Farenheit 451

[Bill Ferny]

Birdland,

I replied to your post in brief, mainly because I had to go to work, but I can not, and will not, allow blanket statements such as these to go unanswered:

Through the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, Judeo-Christian and Islamic culture sought to stamp out and irradicate all memories of the religious beliefs, or "mythologies" of other cultures. If they could not irradicate it, then they assimilated it, (as in the appropriating of certain Pagan holy days, renaming them as "Saint Days")… It's rather ironic that Tolkien would lament the loss of an "English mythology", when the very religion that he practices fought so hard to erase it.

Not only are you grossly unfair to Christianity (and probably Islam, though I lack the expertise to address it from that angle), you are simply wrong. First, if eradication of cultures or mythologies is an issue, pre-Christian cultures did a much better job than Christians. Little of Celtic culture was left in England after the Romans and Saxons. Secondly, as I pointed out briefly, the only reason we have any knowledge of pre-Christian culture or mythology was due to the labor of Christian monks who recorded these mythologies, and the great majority of their work was destroyed, not by Christians, but by non-Christians from Scandinavia. The event that so many nostalgic English, such as Tolkien, lament was the Norman invasion of 1066, and had nothing in the least to do with a Christian/non-Christian struggle. The disappearance of Saxon culture as a result of Norman feudalism was not the disappearance of a non-Christian culture, but the disappearance of a Christian one. If you have the impression that Christianity is in the business of eradication of cultures, it would behoove you to read this and this, both of which not only point out the efforts of the modern church, but the principals that have been at work in the church ever since the first century.

Keneldil,

When you say: “I am saying you might want to let your child read Mein Kampf (when they can understand it) to help him/her understand how Hitler’s ideas were wrong,” we are in agreement with each other. I put emphasis on the “when they can understand it” and believe its important that educators and parents use discretion when they do censure. The danger in saying there should be no censorship, is that the censorship that necessarily will come is not recognized, and, therefore, goes unquestioned.

Those who censure Tolkien, and the fantasy genre in general, based on Christian “theological” reasons are a pack of fools, especially since they can not provide sound theological arguments to do so. I only hope that we don’t give up attacking them because “its their opinion” or “its up to the individual.” I hold that the banning of fantasy books based on religious reasons IS arguable. Any censure is arguable, be it religious or otherwise, and if the reasons for those censures are bad reasons, then it hurts the institution represented. Those Christians who wish to ban or censure unreasonably Tolkien or the fantasy genre are objectively wrong headed and they do violence to Christianity.

Now, if you will excuse me, I’m off to make applecrisp.