For those of you who are unaware, in September there is a special week known as Banned Books Week. Working at a library, this week is kind of a fun time for us to show how edgy we are by showing off our anti-censorship viewpoint.
This year, we held a "Banned Book Slam," where several speakers chose their favorite banned or challenged book, and read a three minute excerpt from them. I selected Slaughterhouse-Five, which is an excellent book by Kurt Vonnegut that makes me feel many a feel.
I read a little under two pages for my presentation, and I want to give a little background for anyone unfamiliar with the novel. Slaughterhouse-Five (or, The Children's Crusades), was inspired by Vonnegut's experiences (and feelings) surrounding the bombing of Dresden during WWII. It has been challenged and banned for many reasons, including: irreverent tone, obscenity, depictions of sex, and swearing.
The scene I selected was one of the ones that really emphasized the irreverent tone, because the overall message of this scene is one that plagues my mind often right now. I am in a nation that is not meant to have such division, and is certainly not meant to seem as if it exalts one religion over any other (our pledge of allegiance aside- I personally feel like that could and should be updated).
And so, in the fifth chapter of the novel, we have the main character (Billy Pilgrim), listening to a summary of a book being read by another character:
"Rosewater was on the next bed, reading, and Billy drew him into the conversation, asked him what he was reading this time.
So Rosewater told him. It was The Gospel from Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space, shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian, by the way. The visitor from outer space made serious study of Christianity, to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He supposed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.
But, the Gospels actually taught this:
Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected. So it goes.
The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:
Oh, boy- they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!
And that thought had a brother: 'There are right people to lynch.' Who? People not well connected. So it goes.
The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connection!"
Wow, I admit, that is fairly scathing, isn't it? Of course "Not all Christians" but..."Why any Christians?" Why anyone following any religion?
Which brings me to the reason that I am writing about this at all! When I came back to my desk after making myself a PB&J, I found a piece of paper on my desk...referencing what I read and containing two passages from the Bible.
I sort of blinked at it, picked it up, blinked some more, and turned to my coworker and said "I think I just got saved."
I showed it to a few of my coworkers, knowing how inappropriate an action it was, but finding it funny. I am a Christian, I have my own feelings about the institution of the Church versus the message of my religion. I am not offended that someone tried to inform me.
But some people might be.
And so, after reflecting most of the evening on this, I made a decision to speak to the director of the library.
I've also reached a point where I'm a bit offended, not because they tried to preach to me in an incredibly passive-aggressive way, but because they clearly missed the intention of our event, and the meaning behind the words that they didn't like. And, in doing so, just proved the text that much more valid an opinion.
People can be awesome to each other- regardless of creed. But people can also be horrible, and this person felt they were better connected than I was, and thus, the Christian found it easy to be cruel.
What if I was someone who has been mentally and emotionally abused by their church community like one of my dearest friends was? What if I was someone who had been sexually abused by a church leader like another of my friends? What if I was someone who just had zero interest in Christianity? What if I was someone who had zero interest in any religion?
I don't know what is going on in this person's life, and I fully admit that what I said could be offensive- that was the point of our event. We had a disclaimer, because some of these readings had graphic content, terrible socially unacceptable words, and could very much have hurt someone recovering from trauma. I stated prior to reading that mine was "irreverent" and I picked it specifically because I feel it has an important message.
This person has every right to be offended. But I am incredibly confused how someone could dislike the words, and then live up to the message.
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