The Omnifarium - Religion/GoldenCompass.html

Book Banning is Alive and Well in Ontario

Category: Religion
Mon, 07 Jan 2008, 14:54

In the recent Ontario provincial election, the big reason for the loss of the Progressive Conservatives was their leader's support for full public funding of all religious schools in the province. Although they were clearly looking for the support of religious minorities, the strategy backfired spectacularly with people even calling for the withdrawal of public funding for separate Catholic schools.

Public funding of the Catholic schools in Ontario has been a fact of life for dacades. Why then are people calling for a change in funding? One recent event (after the election) made the the case for Catholic school funding even less popular. That was the news that the Halton Catholic School Board banned books by author Philip Pullman. Pullman is the author of books like The Golden Compass, recently made into a Hollywood movie. Why ban Pullman's books? The reason they gave was that Pullman is an atheist who has publicly criticized religion.

I think most people would agree that a privately funded school should have the right to stock their library with whatever books they choose. But with public funding, the general public definitely has an interest in how that money is spent. Would the public school system ban books because they promote religion? No. Then why should public money support schools that ban books contrary to their beliefs?

The affair does show how certain people approach contrary opinion. They could have quietly kept the book on their library shelves and not bring any attention to the controversy. But now, they've guaranteed publicity to the author and his anti-religious ideas. Some kids who might not have been aware of the book now are, and they may now go out of their way to actually read it.

Does that make sense? Who ever said that religion has to make sense?

Hans

path: /Religion | permanent link to this entry