So imagine my surprise and excitement when the day's topic of discussion in my Mass Media and Cultural Communications class was whether or not books should be banned and, if so, who should do the banning?  Admittedly, I was both excited by the forthcoming possibilities to defend free thought amongst christians, and filled with hope that some of my classmates might share my passions and my conviction that people might need to learn to make choices for themselves and take responsibility for the results of those choices.  Then imagine my disappointment when the discussion turned into another fundamentalist corporate masturbation session; everyone getting all fire-up and preaching their opinions to each other as if someone had actually shared a differing opinion (which no one had).  The story I'd like to tell is the one where I valiantly stood and defended free speech and independent thought, demanding that people take responsibility for themselves and make decisions on their own rather than depending on the "moral majority"  to do so for them.  However, actual events were far less dramatic and I was no hero.  Fearing the lynch mob that might follow me out of the doors at the end of class, I simply sat, absorbed, and silently filled with disappointment. Then I set to my computer to blog my thoughts and opinions in safety and anonymity.  

Honestly, I've seen and heard a lot of things while at this college that have left me wondering if christianity has been lost to the ignorant masses, but today my heart was broken.  I sat and listened while my peers; the future leaders of churches and schools, the parents of the coming generation, chose to give up both their right and their children's rights to free thought so that life could be easier.  WELL OF COURSE IT WOULD BE EASIER.... but when has the easy choice ever been the right one.  Someone in class actually suggested that parents should be able to choose to ban books because they wouldn't want to have to explain to their child why a character in a book had two mommies.  How lazy can you possibly be?  I suggest this; if you don't want to deal with parenting a child... DON'T HAVE CHILDREN!  Or you can choose to have children and allow the public school system to parent them for you, but if you choose to do so you give up your right to decide what they are taught and what they are exposed to.  You cannot have it both ways.  

Anger and frustration aside, here is the truth of what banning books achieves.  None of the original intentions.   In class we looked at a list of the top twenty banned books of 2007.  On that list were four books that have recently been made into top grossing children's movies ( three Harry Potter's and The Golden Compass) and at least three classics, including Huckleberry Finn, which have all been and continue to be required reading in public school english classes.  It seems to me that the only achievement those who ban books can boast of is increasing the popularity, and subsequently the sales and audience, of the literature they attempted to black list.  Sounds satisfying.  

Amazingly, and this must be a complete coincidence and not a historical pattern because if it was a historical pattern we would never ever repeat the same mistakes, Prohibition, banning of abortion, and many similar attempts at controlling the morality of the masses, have ended with similar results.   So I suggest this; as Christians we should stop crusading for moral legislation and content controls, which only ever end unsuccessfully, and try planting a seed of morality in the people we are trying to control.  That is to say that rather than trying to control people, teach them morals through example and through the love of Christ.  We learned morality from Christ, not law, so why do we try to do things differently?