Our Threatened Freedom

Are We a Nation of Book Burners

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 155-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 155

Dictation Name: Vol. L - Part 12 - Are We a Nation of Book Burners

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Are we a nation of book burners? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

We read periodically that some group or other is upset because a school board wants to keep certain books away from school children, and the impression is given that some people known as the radical right are involved in book burning. How true is this? Moral Majority for one is charged with book banning by some, but that group has never been involved in such activities nor has Eagle Forum.

It is true that in many communities parents have objected to certain books because of their content, and in the belief that those books are unfit for school libraries. It is also true that librarians and library journals recommend certain books and reject others, often because they are too conservative or too Christian. If we call the one censorship, we must call the other censorship also. The fact is, both sides want children to get the best perspective on life, and to cloud the issue with charges of book banning is to misrepresent the facts.

All the books in question can be bought by anyone at any bookstore. The Christian school will obviously avoid certain books as not worthwhile, or as definitely bad. Similarly, the public school being governed by humanistic faith will select books which conform to its perspective and reject others. This will of course offend some parents. The solution is not name calling. Basic to freedom is the fact of choice. If we deny freedom we are denying choice. What these people who rail at the supposed book banning are really saying is that there can be no free choice for anyone except themselves. If I want the freedom to choose I must give that freedom to others also. True book banning would the prohibition of publication, it would involve stopping a book before it is printed, in some countries nothing can be published without a state permit, any violation of that process is severely punished. We have nothing even remotely resembling that in the United States, not yet at any rate. It is a very grave disservice to freedom to misrepresent issues, and to speak of the threat of censorship where no such threat exists.

This has been R.J Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.