Christian Censorship
by Steven Morris, PhD.

"Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold and what we may buy?...
Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for
what we are to read and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are
rational beings or not... let us hear both sides if we choose." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1814

"Morally, the Church can and does exercise what is called censorship."
-- Roman Catholic Bishops of U.S., 1957 (1)

Americans too often take for granted the freedom that they have, to say what they please and read what they want. It is easy to forget that such freedom was forbidden throughout most of human history, and its presence in America today is one of the greatest gifts the Founding Fathers of this country gave to us. "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" according to the First Amendment to the Constitution, and this remains a basic foundation of our democracy.

This foundation is hated by those who wish to control the minds of others. Those who are convinced that they have the absolute truth in Jesus are working hard to forbid access to ideas they do not personally like.

Freedom of speech and freedom of thought are certainly foreign to the Bible. Close-mindedness is a virtue; "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy" (Col. 2:8). Christians are told to avoid "profane and vain babblings" (2 Timothy 2:16), but you cannot recognize "babblings" unless you first listen and think. The only way to prevent that from happening is to silence anyone who doesn't agree with you.

Book burning has been the most exciting form of censorship, and previous generations showed great enthusiasm for this form of muscular Christianity. In the year 391, the last great library of antiquity was destroyed by Christians in Alexandria. (2) When 20,000 books were burned in a huge bonfire in Berlin on May 10, 1933, Joseph Goebbels congratulated the students on having "done well" in the middle of this night to throw into the flames these unspiritual relics of the past." (3)

One of the most successful censors in recent years has been the Reverend Donald Wildmon, who runs the American Family Association. His specialty is organizing consumer boycotts against TV advertisers. According to Wildmon, "Censorship has existed since man learned to communicate. Society cannot function without practicing it." (4)

If Pepsi advertises on MTV ("a cancer eating away at the moral fiber of our young"), he organizes a boycott. Wildmon's hit list includes just about everything: Roseanne, Murphy Brown, Coach, The Simpsons, Wings, and The Golden Girls. Once, Wildmon decided he'd seen Mighty Mouse sniffing cocaine on a Saturday morning TV series. The series' animator protested that the cartoon rodent was actually smelling a flower. Nevertheless, the innocent scene was removed to satisfy the paranoia of one man. (4) A British documentary Damned In the USA about Wildmon's activities was scheduled to be shown in the USA. Wildmon sued to prevent it. (5)

Such dictators of thought claim that they are promoting a Bble-based ethic of decency. But Christians have yet to clearly define what 'Christian ethics' is. On every major social issue of the day, including abortion, the death penalty, sex education and homosexuality, Christians can be found on either side, insisting that their god speaks through them alone.

Pornography is the easiest and most popular target of censors, who often claim that pornograpy inspires such crimes as rape. The trouble with this line of argument is that individual women are raped by criminals, not by dirty movies. No respectable study or evidence has shown any causal link between pornography and actual violence. In countries where pornography is legalized, the crime rates for rape and sex offenses have actually decreased, according to a Danish report." (6) Should selling Mein Kampf be illegal because some cretin might read it and kill a Jew? No! To ban such books is to let the very lowest among us determine what we may read and hear.

It is impossible to appease the censors; like blackmailers, each success emboldens them to ask for more. No rational limits exist for them. Halloween activities have provoked challenges that schools are "teaching the occult" of advancing "Satanism". Library books about the supernatural and the witches in Macbeth have come under fire, as has an elementary school book called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Magic. In Texas, textbook censors Mel and Norma Gabler issue this warning; "When a student reads in a math book that there are no absolutes, suddenly every value he's been taught has been destroyed. And the next thing you know, the student turns to crime and drugs." (7) Such a statement would be taken as a sign of mental illness, were it not uttered in the name of religion.

If the book-burners were really serious about keeping disgraceful literature away from impressionable minds, here is a suggestion for them: Let them begin by banning a book that speaks approvingly of human sacrifice, multiple sex partners, slavery, genocide and torture. That book is the Bible. "Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?" (Is. 36: 12) is degraded filth that hypocritical Christians refuse to criticize and censor.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. If you think that Christians are too moral to cause real suffering, consider the fate of Hypatia due to Christian censorship in 415 CE:
"There was a woman at Alexandria named Huypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time... It was caluminously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took the mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them." (8)

So perished the last great philosopher of antiquity, murdered by Christians for the crime of speaking freely, as the Dark Ages descended on the world.


REFERENCES:
1) The World Treasury of Religious Quotations. Edited by R. Woods, p. 105. Hawthorn Books, New York, 1966
2) Encyclopedia Americana. Volume 1, pg. 544, Grolier, Danbury, 1996.
3) Hitler's Third Reich: A Documentary History. Edited by L. Snyder, pg. 118, 121, Nelson-Hall, Chicago Il, 1981.
4) TV's Watchdog From Tupelo. By C. Dreifus. In TV Guide L.A. edition, pg. 11, Sept. 12, 1992, News America, Radnor PA.
5) Los Angeles Times. Pg. F1 Jan. 3, 1992.
6) Kindly Inquisitors. By J. Rauch, pg. 16. U. of Chicago Press, Chicago Il, 1993.
7) Censorship. Edited by L. Orr, pg. 163. Greenhaven Press, San Diego CA, 1990.
8) In the Twilight of Antiquity. By T. Jones, pg. 103. U. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis MN, 1978, quoting Ecclesiastical History VII, pg. 5 by Socrates.