Religious Books Removed From U.S. Prisons

The Skinny: Bid To Prevent Prisons From Becoming Breeding Ground For Radical Religious Beliefs

(CBS)  The Skinny is Dan Collins take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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The New York Times reports that chaplains in federal prisons have been systematically removing religious books and materials from prison libraries.

The newspaper said that in some cases, thousands of religious books had been removed from libraries where they had been accumulating for years. The Bureau of Prisons has ordered the chaplains to remove "any books, tapes, CDs and videos that are not on a list of approved resources." (Prayer books and other worship materials are not affected by the purge.)

Federal officials said the purge stemmed from a Justice Department report that recommended that prisons not become recruitment centers for militant Islamic and other religious groups.

Prison chaplains and groups that minister to prisoners have mobilized to oppose the policy, which was implemented in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

“It’s swatting a fly with a sledgehammer,” Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship, a Christian group, told the Times. “There’s no need to get rid of literally hundreds of thousands of books that are fine simply because you have a problem with an isolated book or piece of literature that presents extremism.”

The bureau has prepared a list of approved religious materials, but because "the bureau has not provided additional money to prisons to buy the books on the lists, so in some prisons, after the shelves were cleared of books not on the lists, few remained."

An unidentified prison chaplain interviewed by the Times said the policy was pointless since chaplains routinely reject material that incites violence.

Is 9/11 Already Fading From Memory?

USA Today wonders whether Sept. 11 is becoming just another date on the calendar. The newspaper noted that WABC-TV in New York had, for the first time, not planned to televise the entire memorial ceremony from Ground Zero. (The station reversed its decision after receiving protests from some of the families of victims.)

And Morris County, New Jersey, which lost about 100 residents on 9/11, has had to postpone improvements in its 9/11 memorial because fundraising has fallen short.

Nevertheless, 71 percent of Americans called Sept. 11 the most memorable news event of their lives. But only 6 percent plan to mark the anniversary in any formal way.

"Like any event, even Pearl Harbor, the more time goes by, the less central it becomes to our experience," Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies U.S. popular culture, told the newspaper. "That's healthy. It becomes more a part of history, less a raw wound."

China Steps Up Internet Censorship

The Washington Post reports that China is energetically censoring the Internet and other forms of electronic communication.

The Public Security Ministry, which monitors the Internet, has recruited "an estimated 30,000 people to snoop on electronic communications. The ministry recently introduced two cartoon characters -- a male and female in police uniforms -- that it said would pop up on computer screens occasionally to remind people that their activity is being tracked."

Even apparently non-political postings can bring punishment.

Flooding this summer in the northeastern province of Shandong caused 34 deaths, according to China's tightly controlled media. Not so, said a woman who posted an Internet piece that said at least 100 people had been killed in the provincial capital alone, where an underground supermarket was flooded.

The 23-year-old author was arrested and charged with creating public disorder by spreading rumors. But censorship has its limits. The Post noted that many residents readily believed the anonymous Internet posting over official pronouncements by the government.

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[michellem99-2009]

The church and Prisom
By Barbara Ann.
We are free to read.
When they are locked up.
For whatever crimes.
Who yells to visit.
The goody souls.
When they leave .
I wonder did they
do it for God or
to make them look
good in the eyes of
their peers.
Yet they never cared
for the persons before.
So please stay home.
Yer not welcome to
visit as yer
just as phoney.
I can see right
thru ye.
So if ye want to
help and mean it.
Don''t shove yer church
on others who don''t wish it.
As ye come just don''t preach.
They truly don''t need it.
They suffer by being there.

[hwy71so]

"Tis what scares them and rightly so, I hope to scare them straight to a library.
Posted by Spectrum108 at 10:47 PM : Sep 10, 2007"

Facts don''t scare me. Manipulation of facts does, you know, like what the dimocrats, the liberals and the media are doing with Iraq. They are manipulating the truth to show only the negative when there''s far more positive taking place.

[hwy71so]

"Economics always rules and rising taxes had the actual "priority premise" for leaving the old country.

It was "taxation without representation" that was the prominent driving force. The religious stuff was a secondary matter"

You''re right Spectrum. These were also driving forces. Basically, the people got tired of the king running their lives.

[TedMichaelMorgan]

This is incomprehensible. Our leaders have lost their humanity. Imagine trying to read theology without the likes of Avery Cardinal Dulles, Karl Barth, or Reinhold Niebuhr. Who are the censors who made the list?

[TedMichaelMorgan]

This is incomprehensible. Our leaders have lost their humanity. Imagine trying to read theology without the likes of Avery Cardinal Dulles, Karl Barth, or Reinhold Niebuhr. Who are the censors who made the list?

[tnt1954]

i was a church goer all the way till just
after high school. we had a lotta good social
events, learned about the bible as literature
and all kinds of good programs. it was a lotta fun, had lots of girlfriends. ice cream
socials. beats being a drunk in a bar from
6 am to 2 am.

[uceslady]

When a religion like Islam is forced on people that is bad, bad, bad. Religion is only that - religion. Religion will save no one from their sins. It is just a term. To kill non-believers, tut, tut. Sounds like another form of mind control - do what they say without thinking for yourself. Radicals don''t practice "love thy neighbor". A spiritual war is being waged out in the open - evil vs good.

[michellem99-2009]

I am a New Englander by birth. Yes sah. They landed there Dear..They were out of beer. They used religion. Or their form of it. They abused others for health issues the person suffered by the hands of fantics. Religion. Sorry lass/lad. The churchy nuts killed out of fear. The blind,the deaf,the mentally ill,the crippled,the seniors,the unmarried,anyone they did not trust, Not part of their church. The were no witches..Just nuts bent on killing.. Lovely when you think about it. I am 52 and legally blind and there are still others that are in the bloody dark ages. I WAS CALED ALL KIND OF NAMES AS A BLIND PERSON BY THEM SMART ASRE HOLIER THAN THOU BLIND MINDED SO CALLED CHRISTIANS. IT BLOODY HURT. That was in the 1960s and 1970s.

There were no bloody witches just liers bent on killing. They used the church to kill. They were gangs of white men. They were bloody free masoms bent on killing any one different that did not fit their crazy ideas. Sure they left the Mother England as they did not want abide by her laws. The Native Americans should have sent them home.
Medical proved that. I have never felt that comfortable at church.

[toolmangler-2009]

What good is Islam?
Posted by Keithle1 at 08:40 PM : Sep 10, 2007

All of it.

Posted by zootallures2 at 08:48 PM : Sep 10, 2007


Its the practitioners of it that fail. They don''t believe any other than their version has value. tsk, tsk.

[old5hita55]

crzmeat your the one thats stupid! I know that when they put them men in there with each other and they have them dirty books to look at and they start to look at each other in a a non natural way like homos do. You need to wake up and smeel some coffee if you dont know that all ready.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by Spectrum108 at 09:04 PM : Sep 10, 2007


You shouldn''t obscure their vision of reality with the facts. They will shun you. ;)

[htophet]

I find it quite reveling that while the books on Muslim fundamentalist is being taken out the christian NeoNaziCon *** is staying in. All religions are dangerous to governments if they are radicals, all contemporary religions have cults like our Christian fundamentalists. Americans do know the group, it%u2019s been convicted of burning down over two hundred churches in the US in the last 15 years! The same cult that condones the bombing of clinics and killing of doctors, nurses, women, and strangers in or near legal abortion clinics. [inside our country]

[agnim]

"What good is Islam?
Posted by Keithle1 at 08:40 PM : Sep 10, 2007"

LOL

"Good" for the rubbish heap of history is islam and christianity.

[zootallures2]

What good is Islam?
Posted by Keithle1 at 08:40 PM : Sep 10, 2007

All of it.

[keithle1]

What good is Islam?

[Krazcarl]

old5ht55 has anyone ever told you that there is lack of female companionship in prison your our new most drugged out or retarded poster or both. Just because it''s a blog people can still see your stupid.

[old5hita55]

They need to get all them dirty books out of them prisons. Thats whats making them all act crazy in there. Thats what makes them all turn **** on each other. If theyll get them dirty books out everything will be all right.

[Krazcarl]

GunOwnerDan EXCELLENT point on Janet Reno the democrats have skeletons in thier closet to. It''s time for a third party that isn''t just a party for those that can''t get elected to thier party of thier choice.

[Krazcarl]

To be honest I see the point of radical extremist looking for help in the prison system we lock them up in a cement cell with bars on the front feed them trash don''t educate rehabilitate they get lousy medical or mental help come out totaly broke with no cash in worse shape then when they went in. The problem is the GD-prison system not the reading material and yes bin and his cohorts see the potentail here.

[mitywhity]

The ACLU (Association for Cultural Lewdness Unlimited) will be so worked up that they will insist on putting their kiddie porn in the prisons instead...Posted by Agnim.....................................Wow, I used to have tense banter with Sir Agnim, now, I am agreeing with him. My how the times they are a changin''