Government Book Bans in America: AAR Webinar with Recently Banned Religion Scholars [video]
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As wrote last week, I was shocked to learn that my book, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, along with six other prominent books in religious studies, were among the 381 books that were banned and removed from the shelves at the US Naval Academy.
“This is the first college-level library banning we have seen,” noted Jennifer Finney Boylan, president of PEN America and also author of a book that was banned. “It reflects the steep escalation of government censorship we are seeing under the Trump administration, which continues its unrelenting efforts to control what Americans can read, learn, and think.”
Yesterday, I was proud to join my fellow banned authors—Anthea Butler, Michael Eric Dyson, Bryan Massingale, and Jim Wallis—for a webinar denouncing the bans and supporting academic freedom, hosted by the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the largest scholarly society dedicated to the academic study of religion. (Note: Eddie Glaude Jr.’s book, Democracy in Black, was also banned but he could not attend because of a scheduling conflict). The full video of the sobering but hopeful conversation is below.
I am grateful that the AAR, an organization of which I’ve been a member for nearly 30 years, is placing itself among the courageous institutions taking a stand against these attacks on academic freedom and our civil liberties. The AAR board acted quickly in response to this news, passing a resolution unequivocally denouncing book bans and threats to academic freedom.
In solidarity with my fellow authors and all of you-
Robby
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Government Book Bans in America: AAR Webinar with Recently Banned Authors
PARTICIPANTS:
Anthea Butler, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought, and chair of the department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America.
Michael Eric Dyson, University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, Vanderbilt University; author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America.
Robert P. Jones, President and founder, Public Religion Research Institute; author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.
Bryan Massingale, Professor and James and Nancy Buckman Chair in Applied Christian Ethics, Fordham University; author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church.
Jim Wallis, Chair in Faith and Justice and the founding Director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice; author of America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America.
Three Ways to Support the Authors of Banned Books and Academic Freedom
Buy their books. I’ve set up a special bookshelf over at bookshop.org to highlight these books. (Note: A portion of the proceeds from books bought using those links at bookshop.org go to support this newsletter.)
Sign up for their newsletters. Here are links to the three other authors who are on Substack:
Support the American Academy of Religion (AAR) by becoming a member, making a tax-deductible donation to their work, or dropping AAR Executive Director Claudia Schippert a thank you note at membership@aarweb.org.
Great conversation with some quotable quotes:
Preventing demography from changing our democracy (Wallis)
Gore Vidal, the United States of Amnesia
Two Completely different versions of Christianity…atheists and agnostics seem more interested sometimes than Christians.
Christianity has to save itself…Christians need to see ourselves where we stand
I don’t want my faith to be coopted by forces of injustice
White Christianity…the adjective destroys the noun
How do you pastor people who have become captive to a false white gospel?
MLK on the wall and Billy Graham in the pulpit
United Daughters of the Confederacy…two things
Cultural program erecting statues (God will vindicate)
Banned books
*Image Berlin book burning (library with empty shelves)
*May 10, 1933 (against un German spirit)
A society that suppresses truth can only be ruled by fear and force
What do we do to stop the car (stand up for the faith)
-take risks and stand up without knowing consequences…have to try even though don’t know
Literacy unfits a child for slavery…free your mind and your ass will follow
Maybe not change the world, but spark the brain that will
There are others who have not sold out
Racism is a dry run for fascism Now all of America is black…
we’ve already gone through, what we’ve come to…
The destruction we are witnessing won’t be put together anytime soon
Be in community for mutual aid and protection, consider who can you trust and not trust, can get another job but not another person
Get out in the street…black woman been doing it for us, now time for us to do it for them
Poster of the only black sister who showed up in Selma to march
Dumbledore, must choose between what is easy and what is right
White Christians think discipleship is comfortable…decently and in order (Tenure for academics)
-it is going to cost us something to stand up…we are going to lose something
Book bans are an aggressive form of lying…churches are places to find homes for banned books…William Marks…bought all books and made them available in annapolis.
You are not obligated to complete the task, but you are still obligated to start it
Difference between optimism and hope (Tutu)
-hope is a decision you make because of faith
-believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change
Hope is not an op
tion, but an obligation
Michael
-everybody has to work in shifts (comes from Detroit)
-black women already taken their shift
-Not all are guilty, but all are responsible (Heschel)
Howard Thurman…refuse the temptation to scale down your dreams to the immediate event you confront. We don’t ignore the realities we confront. We know the circumstances can be changed
Thank you for taking part in the webinar. I was impressed with all of the authors' thoughts on this important issue. I called the Nimitz Naval Academy Library, and I was told librarians were not allowed to comment. I was transferred to a spokesperson who told me that the books had been physically removed from the shelves; although the titles that I checked still appear on the library's online catalogue as 'available.' It is disturbing that Mein Kampf remains in the stacks at the Nimitz Library; it's not on the banned book list. If counterviews to ideas like those in Mein Kampf disappear, that is extremely dangerous. The right to freedom of expression, and the protection of writers against censorship and unjust persecution, are indispensable to democracy. Things we can do: We can let our congressional representatives know we are outraged about the administration's book ban at the Nimitz Naval Academy Library. We can do our best to buy and promote as many of the books as possible on the banned list. We can fight to insure the banned books stay in the libraries in our communities--including public school libraries. If the banned books are not In our libraries, we can suggest our libraries buy them. We can write letters to the editor and our alma maters and express our opinion. There must be a public outcry. We all must support libraries by saying 'no' to book bans. Church libraries can help in this cause. Libraries are a place of resistance. Librarians are historically passionate about defending against book bans. They need our help.