Banned Books: One Christian’s Perspective

Next week is banned books week (starting tomorrow). According to popular stereotype, as a Christian (and a Reformed Baptist, no less), I should be in favor of banning books that don’t conform to biblical values and morality. It’s true that I would prefer all media reflected biblical values, and I would certainly prefer that certain types of literature didn’t exist, however I am not generally in favor of public censorship of books, ideas, or opinions.

Does this mean, as a parent, I let my children read or watch whatever? No. As a parent, it’s my job to raise my children according to the values and beliefs we hold dear. So, my children are raised in a Christian household, where the Bible is our standard, and the lens through which we look at life. Does this mean my children can only read the Bible and “Christian” books? Absolutely not! What I try to teach my kids is not “this book is evil” and “this book is good,” but discernment. We teach them the standard, then encourage them to look at whatever they read (or watch on TV, or talk about with their friends) in light of that standard. I prefer to teach them to think critically, not just blindly follow a list of “approved reading.” I am more restrictive in my children’s younger years, but I think that’s true for most parents, Christian or not. We recognize young children are impressionable, more easily affected by what they see or read, and less able to process and discern. But as they get older, I loosen the reins and, more and more, leave them to make up their own minds. The results so far show that my older children (one nearly an adult now!) understand the world, and can see a difference between value systems. They can read (or watch) things that don’t always line up with a biblical standard and, instead of being conformed to that other standard (which is the fear behind most Christian book/TV banning), they recognize it for what it is.

In the marketplace, I see literature and media as a whole as reflective of society. The stories we tell, whether in print or in pixels, are the product of the writers’ worldview, and our society as a whole. In an age when certain racist language and attitudes were common in society, our media reflected this. Today, where thankfully such language and attitudes are no longer acceptable, you are less likely to see them shown positively in media. I think it interesting and instructive that this change in attitude hasn’t come about by censuring such attitudes, but by educating the culture. (As a side bar, I think it is, therefore, short-sighted of publishers to want to change classic novels, removing certain racial epithets. These are artifacts of our past, and I think people today recognize that we don’t–or shouldn’t–use such terms any more. We don’t need to go censuring the language, as if people are stupid and can’t understand this.) As I said above, I would prefer it if certain kinds of literature didn’t exist, and if media as a whole reflected a biblical standard of ethics and morality. But that’s not our culture, and that’s not our society. And banning such books won’t change anything. Besides the fact that even “bad books” can be well written, and can, therefore, be instructive to the discerning reader, depriving people of something deemed “inappropriate” doesn’t make people suddenly agree. If anything, it only makes people more curious. If you want to change the reading, watching, browsing habits of a society, the best way to do it is to change society, not restrict its access to certain media.

Now, these thoughts may be subject to caveats, and I’m sure if you pin me down on specifics, those caveats will come out. What I’ve tried to do above is to outline a general attitude that, frankly, some of my fellow Christians may disagree with. That’s okay. Rather than censure your opinion, I gladly invite dialog in the comments.