Parents in Warren County, Virginia, are demanding the removal of books they describe as pornographic from the children’s section of the Samuels Library.
Some 250 people attended the June 6 meeting of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, with many attending to protest the books. The books in question include explicit descriptions and/or drawings of sexual acts, including a number that advocate homosexuality.
Many parents spoke out against the books during the public comment portion of the meeting. “This is not literature. This is smut,” one father said after reading an excerpt from one of the books.
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In response, the Board of Supervisors announced the following week that it will restrict 75% of the Samuels Library funding until September, while it negotiates with the library about what to do with the books.
“The meeting was a notable success, indicative of the power of community action and the importance of standing up for the safety of our children,” according to a press release from Clean Up Samuels, a grassroots group that is protesting the books.
“From what we can tell,” the group said in a June 14 press release, “it’s not looking like the books will be removed entirely. Rather, the board is negotiating to move them to the adult’s section, and to place restrictions on who can access the adult’s section without an adult. We thank the Board of Supervisors for their votes and willingness to listen seriously to our concerns. We sincerely appreciate all the hard work they are doing for our community. With that said, our demands remain the same.”
Those demands, according to the Clean Up Samuels website, are:
- Immediate removal, not relocation, of pornographic books from the children’s section of the library
- Redefinition of library policies, including the severing of all ties with the American Library Association
- Change of leadership at the Samuels Library
The group states that the current leadership at the library has supported the presence of the books and has resisted when members of the public have asked that the books be removed.
“We call for [the library leadership’s] removal and replacement with individuals who prioritize the well-being and innocence of children,” the group says. “No adult who jeopardizes the innocence of children should be permitted to work around them or within our library.”
Clean Up Samuels’ website includes a link to summaries and disturbing quotes from many of the books.
Editor’s Desk: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Decision Magazine in their article, “Today, Children Are Being Inundated With The Counterfeit Truths,” wrote:
Children are a treasure of inestimable worth. The psalmist declared, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3). Our children bear the responsibility to carry on and advance the efforts we have begun for the cause of Christ.
Therefore, it is no wonder that Satan has launched a cleverly designed but diabolically ruinous attack to deceive the hearts and minds of our children. Lucifer has always targeted children because he knows their potential for good or evil.
[Satan] will do his best to capture their minds. Today, children are being inundated with the counterfeit truths of this world through a multiplicity of technological devices and media. Indoctrination campaigns with vain ideologies in our educational institutions prey on impressionable children who are often beleaguered by their own dysfunctional families.
Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist Party, stated, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” He also proclaimed, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I will transform the whole world.”
God calls parents to be the primary teachers for their children. Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Moses specified, “You shall teach [God’s commandments] to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 11:19).
Children must be taught to have a Biblical worldview from the beginning of their lives. The world has its permeating syncretism, its vain philosophies, false ideologies and spurious theologies, but a Biblical worldview is based on God’s unchanging Word, which provides the perfect path for helping all of us to shape our decisions and actions.
