According to the School Library Journal:
The [South Carolina] Pickens County Library System’s half-hour summer programs for middle and high school students were supposed to take a light-hearted look at the topics “Secrets and Spies: How to Keep a Secret by Writing in Code or Making Invisible Ink” and “What’s Your Sign?” Another program was to examine astrology, palmistry, and numerology; and others were to feature tarot cards, tie-dying t-shirts, how to make a Zen garden, and yoga.
How do you respond to this?
The correct answer: These are middle and high schoolers! They’re young adults. You would think a library would offer programs and books with some intellectual merit instead of dumbing them down with this crap!
No one said that, though.
Instead, the library got threats. 20-30 anonymous phone calls and additional threatening emails. The callers said things like, “We’re going to get you.”
All the emails (and, by extension, the phone calls) supposedly came from the congregants of one Baptist church.
The threateners said the astrology program was “witchcraft,” the Zen and yoga programs promoted “other religions,” the invisible ink was the “handiwork of Satan,” and the tie-dying t-shirts promoted “hippie culture and drug use.”
(I made one of those things up. Guess which one.)
Because of the threats, the summer programs were cancelled.
I’m sure the teenagers will go to church with their newfound summer free time.
(via Anecdotes and Confessions)
[tags]atheist, atheism, School Library Journal, South Carolina, Pickens County Library System, astrology, palmistry, numerology, tarot cards, Zen, yoga, Baptist, Christian, witchcraft, Satan[/tags]