I would like to share this letter to the editor I wrote recently, which was published in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, February 20, 2022:

Those of us who are Christians give a book to our children that we encourage them to read. This book contains many pieces of writing about an astonishing range of human experiences. 

Among these are stories of heartbreaking tragedy, and of merciless brutality. There are stories about enslavement and stories about rape. There are stories about drunken sex. There is breathtaking erotic poetry (a young person in our youth group once told me, “I was bored in church one day so I took out a bible and randomly opened it. It fell open to the Song of Songs. I started reading and I was like ‘Whoa!’ I wasn’t bored anymore!). 

Our bibles also confront us with rousing condemnations of social injustices, like the exploitation of the poor and violence against foreigners. As a Jewish friend of mine put it, “I think my people get the prize for so exhaustively documenting our own moral failings.” 

The bible also of course contains the most beautiful stories of mercy, love, courage, and ever-living relationship with God in the midst of all that life in this world can bring. 

I am compelled to believe it is important to God that those of us who are people of faith learn from a wide range of human experiences and perspectives, as we strive to live with integrity in this life with others. So, no, I will not evoke God to justify an ideological purging of books from public schools.

Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg

Image: “Burning Books Page1” by Jason Verwey is licensed under Creative Commons