LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY friarjohn)

September 10, 2007
Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been
quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and
materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries.

The chaplains were directed by the Bureau of Prisons to clear the
shelves of any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of
approved resources. In some prisons, the chaplains have recently
dismantled libraries that had thousands of texts collected over
decades, bought by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious
groups.

Some inmates are outraged. Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox
Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate New York, filed a class-
action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions violate their
rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First
Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the
agency was acting in response to a 2004 report by the Office of the
Inspector General in the Justice Department. The report recommended
steps that prisons should take, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, to
avoid becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other
religious groups. The bureau, an agency of the Justice Department,
defended its effort, which it calls the Standardized Chapel Library
Project, as a way of barring access to materials that could, in its
words, “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.”

Ms. Billingsley said, “We really wanted consistently available
information for all religious groups to assure reliable teachings as
determined by reliable subject experts.”

But prison chaplains, and groups that minister to prisoners, say that
an administration that put stock in religion-based approaches to
social problems has effectively blocked prisoners’ access to
religious and spiritual materials — all in the name of preventing
terrorism. (read the rest here).

I post this here due to the interesting cuts. Barth, Niebuhr and Dulles are three theologians who run against the grain of the American Right's take on things. Not only do the first two consider Fundamentalism to be a heresy but they also are notorious for their utter rejection of "Christian" nationhood. The Culture Protestimus of the 19th century liberal theologians (an idea which the Dommies rely upon) is utterly rejected in these two. Both were also Socialists (The local communists called Barth "comrade Pastor" and Niebuhr was derisively referred to as "The Red Pastor" in the Chicago papers) and were highly critical of unrestrained Capitalism. Both were also highly intolerant of those who subordinate the Church to the State, in that ministers should never have to ask for approval for there sermons or preach at the command of the State. Dulles has also repeatedly written about how the Roman Catholic moral teachings essentially make Capital punishment as much a sin as abortion, a POV that is very unpopular with American Catholics of a certain stripe. Dulles was also one of the Catholic theologians who were dead set against the war in Iraq. This is a Dommie purge of the Prisons so that their prison ministries will have a freer hand. It also makes sure that only "safe" forms of other religions are represented. I can only imagine that the Bonheoffer allowed ISN'T his political or more academic stuff.
I also think it’s funny that an otherwise odious piece of Republican legislation is now coming back to bite the Administration in the butt