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Author: Phyllis Curott, attorney, author and activist Posted: October 2nd. 2005 Times Viewed: 2,265 Part 1 in a series based on the new talk Sex Religion & Politics: The Growing Threat of the American Theocracy censorship - subtle and otherwise by Phyllis Curott, attorney, author and activist "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." - Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports, vol. 7, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20. There's no such thing as a coincidence. This last week in September is Banned Book Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. A celebration of freedom of speech, it's also a warning about the growing threats to that precious liberty. And these days, those dangers are directly affecting our minority faith community. Each year the ALA posts a list of Banned Books, and you probably won't be surprised to learn that, for the last four years, Harry Potter has topped that list (joining the great American classics "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain). This beloved children's series has nothing more to do with real Witchcraft or Wicca than the heroism, decency and compassion of its young hero, but there are many who think Harry Potter is a seductive rendition of the evils of Witchcraft and Satanism. And those fears have led to incidents of book banning and even burning. Harry Potter may be lighthearted, but these attempts to remove books, and ideas, from public availability are just the opposite. They are censorship. And censorship denies our freedom to read what we wish to and to think for ourselves. These attacks also threaten our freedom of religion because they stem from a Dominionist agenda and dangerous misperceptions about our spirituality. And though Harry Potter may be protected by record-breaking popularity, books that are actually about Wicca, Witchcraft and neo-Paganism aren't faring as well. As you've probably noticed, Pagan books have begun disappearing from many mainstream bookstores, sections devoted to Pagan spirituality are shrinking, being moved to remote sections of stores, and even re-categorized as "Occult." Why? I've been told that the Pagan community isn't buying as many books, the market is saturated, books don't have the quality that readers want, and worst of all that the community doesn't support its authors. All of these discouraging explanations may be true, but there are other forces that are at play. Censorship isn't just blatant, brutal and overt like book burnings or angry proselytizing from pulpits. It can also be done by stealth, with such subtlety as to be almost imperceptible. After hiding behind a cloak of media invisibility, the Theocratic Right (I prefer this term to the often-used "Christian Right, " as the latter is unfair to true Christianity) has begun to flex its muscle. "Christian publishing is a force to be reckoned with, " Carol Johnson, Vice President of Bethany House Publishing recently said to Publisher's Weekly.

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