[lbo-talk] Fwd: Rick Warren should be in prison

[John Thornton]

Joseph Catron forwarded:
> The Federal Bureau of Prisons is purging library books on religion.
>
>
> Imagine walking into your local library, planning to read a theologian such
> as Reinhold Niebuhr or Karl Barth, or a popular inspirational work, such
> as Rick Warren's *Purpose-Driven Life* or Harold Kushner's *When Bad Things
> Happen to Good People*.
>
> But instead of finding such important and popular titles, *you discover that
> the religion section has been decimated* – stripped of any book that did not
> appear on a government-approved list.
>   

Glad to see this. There are no important titles here, only superstitious 
drivel.


> To make matters worse, the contents of the "approved" list are extremely
> capricious. For example, "80 of the 120 titles on the list for Judaism are
> from the same Orthodox publishing house," and the list for
> Christianity "*lack[s]
> materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major
> Protestant denominations.*"
>   

Let's whittle that list down to zero then shall we? Problem solved.


> The Bureau of Prisons says they merely want to ensure prisons are not
> recruiting grounds for terrorists and other militant groups. So why are they
> removing the vast majority of materials on faith and religion? And if
> prisoners are not free to pursue their own faith journeys, what cause for
> hope should they have?
>   

What? Someone thinks religion inspires people to violence. What evidence 
do they have to support this idea besides all of human history?

John Thornton