Bush Administration's List of "Approved" Religion Books for Prison Libraries

Michael Denton's weekly column in the LSU Daily Reveille (much less controversial than last week's column) raises some very valid concerns regarding government interference in religion in the form of the Bush Administration's recent declaration of approved religious works for prison libraries:

... The New York Times reported this past week on a Bush administration plan that allows the government extraordinary jurisdiction over what is acceptable in religious practice. According to the article, the Office of Inspector General in the Justice Department issued recommendations to the Bureau of Prisons designed to prevent American prisons from becoming terrorist recruiting centers in 2004.

One of the recommendations was the "Standardized Chapel Library Project." The name itself elicits shivers, but what it does is worse. It first required a group of experts to compose a list of "150 book titles and 150 multimedia resources" for each religion. In order to be accommodating, lists were prepared for religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Bahaism and the African tribal religion of Yoruba.

If a book doesn't make the list, it is removed from the library. This required purge has only recently begun to wreak havoc on federal prison libraries. These libraries have amassed a huge quantity of books through donations and must now purge most of those books. According to USA Today, an inmate at the federal prison camp in Ostieville, N.Y. claims that about 600 books were removed by the chaplain this past Memorial Day to comply with the order.

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... Between C.S. Lewis, John Calvin, Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian authors over the 2,000 years of Christianity, how can one select only 150 books?

... The Christian list, according to one theologian who viewed the list, has "a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism."

The First Amendment pretty clearly states that the federal government "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," yet here the government is establishing which books constitute appropriate religion. Though the government might have to censor a few books that are on the fringe to maintain security and safety for both prisoner and guard alike, a widespread ban such as this is hardly necessary.

To approve such a small number of books and tapes based on arbitrary and undisclosed standards should make those on both sides of the aisle extremely nervous. This standard of "harmful books" could very easily evolve. Under a more conservative administration, harm could mean books that emphasize duty to God above duty to country. Under a more liberal administration, books that emphasize strict adherence to a moral code could be considered harmful and hateful.

In the war against public religion, Christians have focused on the pledge of allegiance, slogans of shopping malls and displays of the Ten Commandments in courthouses. Those problems are insignificant when compared with the government's declaration of approved religious works. Prisoners are being forced to watch as books containing the promise of redemption and rehabilitation are thrown away...

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