Whenever Christians object to certain books, it seems to be big news. Especially if that means we prefer that those books not be available to kids in school.
Earlier this month Rev. Dan Reehil removed the Harry Potter books from the St. Edward Catholic School’s library in Nashville, TN. That made the news, but it was slanted to reinforce the narrative that Christians are all legalistic prudes who won’t let kids read fun stuff. But in fact, at a religious school, the administration can make such decisions and parents know that when they enroll their kids.
But what about public schools? Occasionally Christians object to books used in curricula or offered in the library, usually due to profanity, excessive violence, and explicit sexuality. Are we practicing censorship if we object to what is provided or required in the public schools?
September 22-28 is Banned Books Week, an annual focus of the American Library Association. The website of the ALA declares the purpose of the week is to “celebrate the freedom to read.” And the ALA offers that “by focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.”
The ALA also ties to the Banned Books Week such hot button terms as “intellectual freedom” and “freedom to read.” So, clearly, if you disagree with the placement of a book in a public school library, or elsewhere, you are a threat to intellectual freedom or the freedom to read.
But does that mean that Christians are opposed to intellectual freedom? Or that we want to control what people read, or what the schools offer? No, but what is really going on here?
And what is a Christian perspective on fiction anyway?
Let me offer a few thoughts.
Historically, evangelical Christians have advocated intellectual freedom, learning, literacy, and study (Prov. 18:15). The freedom to read was even a hallmark of the Protestant Reformation.
We have also been advocates of artistic expression. After all, God invented art and He created the imagination. The Bible teaches that art is an expression of beauty, that mysterious ingredient of creation that all humans enjoy but which few of us can describe or define. We didn’t invent beauty. But we know it when we see it and we want to enjoy it.
And God is indescribably beautiful, so He provides art as a way to connect to Him, as a way to engage us in beauty, and to elevate our imaginations (Ex. 35:30-35; Ps. 27:4). Art seeks to describe the indescribable, to depict the undefinable (Ps. 50:2). In a biblical worldview, art, including literature, is the product of God’s creative design (Eccl. 3:11).
Evangelical Christians, then, committed to a biblical worldview, disagree with some works of literature for the very reason that we highly value all art.
The storyteller is an artist, and literature engages the imagination even more than most forms of art. To enjoy a story we have to picture the characters and imagine the action. So the writer makes a choice where to take my imagination. And fiction that debases humanity, or reduces humanity to less than God intended, violates the most basic calling of art.
I don’t object to fiction. I object to fiction that leaves the imagination circling the drain with no hope of escape.
Of course, it’s true that fiction helps us work through the human condition, and sometimes that means seeing the ugly side of human nature. But it should do so for the purpose of extracting us from our mess and helping us imagine, and then grasp, that there is hope. For instance, the Christian writer Flannery O’Conner used violence for a purpose. She pictured it with nuance, let the reader collide with it, and then depicted the redemption of the worst of characters. She used it without unnecessary excess, showing us our sinful nature and then surprising us with grace. And she didn’t leave the reader wallowing in the mess.
Profanity, gratuitous sex, and excessive violence are not a catalyst for the imagination to grasp bigger things. Instead, they narrow the focus, stifle the imagination, and hinder our view of the landscape God wants us to see.
Consider this. “Profanity” derives from the word profane, which means “common.” It’s unnecessary placement in literature intentionally ties the reader to the worst of our nature, the common, profane, and worthless.
So when evangelical Christians object to content in fiction, when we ask that the public schools be circumspect in what children read, we are not trying to censor artistic expression or free speech. Quite the opposite. We are advocating for art to be recovered and reclaimed for its original purpose. We are crying out for art to be once again elevated to the status of that which is good, beautiful, and glorious, and which depicts the better nature of our broken humanity.
We want the fiction offered to children to help them glimpse hope rather than leave them feeling hopeless. To inspire them to achieve their best rather than press them to be less.
Look at it this way. Parents, when your child comes home from art class, completes a novel assigned in a literature class, or checks out and reads a book from the library, has her imagination been launched into new territory? Has she been uplifted and inspired to new heights of glory? Or has she been dragged down a mudslide into the pits of humanity’s worst impulses, pressing her deeper into a mess of life with little aspiration to rise above it or change the world?
See, Christians are not so much about censoring books as we are about elevating humanity and honoring God (1 Cor. 10:31). Because when it comes down to it, if everything is art, nothing is art.