Texts of Terror?

My apologies to Phyllis Trible for using the title of her excellent book, although she was making a statement rather than raising a question. In this instance the texts in question are religious texts (aren't they always?) from a wide variety of religious traditions. The question being asked is, "Does this text incite violence?" and it is being asked in response to a survey done by the Office of the Inspector General in the Justice Department in 2004.  The Bureau of Prisons, an agency of the Justice Department, states that it is removing religious books from prison bookshelves across the nation in an effort to eliminate anything that could, "discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize."  This is an effort to minimize the potential for prisons becoming a recruiting ground for militant Islamic groups. The bureau claims it holds the same concern for all potentially violent groups, but only names the Islamic ones as being of current concern. Scapegoat, anyone?

I have to ask: Is there anything left on the shelves at all?  Officials claim there is. Or at least there will be.  Apparently 20 different religions or religious categories have each had lists of 150 book titles along with 150 "multimedia resources" approved for them. The plan is to expand the lists in October and then do occasional updates. Not affected are prayer books and worship materials.

Have these officials ever even read the materials under consideration? I sincerely doubt it. "Experts" developed each of the lists. How the experts were chosen, what personal qualifications they hold and what kind of representation they make as a group is undocumented. Prison chaplains routinely screen new materials, and anything that enters a prison must be approved by prison officials. However, this existing system is apparently not sufficient to control the threat of terrorist activity based on religious materials in our prisons. We are now purging the libraries and standardizing the shelves in order to keep the peace.

If you were wondering how the war of all against all was coming along, I'd say it was on its way. We have reached a new level of desperation when we start purging religious texts from our prisons in order to keep the nation safe. Not that such texts aren't useful for inciting violence; of course they are! After all, religion, like the law that keeps the offenders behind bars, is meant to contain and control human violence. The texts that are used in service of that goal are powerful, used as easily to meet the goal of containing violence as to inciting it. I'm guessing few of these officials have read the Bible, because there was no mention of removing it from the shelves in the NY Times article reporting on this. (see below for link)  If they had, it would have to go too; there are way too many ways to encourage violence by manipulating what's within it's pages. However, in time honored human tradition, violence is being used to contain violence. Miraculously, Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the cut, but the theology that's received the greatest shelf space is evangelical popularism and Calvinism. No surprise there! Liberal theologians and the church fathers were left in the dust, while the rigid exclusivism of Calvin was deemed OK.

Of course the characteristic American response to all of this is to file a lawsuit. So far, two of them have been filed focusing on First Amendment concerns. So now we have two of the three pillars of culture at war with each other over violence. Is there no way to stop the madness?

In my frustration, I've been muttering things like: Mimetic Theory should be mandatory! Then I laugh at myself as I realize I've just replicated the same response that I'm scandalized by, that old idea of using law to enforce understanding and contain human violence. It hasn't worked effectively before and it won't work now. But my frustration continues, because the insights that Girard's literary theory offer us work anywhere there are human beings living out the story of their lives, including in and out of prison. I find it really hard not to be sucked into the struggle on this one; on one hand there is the question of "religious rights" and on the other the legitimate need to contain violence. I'm well aware of the connection between religion and violence, perhaps more so than some of the people who are eliminating the books in question. So my focus has morphed into: How do I (we) speak a word of peace to this process?

I confess that I don't know. I'm pretty sure that censoring the religious texts available to prisoners will neither reduce violence (it's more likely to increase it) nor protect the nation from further terrorist activity.  But I have to admit that those prison officials are on to something. They are right to recognize that religious texts can be used/misused to manipulate violence. Now if only they'd take the time to figure out what makes for the difference, then perhaps they'd have the criteria they need to make wise decisions for the inmates.  That's asking more of them than we've asked of our theologians and church leaders, which is hardly fair. Perhaps in the end it's we in the churches who need to speak responsibly to these texts of terror we hold dear so that we can live lives of peace that eliminate the necessity of censoring the prison libraries religious materials.

nancy hitt

sorry for the lack of a link; it just wouldn't work. Go to NY TIMES for 9/10/07, Prisons Purging Books.

Comments

[Jeff Krantz]

Hi, Nancy,

As one whose job it once was to edit videos of Minister Louis Farrakhan for use in a close custody prison in NC, much of what you say resonates with that experience. I did usually wind up being required to edit about 2 or 3 minutes out of each 3 hour speech, but that was it! People were much more frightened of Farrakhan than his words merited. Still, there is little to argue with in the widely held conclusion that "religion" incites violence, no? (using "religion" in the Girardian sense..)

I have a book on my bedside table that I haven't started yet entitled "God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything." I suspect it's author would celebrate this list. Perhaps we're just approaching John Lennon's ideal.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

Hmmm...

Jeff

[nancy]

Hey Jeff! I have that same book- also unread- on my desk too! I figure if someone's out there identifying our faults we at least ought to be able to respond to them intelligently in their own frame of reference. I'm intrigued to see what he identifies as poison and what he lets pass....it might be a good blog topic that would get some dialogue going!

Nancy

[teresa]

How many of those inmates are in jail for violence incited by religious ideas? The greater culture nurtures the violence, modeling the desires that end in, or even seek out, violence. I wonder how much the inmates’ television, fiction, and physical activity is restricted by its concern for violent outcomes. Roger Scruton gave an excellent analysis of Girardian theory at Prospect Magazine, that despite modern imagination, religion is not the cause of violence, but the solution to it. Prisons are distillations of our culture; thinking you’ll curb violence in them by removing a few books is like stuffing yourself on cake every day and thinking you’ll lose weight by taking a little pill afterward.

[nancy]

You identify the difference between possibility and probability quite vividly Teresa. Years ago I had a mental health counselor become very concerned about safety on our adolescent unit. She wanted to purge it of potential "weapons". I tried to respect her concern for a reasonable degree of caution, but when she brought the wastepaper basket into the office as contraband, I drew the line. Could it be misused as a weapon? Sure it could. Could we live without it? Not really unless we relished living in trash. Similarly, religion certainly can be used/misused for violent ends, as can the other things you mention: TV, fiction, etc. But life without them (ok, most TV is superfluous, but not all)would be of vastly lesser quality. And given our cultural search for the little pill you mention that will make us lose weight while gorging on cake (witness the latest OTC Alli` craze) maybe the prisons reaction to the books is more consistent than I'd realized. It certainly reflects our world in microcosm in a variety of aspects.

[Faith]

I don't think Johnny Cash put that much thought into the song. He was never in Folsom Prison and is not from that area, he woludn't have known or possibly even cared. he has Artistic license to write his music.When I preform this song I sing I shot a man in Fresno, just to watch him die. But then I never shot anyone in Reno.