Remember that cute story in the Friend about the eight-year-old who read some bad words in a children’s book she checked out from the school library? She went home and talked to her parents about it. They explained what the words meant and why they chose not to use such language. They also talked about why the characters in the book used such words. Maybe the characters were struggling to choose the right. On the other hand, maybe they came from a different background where such words weren’t taboo. They talked about how they could maintain their own language standards while showing tolerance and respect for people with different standards. They used the book as a tool to reinforce their family’s values while gaining new insights and appreciation for the perspectives of others.
You don’t remember the story? That is because I am telling it wrong. In the actual story, the girl got the book banned from her school.
These delightful censorship stories pop up pretty regularly in our church magazines. Sometimes good Mormons are banning books, other times they are boycotting community plays, and frequently they are demanding that all of their friends and colleagues stop swearing.
The American Library Association’s Banned Book Week is coming up soon. At this time each year, the Library Association takes a few minutes to remind us of the dangers of censorship. If the kinds of things we brag about in our church magazines are any indication, we Mormons could use the reminder.
I won’t demand that Church Magazines stop printing stories promoting censorship. That would violate my own principles of literary freedom. Instead, the next time I see one of these bothersome stories in my kids’ copy of the Friend, I’ll talk to my children about it. I’ll explain the dangers of censorship and why I choose to fight it. I’ll also explain why some members of our faith think they need to censor things. Maybe they don’t know how to choose the right when confronted with other influences. Maybe it hasn’t occurred to them that banning books that make them uncomfortable prevents everyone from benefiting from the books’ messages. I’ll explain to my kids how we can stand up for literary freedom while showing tolerance and respect for people who write church magazine articles favoring censorship. I’ll use that Friend article as a tool to reinforce our family’s values while gaining new insights and appreciation for the perspectives of others.
For more information about Banned Book Week, see http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm
56 Responses
Well said. Well said.
Between this and the recent shoulder baring article, is there ever a feeling of a lack of writers for the Friend, or is it just the odd perceptions of the editors?
According to this recent news article, Church Magazines has plenty of writers sending submissions…but it probably couldn’t hurt of more of us feminists contributed to the pool. Has anyone? How did it go? http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705385269/Writing-for-the-Ensign.html
Note that the story referenced was a short summary of a personal experience submitted by a child reader.
I guess in my cynical mind I always assume that parents are writing (or at least greatly influencing) these articles attributed to children. But maybe a real eight-year-old got the idea to write this and submit it to the Friend all by herself. It is possible. Lots of real kids may have more initiative than I did when I was a kid.
Even so. The fact that it was published in the friend was a decision by the editors of the friend. This shows that it was behavior that was seen as being laudable.
Great post. I find the attitude of some Church members to be, “In the world, not of the world = the world must change for me.” I noticed it most in school, where people thought they should be able to get out of lessons on evolution, or they should sue a university for asking them to say swear words in a play.
If you want to take a stand on an issue, that’s great. Good for you. But you have to be prepared to accept the consequences — not to shout, “But I don’t deserve any consequences, because this is a moral stand!” You don’t want to complete an assignment that goes against your values? Take the F with pride. Ideally, try to learn the lesson that someone was trying to teach you, but if that won’t work, just stand on principle. Don’t demand that everything be catered to your needs.
You don’t want to read a book? Fine, don’t read it. But don’t deprive others of the experience, and don’t complain if it turns out that book was on your final.
As an aspiring librarian the REAL story here is Horrifying. When reading the first part of the OP, I was thinking, this is really lovely and wonderful – you could totally tie that in with the 10th article of faith – and then I got to the part where they explain she got the book banned!!! OH, HOW I HATE THAT. When people ban (or try to ban) books, my heart shrivels a little. How much we can learn from books we don’t agree with, how much history they teach us. And yet the editors of the friend are saying – it’s okay to not learn from others, it’s okay to become a bully and force EVERYONE to live with your own moral standpoint. This makes me SO upset. I didn’t always get the friend when I was little, and I always thought how great it would be to have a magazine for my kids (if I ever have kids) but it looks like I’ll just be buying them the Cricket magazines (babybug, ladybug, cricket, cicada) instead. Notice how I’m not forcing you to not buy the Friend? Yeah – that’s because I respect you and your decisions.
Or… I might by it, but read it first – like you should do anyway, but if they’re gonna keep sending horrifying messages out, I don’t know if I want my kids to read it when there are wonderful other options out there.
Do you have a link to this story in the Friend? I browsed through and the only one I could find in my quick search was a story about a boy who asked for (and got) a different book to avoid the bad words.
Here is the article I referred to: http://lds.org/friend/2010/06/trying-to-be-like-jesus/book-decision?lang=eng
And here is the one you found, which is from the most recent Friend. I was thrilled that you found this newer story, since the reader simply returned the book to its place at the school library when he decided it didn’t meet his standards. Don’t cancel your subscriptions to Friend yet. It looks like the stories are improving! http://lds.org/friend/2011/08/trying-to-be-like-jesus/a-new-book?lang=eng
Just read “a new book” – THAT’S what you’re supposed to do. I have no problem with that. If you’re uncomfortable reading something (or your parents are uncomfortable with you reading something) talk to your teacher – they can (and usually will) come up with an alternative for you. I had one professor tell our content area literacy class, that when she was teaching youngsters (as opposed to college students) she always had 3 or 4 books that taught a specific subject and let the kids choose their own – this did two things. 1) the books got read, since the kids got to choose the one that interested them and 2) when parents came in to complain about the book she ‘assigned’, she could take the wind right out of their angry sails by saying “I offered a choice of books and your child choose… The Chocolate War (or whatever book it was) let’s have you look through the other options and see if any of them are okay for you – if not, we can talk about other books that teach ____” whatever she was trying to get the jr. high kids to learn. She said it worked every time, and that often the kids neglected to mention they had a choice after all – …
Also – just a little side note. I remember in elementary school reading My Brother Sam is Dead (a historical fiction book about the civil war) and we were reading aloud and one of my friends -when she got to her turn TOTALLY skipped the word “damn” because she didn’t want to swear. I had the exact opposite reaction – wishing I had gotten called to read that part, because it was teacher-sanctioned swearing. My friend and I even talked about it after, because I wanted to know why she didn’t say it, Anywho… two Mormons two different points of view! 😀
But there seems to be a misstatement somewhere. It says,
“During recess I went to the library and told the librarian. She reported it to the headmaster. They took all the copies of the book out of the library.”
So the banning was done by the adults around her, not the girl. She does not ask them to do anything, she just tells them how she felt about it.
It seems to be a true story written by the girl herself. You are criticizing her because of what the headmaster did?
*Revolutionary War, not Civil War – don’t know what I was thinking!
Haha, I was totally like that 8 year old as a kid. My dad in particular taught me to adhere to certain standards and avoid bad influences and dress a certain way and wouldn’t let me use the computer for anything other than school assignments. I was the only one of my friends that didn’t have an email account in high school. I used to bristle at anything that wasn’t up to the standards I was taught. I really wish he would have let me be exposed to much more than he did and used the exposure as an opportunity to teach me things that I was going to have to learn anyway once I was turned loose on the world. I definitely am doing things differently with my children.
Weird. I was one of the only ones in my high school that had an email account. Granted that was before it was “cool”. Pagers though… they were cool and I didn’t have one 🙁
Back in the day (early 70’s) the only people who had pagers were Dr’s and drug users. so, I wasn’t allowed to have one.
So wait, the girl is a book-burner because she informed her librarian that a book she checked out had strong language? She didn’t ask for the book to be banned, she merely reported its contents to her librarian. It was the librarian and the headmaster who chose to remove the book from circulation, which is well within their rights. For all we know, they determined that the subject matter was inappropriate for the age group the library caters to, so they donated the books to a different library with a different typical audience. While this could be an example of censorship on the part of the headmaster, I think blaming this poor girl is a bit of a leap, no?
Thank you, jimmy, for reminding me that I should show mercy on this poor kid. I see your point about how it isn’t her fault that her actions resulted in a book ban–grown-ups made the final decision and we don’t know what book it was. I doubt it, but it is possible that the book was porn/hate crime propaganda/something-else-awful that accidentally ended up in a school library.
What bothers me about this article, and others like it, is that the child’s parents/guardians, who undoubtedly helped her submit her experience to the Friend, as well as the editors of the Friend, seem to believe that getting a book banned from school is the kind of accomplishment appropriate for an article about children acting as Jesus would. I would love to see a real life account promoted in the Friend that is more similar to the fictional one I put in my first paragraph.
I didn’t think that getting the book banned was the good thing she did. Speaking up for how she felt was commendable, in my book. (oops, pun!)
Thank you, Jimmy!
In high school, I opted out of reading a couple controversial books including and Of Mice and Men and The Song of Soloman. I had to read several other books in their place but didn’t consider it a burden as it gave me an excuse to read. In college, I minored in English at BYU and read several books that I would have opted out on my own a couple years before. I even read Of Mice and Men and don’t really see why I had a problem with it in high school. One course instructor in particular at the start of the class noted the potential controversial novels (American Novel (I think)) and recommended we take another class if we weren’t comfortable reading a number of standard banned high school books. There was some leeway but his point was that we shouldn’t be English majors or minors if we weren’t willing to expose ourselves to classics. I am kind of embarrassed at how much of a goody goody I was in high school and even in college. Although I have definitely never been a fan of banning books. I do think there are books like the Song of Soloman which people may have legitimate reasons for opting out of.
Kelly Ann,
I have got to know what was so controversial about Song of Soloman? My senior seminar in lit was on Toni Morrison and, for the life of me, I just cannot remember what happened in that book that could be offensive. It is one of my absolute favorite books! I am not trying to start anything, I am just wondering if I remember things differently.
I really love this OP, incidentally there is a great scene in the movie,”Field of Dreams,” with Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan where they are at a school board meeting because they want ban subversive books like,”The Diary of Anne Frank,” and “The Wizard of Oz,”The take away is what’s one man’s subversiveness, or offense is another man’s glory.
What I’m wondering, especially since I have never been to Utah is that I’ve been told that in many movie theater’s in Utah the censor the original movie to bring it up to the standards of the church. If this is true, who gets’ to decide what is appropriate and why are they(probably a male priesthood holder) allowed to decide for everyone else, including those who are not members of the church what is appropriate?
I live in Utah – and have never actually heard of movie theaters doing this. There were however, companies like Cleanflix – that would edit movies to make them pg-13 or pg instead of r rated – they just followed the MPA guidelines on those… I think they would also take requests. however, they lost a court case – since they were changing the films – I think they were breaking copy right law? I’m not really sure. It’s been a while since then.
There are theater chains that won’t show certain films. The biggest (and in my opinion silliest) example of this is when Brokeback Mountain came out – The Larry Miller Theater chain (whose name I CAN”T for the life of me remember – also… for point of reference he was owner of the Utah Jazz basketball team – he was sort of a local celebrity – not sure how much press he got outside of the state) ANYWHO… his theater chains originally promoted Brokeback mountain and then decided not to show it (and gave refunds to those who pre-bought tickets) HOWEVER, that same opening weekend – they opened the horror movie Hostel, which, according to reviews, was torture porn – so… yeah… torture porn is more acceptable than gay shepherds. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal, if they had just passed on it on the first place – I think everyone kind of knows that sometimes movies don’t get to every theater – except that they originally were going to show it – when they changed their minds there was a protest – which led to a discussion at the University of Utah between Larry Miller and the LGBT community, many of whom showed up to this meeting dressed in plaid shirts and jeans (and cowboy hats if they had ’em). I heard from some people that it was a good discussion, but since I wasn’t there I can’t actually tell you what happened.
About cleanflix – I mean they would edit vhs and dvd stuff. Or maybe they had a master copy? and edited that and then made copies of it for sale? I don’t really know – but they didn’t edit stuff for theatrical release, just for home viewing.
Beth Smash
I think your reply is ironic on many levels and point to the hypocrisy behind the whole censorship issue. I have a friend who is proud of herself for not having seen ANY R rated movies. I have to say, some PG13 movies are more raunchy (if that’s a word) than any R rated movies, but, that’s just me
Wait – do you mean my own individual reply? Or do you mean the situation with the theater’s that I explained in my reply? AND YES!!! I totally agree with you about some pg-13 movies sometimes being extremely raunchy, but it being ‘okay’ because it’s not rated r. sigh.
Movie theatres cannot alter or censor the movies they are given to show. That is illegal, and they would get in a lot of trouble.
However, there are some cases where the production company will release a different version like that PG-13 version of The King’s Speech.
I used to work at a movie theatre chain in Utah, and I can’t even tell you how many times someone has complained to me about our company “catering to certain local groups in the movies we picked”. If only it were that easy! There are actually a lot of factors that go in to which movies go where, and the wants of the movie theatres (who, of course, are vying for what is going to sell well) are only a single piece of that.
One other comment that I think is important, I remember coming across a controversy in the news a few months ago. High School and College English departments were trying to ban the book,” Huckleberry Finn,” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer because of the use of the,”N” word. To me it seems ridiculous because the reason why Mark Twain used the word was to teach about racism, Leave the word out, the book and passage it was contained in really doesn’t seem the same.
I haven’t herd anything more in recent months as to whether of not they made any final decisions as to whether to ban the book or have a edition made which doesn’t include the word. Like, I said previously, I don’t see the point, but, I do understand why the African Community would be offended by it, but at the same time reading the book does help to open dialogue
Here’s a really interesting article/opinion piece on the controversy:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/06/huck-finn-censorship-and-the-n-word-controversy/
I know they released the revised edition – but I can’t find how well it sold.
I think I should get a copy of the book that’s still intact, if only for value of it, (literary) and it will probably also be considered a classic in every sense of the word because there will be so few books left in print.
Hold the phone. Really? Man, it’s been a long time since I picked up The Friend. I also plan to be a librarian, and in my undergrad library classes censorship came up a LOT. Now I’m all sorts of fired up about banned books week and helping students understand why some books have ‘objectionable’ content for a reason. On the other hand, I of course respect others’ wishes to not read something that they find inappropriate.
This reminds me of a strange story: I once talked to a woman who told me that growing up, their parents had them mark out with marker offensive language from books so they would be appropriate. I still don’t know how to respond to that other than “eh?”
‘@ Alex
I had a high school English teacher( he looked liked Captain Kangaroo) who would assign us books to read like ,” The Catcher in the Rye,” yet, he would read aloud sections and when colorful language would come up he would just say ” beep, beep, beep,” and roll right along like nothing was amiss
That’s a lot better than some solutions I’ve hears 🙂
(For example, intentionally mispronouncing curse
words instead of the skipping over them.)
Having an instructor address a touchy subject like this in some manner-either by example or by class discussion- is, in my opinion, a good way to let students navigate reading books with words they’re not comfortable with. For example, in one of my Literature courses last year, we read African-American lit, and we had a discussion on the “n” word, and the professor told us that he was not comfortable in saying it when reading aloud.
Um. heard. Not hears.
alex w.
I totally agree – libraries should be places of access. Where if you want to read Harry Potter you can! AND if you don’t want to read Harry Potter you can read something else!
And yes, I specifically picked Harry Potter BECAUSE people try to ban it. (Also – just spent a year in England – and all my classmates thought that was CRAZY)
Why would they think you were crazy for coming to such a wonderful place as England?
I also agree that libraries should be democratic and open to all books. Their role is to enable us to chose what books we want to read, not restrict and dictate what we read.
Curse my lack of proper grammar!
Let me try again.
I just spent a year in England, and my classmates, an international group of students seeking a MA in Information and Library Management, thought that banning, or trying to ban, the Harry Potter books was a crazy idea. They generally thought that banning books was a bad idea. And the British students were aghast at the idea that people would rally against Harry Potter.
Also – black marker book vandals still exist! At some of the libraries we’ve worked at, we’ve had to have talks with otherwise lovely little ol’ ladies and men, although less frequently, for vandalizing the books – when they black out ‘objectionable’ words.
The idea had never occurred to me before. Vandalism to correct grammar, sure, but to black out foul language? I never knew!
Brilliant Post. Dead on.
As another librarian I too find censorship deplorable. Ideas can’t be censored.
Pure and simple.
Interesting post. And as with most things, I am a believer in moderation in all things. When we are dealing with children, especially, there is some cause for a certain amount of censorship. They are not yet fully capable of making their own decisions and must be introduced to some of these things a bit at a time and age appropriately. Also, there has been so many DISGUSTING things put out in the name of art, that really, no person should have to come across. If you are an adult and choose to view those things, you have your free agency. I have seen people go overboard with the censor stuff, such as people who want to ban Harry Potter or The Lion King. But, if you want to expose yourself or your children to the trash that’s out there, it’s your choice, but I don’t think the rest of us should have to see or hear it.
I also don’t think it’s always inappropriate to ask people not to swear. How is your right to swear greater than my right not to have to hear it?
I know many of you will disagree with me, but when dealing with kids, I think we should be careful about what they are exposed to. And yes, there have been times that I have let my kids watch things that weren’t up to our standards so that we can talk about it. But, I watched it with them. But, there are some content that I will NEVER be comfortable having my children be exposed to, and I won’t expose myself to those things either. When it comes down to it, you answer to God for your choices and you won’t have to have anyone else’s yay or nay.
So… I just reread this before posting – this is NOT meant to be anyway snarky, I think the tone might come off a little bit that way, but I truly don’t mean it to. I really am asking for clarification on your statement, which I find confusing. And I’ve tried rewriting how I do so… but I’m still not getting it across the way I want it to, so I have decided to let it go as is, with this statement as a preface.
Quick question and a comment.
if you want to expose yourself or your children to the trash that’s out there, it’s your choice, but I don’t think the rest of us should have to see or hear it.
Would you then advocate for the banning of a book in your local library? I’m a little confused, because at first it seems like you would allow people their own choices, even if you thought it was “trash” but then you say you don’t want to see or hear it. Does this mean I would have to go into the back room of the library to check out To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye or Twilight (all three made it onto the most challenged book list of last year). Would you want them gone all together (and yes, I do realize that you wrote that you think people sometimes go overboard trying to ban things) but your statement confuses me, I would appreciate a little clarification.
Also – here’s the comment thing, someone’s trash is another person’s treasure. When I read, The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler (which has also been on the banned book list – and made it again last year – meaning that someone thinks it’s “trash”) I felt a connection to the character, it moved me, and brought me greater understanding about myself.
Now, if you don’t want to read it, I’m not going to force you to read it (and if that’s all you meant by your previous comment about not wanting to see it or hear it) that you just don’t want to be FORCED to do something, than that’s fine. But I want access to it. I want to be able to go into a library and find that book. And that’s why I was so upset when initially reading the OP.
Dang, I never herd of that book, now that’s another one added to my list to read
Someone tried to get Twilight banned? For what, encouraging the weak girl having to choose between hunks stereotype? 😉
BethSmash, thank you for your comments. I am not familiar with all of the books you pointed out above, but I can’t imagine banning the ones that I am familiar with. And when something is “banned”, does that mean it is gone altogether, or just put in the “back room”. I think I am taking issue more with the fact that we shouldn’t censor anything- or that we should have it all available for younger eyes and ears. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but not too long ago, there was a book put out that was essentially a handbook for pedophiles. I also would like to keep things that many would classify as pornography (and I would classify also as trash) away from younger eyes, and maybe more difficult to get at for older eyes who may have an addiction??? I am OK if we don’t “ban” those things altogether, but it frankly does appall me that some people think our children and youth should be free to see those things. And a hearty “YES”, we as parents should be there to help our kids navigate through these things. But, someone once said, “it takes a village to raise a child” and when I see what some of our “villages” are allowing and sometimes advocating, I don’t want them to have any part of raising my child, and I think that is so sad. I don’t want to feel like I have to monitor and isolate my children. But, maybe I am getting my definition of censorship wrong…
There is a difference between not exposing yourself to it, and forcing others to not be exposed to it. I agree that we should be careful about what we and our children see, read, and hear. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop others from choosing to expose themselves to it. If I dislike the colour purple then I wouldn’t enforce everyone else to not wear it just to appease me and not offend me.
I think Joseph Smiths phrase ‘I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves’ is directly applicable here. As the OP states instead of banning the book, discuss with the child why they would not want to read such a book, the principles involved and the context. When censorship and books are banned it gives the impression that we don’t trust people to make their own choices, we don’t trust that they will chose what we think is right, so therefore we make it so they must chose the right. In order to be agents unto themselves they need to have that chose. Banning books simply limits agency.
My sister-in-law tried to get Anne of Green Gables banned in her N. Idaho schools – too many ghost stories, gory stories, preteen girl spooky stuff. Seriously strange – the relative, not the book. When my gifted 6th grade reading group red My Brother Sam Is Dead, all 6 of them carefully removed the white-out (we had some iffy parents, too) and relished the swear words. Lots of great discussion about history vs. fiction. As one girl put it, “This is a really subversive book about a time we’re supposed to think about only one way, and they’re worried about a few ‘bad words’? Whatever!” Why would we want to stop kids from learning? They will live in the real world someday, no matter how many cocoons we build around them. Educate! (And let them read Maurice Sendak – now, there’s a subversive author!)
Excellent post! Maybe I am off, but has anyone else considered that if the US did not have freedom of the press that the Book of Mormon would have been banned before it was even published?
I can’t help but always think of that when I hear of book burnings and the like, especially since there was so much issue with it and Mormonism in general. Without freedom of the press would the church be here at all? I think not; so I cannot agree with the banning of any book out of respect and testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Spunky
Let’s take that a step further, how about thanking God that we were born in the time period we were born in because reading was only for the elite class and the poor could be jailed. Now that’s censorship
Another note on the full facts of the original story: The decision was made by school officials regarding a school library. This is different from the situation in a public library because a school acts in loco parentis in many jurisdictions, while a public library does not. Thus the school does have a greater interest in ensuring that materials are appropriate for children, whereas the mission of a public library is to carry a broad selection of materials.
I think this is a totally fair point. The statement in The Friend does sound like in the author’s opinion the banning was a good thing and he felt good about it (or made to feel good about the banning). But it’s a short snippet.
I could totally see my younger self doing something like this. To the young person’s credit, he did stand up for what he believed in. If only I could do that so easily. I don’t like censorship, but I do think it’s cool for kids to learn to speak their minds.
Thank you, Naismith. That makes more sense to me. Because I think we should be protecting our children from certain things. I give my children a little free agency at a time, because, hey, my two-year-old is not free to run in the street. Maybe some of our younger readers should not have the free agency yet to read some of those materials either. I think that’s what hit me in this discussion is that we were talking about a child, and then there was so much discussion about absolutely no censorship. And yes, I would feel better about knowing that there is a different expectation for a school and a public library.
So… they mapped the various places where books are challenged. Here’s the link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112317617303679724608.00047051ed493efec0bb8
And I have to say – I’m curious if Utah, Nevada, New Mexico have no officially challenged books, have less challenges then other states, or if they just never report the challenges to the ALA. They think that only 1 in 4 challenges get reported in general (that’s in the sidebar of the link). I know the libraries that I worked at had forms that patrons could fill out about the removal of an item, but during the three years I worked there – no one asked for one at my library.
A lot of books are censored for relatively minor reasons. Shifts in language usage (Like Huckleberry Finn and the use of the N-word) or simply because some people don’t want their children exposed to ideas too advanced for them at an early age.
One such book is a brand new one that I just heard of call “Keeley Thompson: Demon Girl” by K.L. Byron.
I managed to get a review copy of this and followed a thread on a web site about it.
It has everything you might not like, which is fine. Sex and violence don’t mean that much any more. The language is mild and really the “adult” content is very appropriate to the young adult market.
The problem is all in the sub-text.
The main character finds out that she’s a demon (fine) and that other demons and creatures may want to kill her while she;s young and weak. (Makes some sense really.)
Then her mentor rips apart Christianity and rather carefully derides all things Christian as wrong and foolish, using her position of authority to influence the reader into accepting what’s being said.
It’s not a minor point, the whole book has this as a running theme. It’s so obviously anti-Christian that it shouldn’t be allowed.
And kids are reading it already. Getting it off of the internet for free.
I’m not all the way through it, but what I read so far is… not something you want your kids to read at a formative age. It;s probably fine for adults secure in their beliefs, but kids?
My point, some books should at least be filtered away from children or require parental consent.
I know that not everyone agrees with me, but I feel strongly on this issue. Kids need to be protected.