Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. The guidance by Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested “electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials.” In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.
i’m a christian and know the bible well. These types of actions do not match how Jesus instructed us to act. When asked by frustrated tax payers whether they should continue paying the unfair taxes, jesus looked at the coin, asked “who’s face is on the coin?” It was Caesar. And he said, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesars, and give to God what is God’s.”
You see, they thought he was going to affirm their desire to revolt and stop paying their taxes, because in their view, jesus was a rebel and of course he would support people rising up to collectively cut off the flow of tax money to the worst government the world had ever seen? No. Jesus said, no don’t do that. Just give it to them. Play the long game. Give up this battle, but win the war.
Similarly, when I as a christian am asked by another christian “shouldn’t we ban these books? they have sinful activity”…I say, no. let the books stay where they are. it’s a library. if what you believe is true, then mere pieces of paper with drawings and text in them should change nothing. Let God sort it out later. You just live your life.
Jesus was much more interested in the inner life of each person, and he made a specific point of telling people to mind their own business and get their own house in order before worrying about everyone else. He also was very mindful of sin, telling us to “run” from it, almost like harmful radiation. Don’t try to change it, don’t try to interact with it, don’t even try to fight it. Just run away, get away, whatever you have to do.
So perhaps Jesus teaching for parents worried about sinful activities in books, would be to take their kid out of school, and create their own school that doesn’t teach that. Which is why I support school vouchers. We as christians should at least be consistent, and our actions should match those of Jesus. These people out there pushing for more intervention, more laws, more authoritarian control towards a theocracy, are IMO not very christ-like. Christians already created the ultimate theocracy in the Catholic church and we all saw how that turned out. We should have learned our lessons from history, but instead people just repeat the same mistakes over and over. And that’s all people, not just christians.
children have the right to a proper education and we as society have a responsibility to provide it. Religious private schooling is a failure in that regard and should not be permitted, much less funded at the expense of public schools and the children who attend them. Voucher programs rob from the budget of already underfunded (supposedly) secular public schools
partially disagree, but i respect your opinion, and the way you presented it.
I don’t share your faith (or even really have one that’s got a name), but I respect your tone and the thought you’ve put into this.
I share the other commenter’s dislike of charter schools.
This is largely what I believe. As long as the person isn’t hurting someone else, leave it to the higher power to sort it out. Asserting control over another’s life is actively in the way of their own life’s journey.
I don’t believe a book that benevolently presents a character that’s LGBTQ is going to change anyone’s gender identity or sexuality.
I was called “Wanda” in high school by some close friends because I didn’t act like the typical teenaged boy (read: I wasn’t being a jackass). I’m still a straight guy despite having that (friendly) nickname for a few years that was a totally different gender.
I trust the kids here to do the right thing for themselves. We don’t as adults need to limit their world view, especially teenagers; that just seems like a recipe for resentment. i.e. just leave the books alone, it’s not a problem that needs solving.