Should Federal prisons ban religious books from library jails?

No

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by G E Barr

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READ IT AND WEEP

God is a spirit. He is not a prison guard or a Special Agent. He does not drive a Highway Patrol car. He does not play checkers in the yard or shuffle paperwork. He is not a politician or a judge sitting on a bench in a black robe. He doesn't have a law degree and he isn't a Deputy. He is not a Jew, Baptist, Catholic or Methodist. No, those affiliative names are for those who are religious.

Religion is a shifty matter. It cannot help but toy with politics. Too many times, bad religion is mistaken for God.

Books are tools of communication which range in importance of information from how-to manuals or texts to exposes to highly philosophical knowledge. Books will be free in a democracy because a democracy will demand it. But all books are not true and reliable nor are they good for a man's mind.

One of the necessities of becoming who you are, is to find out the scope of your self control. One ability of self control is to reflect. Another ability of self control is understanding. If a person has never experienced much understanding, then how can that person give understanding? Most people learn what they live as children.

Therefore, as corny and near hostile as religious books can get, they do have value for a man or woman on the journey to self discovery and self control.

Further, an informed mind is pre-requisite to being capable of making decisions. And the ability to make decisions based on an informed mind is what our government should require.

Banning any books from any library is not acceptable. Remember how Helen Keller summed up her eureka about finding out about God? She said something to the effect that she knew He was there, she just didn't know his name. The federal government has no more right to ban books from inmates than it would have banning books from the blind, deaf and dumb.

It might just be very refreshing for a man to read about Sharia Law. He might feel good after he realizes he got 20 years and rightfully so, but in Saudi Arabia or Iran, he probably would have had his damned head cut off. Or had he been born in India, he probably would be eating garbage out of a dump and having sweet conversations with a sacred cow.

Of course, there are many rights and priveleges that an imprisoned person loses. But the right to keep one's mind working should never be one of them and withholding information is against the law.

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