Letter to the Christian County Library

  

Sparta Library Branch

 

(A letter from a Christian County citizen was shared with us, and we were given permission to reprint it here. It is a gentle and truthful expression of what the citizen has encountered at the library while searching the bookshelves.)

To: Renee Brumett, Executive Director, Christian County Library, rbrumett@christiancountylibrary.org 

The Respected Members of the Christian County Library Board, boardinfo@christiancountylibrary.org

We are fairly new to the area and I recently spent some time in the Christian County libraries in Ozark and Sparta. I found the facilities lovely and librarians readily available as well as helpful. I also appreciate the facilities available to the community.

I spent several hours in each library in the younger children’s department and was quite concerned about what I found there. I reviewed over 100 books and titles in the bins between the two libraries and found the lack of Christian-oriented picture and board books in this area quite disappointing. I did not find any in the Sparta library, though I could have missed one, and I can’t say I noticed any in Ozark either. The only books I found with any religious tone were fact books about different types of religions. It is my sincere hope that some were currently out with patrons.

There seemed to be very few classics for parents to share. There were a considerable number of books that advocated for alternative genders, alternative families, or addressed social and racial issues. These often contained content that criticized or vilified those with more traditional and historical views of family, implying them to be wrong or portraying these positions as outside acceptable norms. Several were disrespectful of traditional positions of others if they were not aligned with what was presented. Normalizing without context comes with huge downsides and long-term consequences that do not seem to be recognized or addressed in any way.

Historical estimates of the LGBTQIA+ populations in the US range from 2 to 5% to the current popularity of gender identity fluidity and optimistic 7% of the 2022 Gallup poll.¹ These are self-identified identities that tend to shift with maturity as these identities are most common among young adults who may be influenced by current trends, popularity, and peers. WorldPopulationReview.com indicates that the Missouri population is 3.2% , dated May, 2023.² I would suggest that the 3.2% for the entire state of Missouri is not concentrated in Christian County and believe that they may be over-represented in the materials I viewed.

Many of the books were full of beautiful images but often contained problematic content.  The apparent lack of available material that better reflects the families in our communities is quite concerning. It appears a more balanced or contextual approach to history would be appropriate as well – virtually all the books referencing race were about American slavery with no historical context (i.e., virtually every ethnicity, nation and tribe in the world engaging in it throughout history). There is more historical balance on Wikipedia.³,⁴

According to Census.gov^{5 6} estimates dated July 1, 2022, we have approximately 3.7% Hispanic or Latino population yet I only saw two books in one library in Spanish and am not sure I saw any in the other. Yet with a 1% population of Black or African American most of the books that dealt with race were focused on this population. There may have been one or two that referenced Asian. There may have been one book about Native Americans (First Nations or Aboriginal, as preferred) though Missouri has significant history in the area. The apparent lack of available material that better reflects the families in our communities was quite concerning. It seemed that a more balanced or contextual approach to history would be appropriate as well – virtually all the books referencing race were about American slavery but did not find anything that addressed slavery in a historical manner (i.e., virtually every ethnicity, nation and tribe in the world).

A cursory search for churches⁷ in Christian County yielded a count of 97 churches, searching Ozark, Nixa, Sparta, Clever, Billings, Highlandville and Republic. This number did not include 2 churches I am personally aware of (both with 50-100 regulars). Yet there seemed to be a complete lack of anything modern or traditional regarding two parent families or Christian-based. Given the statistics of Christian County, this imbalance in available books is concerning to me as it does not accurately reflect our county and local communities nor does it seem to meet the standard set by the American Library Association of inclusion regarding audience:

“Articles I and II of the Library Bill of Rights are clearly inclusive regarding audience (“allpeople of the community the library serves”) and materials (“all points of view on current and historical issues”). This includes both fiction and non-fiction materials regardless of format.”⁸

I am not advocating for banning material though I considered some not quite age appropriate or in an incorrect location. I believe that there is quality material available that could address these surprising lacks in the collections I viewed. A cursory look in the YA (Young Adult/Teen) section suggested that this section also had similar issues in the available materials. The Public Libraries are to reflect the communities they serve and appear to be using taxpayers money to normalize agendas that do not.

I appreciate the time and effort that the Librarians and the Library Board devote to our libraries and hope that these imbalances will be addressed in the near future.

Sincerely,

R.D.

___________________________________________________________

Sources I am sure you are aware of include: 

Brave Books

Tuttle Twins

Zondervan

https://learnourhistory.com/

Answers in Genesis – from board books to science

Institute of Creation Research for Science

There are any number of series that focus on character rather than preference 

____________________________________________________________________________

1 https://news.gallup.com/poll/470708/lgbt-identification-steady.aspx

2 https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gay-population-by-state

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

5 https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/christiancountymissouri

6 https://www.christiancountymo.gov/about-us/county-statistics/ 

7 https://www.churchfinder.com/churches/mo/ozark etc. 

8 "Religion in American Libraries: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights",American Library Assoc., October 4, 2016

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/religion (Accessed July 25, 2023) 

Document ID: e40c0dfd-70f5-40e4-3d4c-14317cefa0b9

An Early Start

 

 

By Gretchen Garrity

 

Many parents have no idea of the books that are being marketed to even very young children in today’s public libraries. Books like Julian is a Mermaid, All are Welcome, Welcome Back, Pink is for Boys, Mommy, Mama, and Me, I Am Jazz, It Feels Good To Be Yourself, Love Makes a Family, Plenty of Hugs, and the “classic” Heather Has Two Mommies are all titles that are in the Christian County Library system. Many of the above books are located in the Sparta branch library. Suggested reading ages are anywhere from three years of age and under to four-to-eight years of age.

 

Sparta book display

 

While these particular books are not overtly sexualized, they do set up—as normal—the idea that a boy can be a girl, that a loving parent or grandparent would encourage gender fluidity, or that a family can be comprised of two moms, etc. The indoctrination starts early. And when a child reaches age 10 or 12, there is a plethora of other, more explicitly sexual books written just for them. By the time a child reaches the teen years, they have been “positively” exposed to significant amounts of sexualization that would have been unheard of in previous generations.

Why are such books being heavily marketed to very young children?

Back in the 1970s, radical activists and librarians began the process of deconstructing how books are cataloged. The goal was to move the classification of homosexual-themed books out of the traditional subject headings and into an ever-growing variety of classifications. Later, the library activists branched out to Queer Theory as it pertains to the normalization and dissemination of any kind of sexuality. The targeting of children at ever younger ages is also a feature of cultural Marxism, a move to sexualize children in an effort to destabilize families and society.

 

Pronoun buttons in the teen section at Sparta

In a scholastic paper titled, “Queering the Catalog,” incoming American Library Association President, Emily Drabinski, writes, “Works about religion in the Dewey Decimal System are overwhelmingly Christian (Berman [1971] 1993. 70); works about heterosexuality are barely named as such in LCSH* [Link added] (Christensen 2008, 233-34). As a result of these failures, biased ideological stories continue to be “told” by the organizational systems. As users interact with these structures to browse and retrieve materials, they inevitably learn negative stereotypes about race, gender, class, and other social identities...Similarly, they “learn” that heterosexuality in normative, that gay and lesbian sexuality is the only sexual identity to be examined, and that queer sexuality is inherently deviant.”

Just scratching the surface, what extremist activists have been busy doing is to make classifying books about sexuality, particularly any sexuality that is not heterosexual, so fluid that these books can be organized under just about any classification and placed on just about any shelf in the library. This, of course, has been going on with school textbooks for some time, with subversive ideologies being embedded within the curriculum and basically unavoidable.

For a primer on why schools, libraries, and mass media are sexualizing children, watch James Lindsay. In just over an hour, he details the Marxist Queer Theory underpinnings of overturning the existing order of society through corrupting the innocence of children.

 

This destablization is purposeful and militant and ongoing, whether the Christian County library staff and board of trustees are fully aware or not. If they are not already aware, they should be made aware.

 

 

*Library of Congress Subject Headings