Christian group gets book signing canceled at Waterstone’s
When I think of banning books, I normally think about large piles of books being set on fire in the street, or even certain books being pulled from school libraries for one reason or another. But banning books hardly conjures up the image of a large bookstore chain canceling a book signing because a religious group threatens to cause a disruption.
Yet that is exactly what happened at Waterstone’s Bookstore today in the UK. According to this BBC report, a book of poetry that was considered "Obscene and blasphemous" by a group called the Christian Voice:
Patrick Jones was due to sign copies at Waterstone’s in Cardiff but the shop cancelled the event at the last moment.
Christian Voice said the book was "obscene and blasphemous" and called on the chain to remove copies from stores.
The company said it was not a censor but felt it was "prudent" to cancel the event because of its duty to customers.
Surely, for the book signing to be canceled, it must have been directly critical and maybe even downright mean towards Christians and their faith, right? Not so fast:
He said he had not singled out Christianity in his poems, but was questioning beliefs in society.
Just as a side note, I did a quick search on Google, Amazon and Waterstone’s site because I’d very much like to read a review or two. If anyone out there can find anything like that, please leave a comment below. I found the book here on Waterstone’s site, but no reviews.
Regardless of the content, I still have a hard time understanding why Waterstone’s would give into such a group. Yes, they will still be selling the book. But was it really necessary to cancel the book signing? Luckily for Mr. Jones, he just signed copies of the book for customers outside the store on the sidewalk.
And what does Christian Voice say about this ordeal that they caused?
The national director of Christian Voice, Stephen Green, said the decision was a triumph "for the Lord, not for us".
"The Lord had not even showed me what we should do at Waterstone’s, only that it should be Christlike.
"Just the knowledge that we were on our way has put the fear of God into the opposition."
Mr Green also called for Waterstone’s to stop selling the book.
It’s that last line that disturbs me the most. While I don’t get much into religion on this blog, I do take a firm stance against any sort of book banning and censorship in general. But I will say this: Everyone has the right to their beliefs, but please, for the sake of our sanity, don’t try to force your beliefs on everyone else by pulling stunts like this.
Given the state of the world right now, and especially the state of religion, I don’t think a book of poetry, or any other book, is going to bring the world to an end.
While I hate giving publicity to these kind of groups, you can read Christian Voice’s own press release about the incident. Truly scary indeed that in 2008 (almost 2009) we still have to worry about stuff like banning books.
You can also read an atheist response here, which takes a much more hard line against Christian Voice and Waterstones for giving into such pressure.
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