Who Decides What America Reads?...Continued from page 2

Should homeschooling parents today care? Is it our place to restore balance to libraries, or do we take an indifferent stance? In an informal survey, I asked over one hundred parents, “Are libraries important tools in affecting the moral climate of the public?” One woman responded, “Personally, I think the library should be there to impart information, not morals.” Is this even possible? Can libraries present information on religion, history, science, or politics without imparting morals? I contend that when a child encounters the 215 books on witches and witchcraft in the Palmdale Library, the words therein will affect his morals. Karl Marx believed that the power to change society lay within the confines of the written word when he proclaimed, “Give me twenty-six lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.”

The news isn’t all bad, however! We can help remedy this imbalance in our library system. I do not suggest we censor undesirable materials, only that we stop the existing censorship. We possess the same weapon the enemy has brandished so effectively?the written word, combined with our applied energies. The following steps will allow individuals or groups to make changes in their own communities:

Prayer: The Front Line

Prayer is every Christian’s first line of defense (see Philippians 4:6 and Proverbs 15:29). As we are told in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Prayer should not be merely our first line of defense, however. We should keep on praying, if our requests are clearly lined up with His will (see Luke 18:1).

Meet With Like-Minded Individuals

The goal of meeting with other concerned individuals is to share a vision to improve libraries and to help them attain a more balanced collection. These meetings provide an excellent forum to develop ideas regarding how to approach library staff, how to gather information about the local library, and how to compose book recommendation lists that match our criteria, as addressed in a later paragraph.

Research

Effective task groups become familiar with how libraries operate. Ask questions, such as the following:

     •   What policies do they follow and why?

     •   What are their goals? Can we help shape those goals or redirect them?

     •   Where do libraries obtain funding?

     •   To what higher authorities does our local library answer?

     •   Who are we dealing with? Learn the names and background of the director, the library board, and the library staff.

     •   Become familiar with the local library collection.