According to Cornell Law School, as the third president of the United States, “Thomas Jefferson referred to the First Amendment as creating a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state…The term is also often employed in court cases. For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black famously stated in Everson v. Board of Education that ‘[t]he First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state,’ and ‘[t]hat wall must be kept high and impregnable’” (www.law.cornell.edu).

The 2022 Supreme Court breached that wall with their decision that a high school coach could legally pray with his players and others on a school field under his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. Now we face further breaches. The Louisiana legislature passed HB71 in June, giving schools until January 1, 2025, to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms. They must be shown on “‘a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches’ in every classroom. The commandments have to be the display’s ‘central focus’ and be ‘printed in a large, easily readable font’” (washingtonpost.com).

And Louisiana is not alone. Similar bills have been introduced in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina, though they have not yet become law. After Texas allowed chaplains in public schools in 2023, more than a dozen states are now introducing legislation to bring chaplains into their public schools. School voucher programs have expanded rapidly in GOP states, bringing billions in taxpayer dollars to religious schools (Ibid.)

I absolutely support the right of Americans to practice their religion if it does not impinge on the rights of others. Posting the Ten Commandments, an inherently religious document, impinges on the rights of all students who do not subscribe to it. Highlighting one religious doctrine as if it were universal excludes students with other beliefs. “‘All of these students will be forcibly subjected to scriptural dictates, day in and day out, including: “I AM the LORD thy God”; “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”; “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain”; “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”; and “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” the complaint asserts. ‘This simply cannot be reconciled with the fundamental religious-freedom principles that animated the founding of our nation’” (www.the74million.org).

Louisiana officials claim that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, stated that we “have staked the whole future of our new nation…upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the 10 Commandments.” A lawsuit seeking to overturn this law claims the quotation is fabricated, that Madison instead wrote, “‘The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries’” (Ibid.). Madison also wrote, “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” (thehill.com).

State Senator Jay Morris defended the bill, claiming it “is not solely religious.” “And the text of the legislation deems the Ten Commandments a ‘foundational document in our state and national government’ that was ‘a permanent part of American public education for almost three centuries’” (Ibid.). Such claims are disingenuous and do not meet the burden of separation of church and state. Nor are other foundational documents required to be display, including the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

This is not the first time this issue has been raised. In 1978, Kentucky passed a law requiring “the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, paid for by private funds” (www.wkyt.com). Challenges in court reached the Supreme Court in 1980. That Court struck down the Kentucky law as a violation of the separation of church and state. The decision reads:

Held: A Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public school classroom in the State has no secular legislative purpose, and therefore is unconstitutional as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. While the state legislature required the notation in small print at the bottom of each display that “[t]he secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States,” such an “avowed” secular purpose is not sufficient to avoid conflict with the First Amendment” (supreme.justia.com).

These battles are not going away. In June of this year, Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Education official ordered all public schools in the state to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum as a historical text. Yet two days earlier, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a publicly funded Catholic charter school about to open. “The Court found the concept of a religious, state-funded school is unconstitutional and a violation of state law” (oklahomavoice.com).

Public schools need to honor the First Amendment. Students should feel safe and included. I agree with the lawsuit filed in Louisiana that this law “pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture. It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences” (nbcnews.com). 

Isn’t it interesting that many of the same leaders who argue that parents should control the upbringing of their children want to force feed their preferred religion in violation of the Constitution? We cannot allow them to succeed.