Banned Books Week

[Jenn]

The day Darrell sent us all over to the Jack Hyles site to read his soul winning stories, I clicked on one sermon from 1971: Satan's Bid for Your Child. An excerpt:

Quote:2. Books.
Here are some samples of profanity. Now I am sorry, I am not going to
use these words, but I am going to spell some bad words. I may as well
just come out and tell you what your kids are reading. You have not
checked on it, you have no idea, so I am going to have to tell you. I
have got to invite you. I am going to open a few of the books. New
Worlds Ahead is used for the seventh grade. The seventh grade uses
this: “The Stray Kitten”, by Richard Wright, Page 54. “Kill that
d-a-m-n thing.” That is seventh grade. Page 55: “I had my first triumph
over my father. I had made him believe that I had taken his words
literally; he could not punish me without risking his authority. I was
happy because I had at last found a way to throw my criticism of him
into his face.” That is a quote from a seventh-grade book.

Another story in the book called “The
Blue Serge Suit”, Page 414, says, “D-a-m-n asthma.” Page 416, “That
d-a-m-n asthma is getting worse.” “I’ll be d-a-m-n-e-d if I see what
you are getting at.” That is seventh grade reading!

A ninth grade book, Voices in
Literature (1). “Shoe Shine”, by Jerome Weidman, Page 21: “My God!”
Page 23:”D-A-M-N it.” Page 23 again: “D-a-m-n it! My God!” The Long
Night”, by Lowell Blanton, Page 84: “Well, d-a-m-n it, man.” Page 209:
“D-a-m-n-e-d-e-s-t thing.” Page 235 questions parental authority. “The
Sissy from Anaconda”, Page 352: The d-a-m-n-e-d-e-s-t rattle snake.”
“Hell.” That is ninth-grade reading. Not only is that not good English,
that is not even cultural. That is not even refined. That is not even
scholarly–that is heathen-like.

You parents who won’t send your sons
and daughters to our school, you say “I am afraid that the Hammond
Baptist High School will not be properly accredited.” We are a little
above this kind of accreditation. We are too scholarly for this kind of
garbage. We are too cultural for this kind of talk. Not only has it
pricked our religious and spiritual convictions, it pricks our
cultures.

We are just getting started. Say you
will not read this. I have got to read it to you and for you. It is
called Themes in Literature, the tenth grade. “The Colt” by Willis
Stegner, Page 127: “G-o-d-d-a-m-n you. G-o-d-d-a-m-n your wild hearts.”

Now before you start criticizing me and
say that our kids are not having to read suff like this, I have got the
poll this morning I am going to read you in a minute. Before some of
you school teachers say, “I teach school and that is not going on.” You
just go to one school, teacher. I have the poll–I am going to give you
the goods in one minute, so do not shut your ears yet. I am trying to
help you and help your kids.

Tenth grade: In “The Mateo Falcon”, by
Merimee, the father kills his own son. In Western Literature: Themes
and writers, “The Out Station”, by W. Somerset Maugham, page 83: “Go to
Hell, you d-a-m-n fool. You D-a-m-n-e-d snob, by God.” And 15 counts of
profanity in this one story on Page 83, and also a murder.

Voices in literature III, an article
“On the Sidewalk Bleeding”, by Evan Hunter, page 105-111, a gang member
is stabbed. The whole story tells how he lays on the sidewalk and
bleeds to death.

In the book Of Mice and Men, that has
been required reading in numbers of schools in this area, by John
Steinbeck, page 24: “He is sure a Hell of a good worker. He is a
G-o-d-d-a-m-n good worker.” My Bible says you are not to take the name
of our Lord God in vain. And I will tell you another thing, too. I got
fed up with my boy and girl having to sit in a classroom and listen to
a bunch of dirty-minded people stand up and use God’s name in vain. Not
one time in the life of my children anymore are they going to sit and
hear anybody curse my God! You do not have to let your children do that
either. Of Mice and Men, by the way, Steinbeck is a Nobel Prize winner.
The Devil is proud of him. Page 48, “Them G-o-d-d-a-m-n turnips, give
it to me.” Page 56, If that crazy b-a-s-t-a-r-d is foolin’ around too
much, just kick him out, Slim.” Page 83: “In many times.” Page 94:
“This here G-o-d-d-a-m-n son of a ______(female dog) wasn’t nothin’ to
George.”

Soul On Ice, By Elridge Cleaver, here
is another book that is suggested reading, page 159: “I’d jump over ten
nigger________(female dogs) just to get one white woman.”

Now you just sit there and swell up
like a toadstool, but brother, I am trying to help your kids, and I am
doing it at the risk of a lot of folks getting mad. Listen, if I lose
half the deacon board and two-thirds of the members, there is one thing
I am going to do: Try to save your kids for Jesus’s sake before I have
to take off. I am not mad at anybody, but the Devil, and I am weary of
this crowd of left-wingers that are taking over our schools and ruining
our kids. I am weary of these sex perverts, these people of loose
morals, these Sweden-oriented teachers, and if you are not one of
those, I am not talking about you, but there are thousands of them, and
it is getting worse and worse all the time. This kind of garbage is
what they are requiring and asking our kids to read. Now I have not
even started yet, really. I wish I had time to do the whole thing. Let
us go further.

Soul On Ice, Page 160: “I will not be
free until the day I can have a white woman in my bed, and a white man
minds his own business.” Page 170, I cannot even read this, “During
_______, and at the moment of her_______, the black woman in the first
throes of her_________.” I cannot even read it! It tells about a black
woman and a white man, the entire story.

Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck,
published by Viking Press, Page 27, and this book is considered
suggested reading. Page 27: “You ain’t too d-a-m-n holy to take a
drink, are you?” “And I hear she’s a s-o-n of a ______(female dog).”
That is the Grapes of Wrath. You thought that was a good book, didn’t
you? You are not checking, are you? Well now you know. You ought to
say, “My child is not going to be subjected to stuff like this
anymore.”

“Well”, you say, “Brother Hyles, that
is not here.” Oh? Well, maybe I have the goods on you. I asked this
question of our teenagers this morning when the poll was taken. Two
hundred thirty of them were asked this question: Have you been asked to
read such books such as, Of Mice and Men, Soul On Ice, The Grapes of
Wrath, Catcher in the Rye, or any other book that includes cursing?
Thirty-five percent of our young people said they had been asked to do
so, and 51 of our Sunday school children have read one of these books
that I quoted from awhile ago.

the sermon in all its glory is here: http://jackhyles.net/books/1971-satans-b...our-child/ (this guy is insane!)

[pastor's wife]

He seems to have gotten a little side-tracked in the middle and started focusing his ire on interracial relationships.

[C_Fresh]

Quote:Page 56, If that crazy b-a-s-t-a-r-d is foolin’ around too
much, just kick him out, Slim.”

heheh, he spells bastard even though it is found several times in the KJV. I wonder if he said the word when he read those passages.

[Lady Julian]

Hurrah for Banned Books week! I was an English major at FU, so it was my professors there who taught me to beware censorship. My Milton professor made us all read Areopagitica and is responsible for my absolute love of that text, as well as the fact that I teach some portion of it to my students in most of the classes that I now teach. Another assigned his class _The Great Gatsby_ (my first encounter with the text) and classified it under the genre of 'adultery novel', along with some D.H. Lawrence and Kate Chopin we were reading. It felt deliciously rebellious to tell people that we were reading adultery novels, even if it WAS just Fitzgerald.

[Ataraxia]

My personal fav. banned book is Fahrenheit 451 because the irony in banning this book is so delicious! In case if you haven't read it the book is essentially about censorship and those who ban books for fear of creating too much individualism and independent thought.

If anyone actually read and understood the meaning of the book would realize that point and how it condemns people who go along blindly without questioning the merit of an authorities actions. I know Christians have complained because there is a 'scene' in the book where in the Bible is burned along with other novels. They get upset by this scene, not realizing the scene actually is saying the Bible shouldn't be burnt but kept along with all literature.

[pastor's wife]

Exactly! Because when books are burned, whose to say that YOUR favorites won't be next? (I like Fahrenheit 451.)

[Jenn]

Quote:heheh, he spells bastard even though it is found several times in the KJV. I wonder if he said the word when he read those passages.

Excellent point. I never knew that was a bad word when I was a kid until my mom gasped when she heard it on t.v.

I also think it's funny he has to spell out damn.

[Ataraxia]

It's so good right? I think it should be read in High Schools.

The one book I really don't comprehend being banned is Of Mice of Men. It just totally boggles my mind.

[pastor's wife]

One of my former students at my Christian school transferred to another school where she was supposed to read "Fahrenheit 451" over the summer and discuss it with someone. She asked me. It was so fun to talk about it with her. My copy is now all underlined and marked up!

"Of Mice and Men" probably angered people because of language and the killings. Some people always demand happy endings and they want their main characters to always wear the white hat.

[Ataraxia]

That is so sad. It truly is. It's such a brilliant piece of literature. I clearly remember reading that in High School and it was like a new world had opened up in Literature. That and "Catcher in the Rye" are always being protested.

It really bothers me. There is a brilliant quote from Mark Twain which sums it all up for me "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."