Ideophobia

Would you ban this book?

Before I tell you the title, let me share some of why you might want to ban this book from schools and libraries all over the country.  It’s a book about adultery and polygamy.  It also includes rape, torture, and genocide.  There are graphic – and I mean GRAPHIC – descriptions of sex.  One of its protagonists willfully allows the death of the husband of a woman he is secretly having sex with.  With all of the book banning being legislated all over the country, it’s surprising that this book is widely accepted in most school districts and is even uplifted as important for kids to read.  That book of course is the Bible.[1]  But you have to wonder why some parents are challenging school boards all over the country to ban some books and not others.  Why a book like the Bible with its many problems is lauded while others are condemned for what would seem to be far less egregious offenses is hard to understand.

Personally, I love the Bible. 

I collect different versions of the Bible.  And nearly every day I read some passage of Scripture or another in my own search for God’s truth.  But the Bible does have its problems, and it would be so much easier for us to just read “the good parts” version and ignore the rest.  But it’s the process of wrestling with these troublesome and challenging passages that help us define our faith.  We shouldn’t be afraid of Scripture that describes a God we have trouble with.  Instead, we need to take time to study it and better understand what God is trying to say to us through it.  It’s why we have church.  So together we can better understand the God we love.  We don’t ban the Bible because for all its difficulties it’s too valuable to discard.  In fact, the Bible itself tells us to do this very thing; to take the time to really know it.  We’re going to read about that this morning in our passage so if you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, please go to 2 Timothy 4:1-5.  2 Timothy 4:1-5. 

We embrace the Bible but are so fearful of other books and the ideas they share.

This fear of ideas is called “ideophobia.”  The formal definition is the fear (some say morbid fear) or distrust of ideas or of reason.  But what are we so afraid of?  Here’s an example of books that have been banned or challenged.  Some like A Brave New World (#26), 1984 (#79), and Fahrenheit 451 (ironically about book burning among other things) are perennially challenged for a multitude of reasons.  Others are put on the list for being of the moment.  Right now, a majority of recently challenged and banned books are about the LGBTQ community (26%) or people of color (30%).[2] Why they are being banned is the topic for a whole other sermon but suffice it to say the political moment where fear of the other is being fanned into a wildfire is certainly the cause.[3]  Still others are being listed for completely illogical reasons. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was banned for child abuse and witchcraft.[4]  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. was banned by the State Board of Education in Texas because he shared the same name as a person who wrote a book on Marxism.  He didn’t write it and he’s not related.  He just had the same name.[5]  But here’s my favorite one.  In Laytonville, CA they banned The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.  Not for its leftist agenda or for its pro-environmental stance but because some in Laytonville complained it was “anti-logging.”[6]  How many of you read The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank in high school?  In 1983 (about the same time I read it), the Alabama State Textbook Committee challenged it because it was “a real downer.”[7] If we start restricting what people are allowed to learn because we don’t like it, we become exactly like those societies in A Brave New World we are so afraid of.  Of course, some of you may never know that because you weren’t allowed to read it. 

But banning things has never been the way to solve a problem.

Look at prohibition as an example.  A failed experiment, it was designed with the purpose to ban alcohol.  Instead, it spawned an unregulated, underground industry that caused so many fits they eventually got rid of prohibition.  When people were afraid of the Japanese, California created the Alien Land Laws of 1913 which banned aliens from owning land.  And when we became afraid of our own history, we created laws like the “Stop WOKE Act” to prohibit the teaching of history when it became uncomfortable.[8]  When we become afraid, we resort to tactics of fear and intimidation.  But that’s not God’s way.  God advocates for understanding.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Here are the key words I picked up when reading this passage.

Be prepared.  Great patience.  Keep your head.  Endure hardship.  Never once does it say to forbid others or to be judgmental.  Instead, God encourages us to hold fast to our beliefs, to be prepared to defend those beliefs, BUT to do so with great patience and careful instruction.  And this is where Christians especially falter.  We tend to join the crowd and become judgmental.  Instead of trying to live by example, teaching our children and investing in their future, we resort to the easy route and seek to impose our will and our beliefs on those around us.  Again, we just have to look to the past to see how poorly that turns out.  People don’t respond well to judgmental authoritarianism.  People do respond to being inspired, being accepted, and being loved.  Why don’t we do that instead?  Which is exactly what God teaches us. 

Yes, there will be people who follow demagogues who tell them what they want to hear.

We see that today!  But God challenges us to live a different life.  He says it right in this passage.  Be prepared by taking time to discern God’s will.  Sometimes that means being open to new ideas.  Sometimes it means understanding how God is speaking to us in this moment.  Be flexible in our thinking and our understanding and then we are prepared to hear how God is speaking to us.  We also need great patience and to keep our head.  We hold back from imposing our beliefs on others. To dictate how others should think and behave, that’s the easy route.  The harder route, and this is where we are called to endure hardship, is to lead by example, to teach with kindness, and to listen to the thoughts and perspectives of others, and thereby show the love of God.  That’s how we lead people to Christ. It is not easy.  But it is effective. Cassie is a lot more blunt with me now.  Being married for 20 plus years will do that.  But when we first started dating, she would ask me every week if I wanted to go to church with her.  And at first, I said no.  I always had an excuse.  I was tired.  It was a long week.  I needed to take “me time.”  But she never judged me or forced me to go.  Instead, she would simply go by herself.  But the next week, she would ask again.  And again.  And again.  Until I finally woke up to how important this was to her and decided to go too.  I haven’t stopped going since.  Be prepared.  Have great patience. Keep your head.  Endure hardship. 

I owe my life to books.

It’s why I’m so passionate about the subject.  Books have helped me learn about the world.  Books have helped me to learn about myself.  Books have transported me to places real and unreal.  When I was going through a crisis of faith, a friend recommended a book, and it started me down a path of healing.  When I was at a conference on church leadership, I found a book on guest hospitality that completely changed how I approached the topic.  And when I was searching for a better way to show the love of Christ to others, I read a book that blew my mind.  When we start becoming afraid of new ideas and new ways of thinking, we are shielding ourselves from the glory of God.  How we approach and understand God has changed constantly over the years – our ideas about the blind and those with disabilities, our understanding of people of color, on the equal rights of women and children – none of that has stayed the same.  And all of that came about because of people with new ideas who were often persecuted for their beliefs.  Not everyone with a new belief is right.  But if we shield ourselves from them, we are missing out on so many levels.  On how to reach others with different ideas and how God is sometimes trying to reach us.  Our challenge living in the world today is to keep an open mind, seek to understand rather than be understood, and to love as God loved us.  And do yourselves a favor.  Go read a book. 

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[1] Interestingly, one Utah community actually did ban the Bible in elementary schools. And overall it ranks 52^nd in books banned or challenged in the 2010’s according to the ALA. https://theweek.com/book-ban/1024016/how-the-bible-became-conservative-book-bans-unintended-target ; https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019

[2] https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/  )

[3] Although most are being banned because of the controversies surrounding both topics politically.  Laws being enacted banning use of restrooms or participation in sports and laws banning the teaching of racially sensitive topics are fanning the flames and leading to book bans and other retaliatory measures.

[4] https://pen.org/where-the-wild-things-arent-on-the-banning-of-sendak/

[5] https://fgibookmobile.org/10-surprising-banned-books/

[6] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-18-mn-147-story.html ; https://theweek.com/articles/459795/america-surprising-banned-books

[7] https://theweek.com/articles/459795/america-surprising-banned-books

[8] https://flnonprofits.org/page/IndividualFreedomAct