PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

It’s hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust.

But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message.

“We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).

Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent who discovered what they called a “Christian purging” of the charter school’s library.

“She was told by one of the library attendants that the library has been instructed to remove all books with a Christian message, authored by Christians, or published by a Christian publishing company,” read a letter PJI sent to the public charter school. “The attendant advised that the library would no longer be carrying those books. Indeed, our client was told that the library was giving those books away, and she actually took some.”

Among the books deemed inappropriate, the PJI said, was “The Hiding Place” the biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who was imprisoned by the Germans for helping Jews escape the Holocaust.

“It is alarming that a school library would attempt to purge books from religious authors,” said Brad Dacus, president of the religious advocacy group. “This is a major sweep by this charter school to eliminate the religious viewpoint. Libraries cannot engage in an open purging of books simply because they are of a Christian perspective.”

Dacus said the charter school must reverse “their ill-conceived and illegal book-banning policy.” If they fail to do so, he said, PJI is prepared to take further legal action.

So why would a public charter school take issue with books written by Christians?

I figured Superintendent Hermsmeyer would be more than willing to set the record straight and explain the book purging. It seems I figured wrong. I gave her 24 hours to return my calls, and as of this writing, she has not done so.

But she did reply to the letter she received from Pacific Justice Institute. And what she told them was a bit alarming.

“We are a public school, and as such, we are barred by law from purchasing sectarian curriculum materials with state funds,” she wrote. “We only keep on our shelves the books that we are authorized to purchase with public funds.”

I’m guessing Harry Potter is OK but Frodo is not.

Pacific Justice Institute said the charter school has violated the First Amendment. They cited a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that said “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to ‘prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’” If you’d like to read the entire case – it’s “Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico.”

Hermsmeyer denied they were discriminating against Christian authors or publishing companies.
“At no time, however, have we discriminated against Christian authors or publishing companies who create secular educational materials,” she wrote.

Heaven forbid the children find a Bible in the library.

It’s quite unfortunate that the charter school endorses the banning of books.

“Some of the greatest literature of Western civilization comes from religious authors,” Dacus said. Are they going to ban the sermons or speeches of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?”

I oppose all book banning. If a book offends you, don’t read it.

The way I see it – book banning is just one step away from book burning. And I don’t mean to pour gasoline on the fire, but we all know what regime did that.

missinglink Loc: Tralfamadore

Shades of Ray Bradbury circa 1953. My how times change.
Bradbury being a liberal concerned with far right nut job Joe McCarthy ( As he should have been ), put this work together.

Where are all the liberals on this. They should be hopping mad about censorship. Seems as though the left have forgotten all about civil rights. You all know. Those peskie
little freedom of choice issues being a large part of it. I am sure this is the tip of the iceberg.
Unbelievable.


Fahrenheit 451
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation).

Fahrenheit 451 Cover shows a drawing of a man, who appears to be made of newspaper and is engulfed in flames, standing on top of some books. His right arm is down and holding what appears to be a paper fireman's hat while his left arm arm is wiping sweat from the brow of his bowed head. Beside the title and author's name in large text, there is a small caption in the upper left-hand corner that reads, "Wonderful stories by the author of The Golden Apples of the Sun".
First edition cover
Author Ray Bradbury
Illustrator Joseph Mugnaini[1]
Country United States
Language English
Genre Dystopian novel[2]
Published 1953 (Ballantine Books)
Pages 159
ISBN ISBN 978-0-7432-4722-1 (current cover edition)
OCLC 53101079
Dewey Decimal
813.54 22
LC Class PS3503.R167 F3 2003

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953. It is regarded as one of his best works.[3] The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found.[4] The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury understood to be the autoignition point of paper.[5][6]

The novel has been the subject of interpretations primarily focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. In a 1956 radio interview,[7] Bradbury stated that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he stated his motivation for writing the book in more general terms.

The novel has won multiple awards. In 1954, it won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal.[8][9][10] It has since won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984[11] and a 1954 "Retro" Hugo Award, one of only three Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004.[12] Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.[13]

The novel has been adapted several times. François Truffaut wrote and directed a film adaptation of the novel in 1966, and a BBC Radio dramatization was produced in 1982. Bradbury published a stage play version in 1979[14] and helped develop a 1984 interactive fiction computer game titled Fahrenheit 451. A companion piece titled A Pleasure To Burn, consisting of a selection of Bradbury's short stories, was released in 2010, less than two years before the author's death.

Co

barry vann

it's time for all christians to unite or these muslim bastards and king muslim obo are going to do away with us just as they're doing in the middle east right now. believe that or not. it;s time to kill or be killed!

Augustus Greatorex Loc: NE

Definitely, you are a Christian.

Matthew 26:52
Romans 12:19
John 13:35
Job 13:15
Ecclesiastes 3:3
John 11:25
Psalm 18
Psalm 27
Psalm 46
Psalm 91

As to this particular instance, what convicts you Ms. Hersmeyer is a Muslim?

I suspect she is a 'secularist' believing her faith is not 'sectarian.'

cant beleve Loc: Planet Kolob

Maybe some ones idea of christianity It is not every christians ideal. I do agree on the secularist point however.

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

I'm in agreement with Old Gringo (surprise!) that banning a book for Christian content (or any other religious angle) is an abridgment of our first amendment rights. While I think there should be guidelines for age-appropriate content (probably no "Lady Chatterly's Lover" for grade-schoolers) I do think access should most often be universal. If you don't want your kids to read something, be involved in their lives and monitor what they read! You won't be able to vet 100% of the material they can access, but you can educate them to develop good judgement for themselves.

rumitoid

Hermsmeyer said, “We are a public school, and as such, we are barred by law from purchasing sectarian curriculum materials with state funds,” she wrote. “We only keep on our shelves the books that we are authorized to purchase with public funds.” Did "The Hiding Place" fall into that category? What other books were banned either of a specifically Christian theme/author or not? To name one book and see an evil conspiracy against or persecution of Christians appears an over-reaction.

If what Hermsmeyer said is true, and it has not been proven otherwise, they are not violating “Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico” but obeying the law. All that substantiates the so-called banning of Christian reading material is a somewhat far-fetched comment (hearsay) claimed by the complaining party to have been made by a library attendant.

rocketride

I suspect that Frau Hermsmeyer's real objection to "The Hiding Place" is with its depiction of acts of defiance against a totalitarian state.

ghostgotcha Loc: The Florida swamps

Ah yes. A good ol'fashioned book burning. How quaint. How liberal....

missinglink Loc: Tralfamadore

Hear Hear.

clarkwv Loc: west virginia

For a change I agree with you, as I would view the book, which I have not read, from what it says it is about as a history not religious. In what you wrote I can not find where a government rule is quoted, just some peoples opinion about some vague unnamed rule. I can understand why a school board might not want to by books that teach about Christianity, as you then would have to stock books that teach about all religions, which no school board could afford to do.

PeterS

Go for it bubba. Who would blame you!

acitizen Loc: Cowboys never die... but they can be mounted.

To be sure if this was a conservative Christian school burning secular science books saying Christianity was not true or that God was false or a book on Darwinism.....well you better betcha they would be on them like liberals attacking Christians.

What a minute.......that's the same thing.....right?

Speaking of book burning........

missinglink Loc: Tralfamadore

Thanks. I needed that.

rocketride

I wonder if books about, for example, Islam are being similarly purged. It would be really 'fun' if the parents found un-purged examples still on the shelves, wouldn't it?