Pastor, Parents Struggle with Gutter Language Contained in Classics
by Jim Brown
March 24, 2004
(AgapePress) - Some parents in Georgia want several pieces of classic literature removed from their local schools' reading list.Parents with the group Crusaders for Christ recently told the Bartow County Board of Education that several books contain use of God's name in vain and racial slurs. Among the books being protested are To Kill a Mockingbird, The Martian Chronicles, A Raisin in the Sun, and Of Mice and Men.
Pastor Dwight Holcomb of Acworth says the district needs to provide cleaner, less-offensive versions of the books. Holcomb maintains the board members need to listen to the public on this matter.
"How come a board of ten or twelve committed people can determine that this stuff stays in our county school system when we have over 450 signatures of voting citizens ... who elected these people into office and who say that we don't want it?" he asks. "We don't want it." The pastor adds that the number of signatures is growing every day.
Holcomb explains he has no problem with the plots of the books or the stories they tell -- just the language that is used.
"I can tell these same stories and not use my Lord's name in vain and without using all these other words that are not permitted in public," he says. "If they're spoken in public, you will be arrested for the use of profanity."
County committees had deemed all of the contested books appropriate, but committee members will now consider whether to reverse their decision. Holcomb adds that other parents with children in a local middle school are protesting the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
