Misreading / Book Banning

OK, here I go. If you want to ever talk to me about something that gets me a little upset, it is book banning, but not the way other librarians think. I am a self-proclaimed conservative librarian. There are probably 4 of us, total. Maybe 10. This time though, I am more angry over people not reading complete articles before attacking the people that they are about. Here is the article in question from CNN -Library Fight Riles Up City

I have been reading comments and other people's blogs about this, and they obviously saw the title and skipped the article, going straight to the "let's attack closed-minded Christian fundamentalists trying to take away our rights...blah, blah, blah."

The article has a few points that need to be pointed out though.
There are two separate groups in the article filing complaints to the same library. The first group are parents with children, who, and I will be clear, do not want any books banned or removed, only reclassified as adult books and moved to the adult section. This would still give children access to the books, but at least they would be in a different location, where kids won't just come accross them. So, they are not book banners in any way.

The other group are 4 elderly men who have a complaint that a certain book has caused them distress after reading it and that it should be burned. Now, I do agree that book burning is bad, and that in a public library, books should not be removed, with the exception of maybe a city-wide majority vote, since the taxpayers pay for the library. So, to be clear, I am only really in support of the first set of people, the parents.

But, when it comes to children's books and school libraries, I (and this puts me at odds with the ALA {American Liberal, oops I mean Library Association}, of which I refuse to be a member) think that parents have every right to question library policies. Now, I of course agree that it is the parents' responsibility to teach their kids what to read and what not to read, and I also don't think that one family should make decisions about what is in a library, but I do think that people have the right to disagree with the libraries' choices and try to find other people that agree with them. If a whole town doesn't want a book, then the library director should respect that, since the town pays their salary.

You've probably guessed that I am also pro-filtering in children's areas of libraries.

All of this really goes to show me though that I am thankful that I don't work in a public or school library where I have to worry about this stuff. Anyhow, fire away.

Faith in the Eucharist

Another thing to make you wonder what is going on in the Faith of the Anglican Communion, this time straight from the top.

Poisoned Chalice from CNN.

The problem with this is in the understanding of the Eucharist. In the Orthodox Church, we believe that the bread and wine ARE the body and blood of Christ, not a representation. In his question and answer series on oca.org, Father John Matusiak says: "It is a matter of faith that one cannot contract a disease from the Body and Blood of Christ."

As if other things haven't made me wonder about the Faith of some Anglicans lately, this is just another point to make you wonder what is going on. You can read Fr. John's complete thoughts here.

Resolution

This just in from the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America - Status of Bishops.

Russurkey

During this past week, His All Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and all Russia was in Turkey, first meeting with Patriarch Bartholemew, and then with the Prime Minister of Turkey. AOI has an article on the 2nd visit from the Moscow Patriarchate's External Affairs office here.

This comes off of the revelation that there are many more Russian Orthodox Christians living in Turkey than Greek. The Turkish Prime Minister seems much more open to working with the Russian Patriarch than Patriarch Bartholemew. Someone has even brought up the point that in about 50 years, if the trend keeps, the Turkish born Patriarch of Constantinople may actually be Russian.

Complete Decision from Chambesy

AOI posted an English version of the full decision of the 4th Pan-Orthodox Preconciliar Conference in Chambesy in June.

Here is the link to their source - Decision.