Chaplains Purge Religious Books From Prison Libraries

New York Times:

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.

The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Rand]

09:13 AM on 09/11/2007

Has anyone actually read the ARTICLE?

All religions are being restricted to the same number of volumes which, in a sense, gives an "edge" to the smaller faiths

I'm opposed to censoring religious literature but this is NOT, surprisingly, a case of Christianity uber alles

[godlessclif]

09:32 AM on 09/11/2007

You can bet there are no copies of Sam Harris' letter to a Christian nation of Susy Jacoby's
Freethinkers. In Palm Beach County jails you can get a free NIV Bible , but not give prisoners a free King James. The whacko evangelicals are in charge.

[godlessclif]

09:33 AM on 09/11/2007

And a Koran or other religious book forget it.
Palm Beach is bigot central.

[Justis]

10:14 AM on 09/11/2007

Did you read it?

"The lists 'show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,' he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations."

It appears the net effect is to move the Christian texts toward evangelical Christianity and cull writings on other faiths.

[johnnyjust]

05:27 PM on 09/10/2007

If you're an atheist every day is no prayer day.

And every empty hilltop is a testament to what you believe.

[PerryClease]

11:26 PM on 09/10/2007

Hilltops? The sermon on the mount?

[godlessclif]

09:28 AM on 09/11/2007

What is supposed to be on hilltops? Angels dancing?

[Eoin45]

02:22 PM on 09/10/2007

I agree. That's why, when Christians say they want prayer in school, I know they mean only Christian prayer. They'd be up in arms if we said, "Okay, Monday is Christian prayer day, Tuesday is Moslem prayer day, Wednesday is Buddhist prayer day, etc." There is no objective test to prove that their religion is any more or less legitimate than any other. As an Atheist I'd like a no prayer day too.

[protagonia]

02:10 PM on 09/10/2007

Wipe out the competition?

It's the way the mafia does things.

[MyNameIsVictoriaWinters]

10:49 AM on 09/10/2007

The 'No God but Our God' approach , right?

Christians say that they take the high-road but isnt this the same thing that the Muslims do?

[Eoin45]

02:18 PM on 09/10/2007

I agree. That's why, when Christians say they want prayer in school, I know they mean only Christian prayer. They'd be up in arms if we said, "Okay, Monday is Christian prayer day, Tuesday is Moslem prayer day, Wednesday is Buddhist prayer day, etc." There is no objective test to prove that their religion is any more or less legitimate than any other. As an Atheist I'd like a no prayer day too.

[Captain EdwardGraham]

11:35 AM on 09/11/2007

What books would JESUS purge?