Few people today recall the events of May 10, 1933 when German students publicly burnt books that they and leading Nazi party members associated with an “un-German spirit.”
Roll forward an octogenarian’s lifetime. Over these past weeks, history is repeating itself in a uniquely contemporary way.
No. There are no public bonfires (yet) and the new persecuted minority is not wholly Jewish but is rather former members of the LGBTQ community. These individuals are being directly persecuted by none other than the much larger LGBTQ community which continue at every juncture to indoctrinate society into believing that it remains the most persecuted minority, when clearly it is not.
Where the Nazis sought to remove Jewish intellectualism, today Amazon has made the sudden choice to remove several books from its listings. This is in response to a petition which actually mislabelled all materials relating to leaving the practice of active homosexuality as destructive “conversion therapy.”
The smear campaign was created by one individual who himself admitted having never read the banned books.
The purpose of the ban? Apparently to prevent suicides, but in reality it was an attempt to silence every voice that speaks of new life and freedom found not through “conversion therapy,” but through conversion brought about predominantly by Jesus Christ. This truth remains an anathema to LGBTQ activists.
Among the freshly-banned books are several by Catholic psychologists Joseph Nicolosi and Gerard Van Aardweg. Additionally, there are many autobiographies of individuals who left active homosexuality and who now live chaste single lives or have married and formed a family with a member of the opposite sex.
A good number of these people have embraced insights found in Nicolosi and Van Aardweg’s deeply insightful writings. Daren Mehl, founder of Voice of the Voiceless, an organisation that seeks to defend the rights of former homosexuals and those with unwanted same-sex attraction, joined other former homosexuals to launch a new petition to pressure Amazon to reverse its decision, calling out the retail giant’s barefaced hypocrisy.
“Hey! Amazon and LGBTQ activists,” wrote Mehl, “it is disingenuous to use the suicide argument as a reason to remove the exLGBTQ Christian’s testimony and Christian discipleship books. That lie doesn’t work.”
Mehl stated that Christ brings life, not death, and that through a relationship with him many have had their depression and suicidal thoughts totally reversed. Testimonies to this effect are popping up everywhere.
At the time of writing, Amazon continues to promote at least 10 books that facilitate suicide. It also offers a number of satanic products for sale, unless of course you prefer to purchase a drag queen prayer candle set disdainfully modelled on the images of the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
What if the relative of a patient who had died undergoing heart surgery chose to have books relating to cardiology banned from sale? Would it be just to demand that society uphold this decision because of one person’s feelings?
Along with popes, we cry out, “War never again,” and on ANZAC Day resolutely murmur, “we will remember them.” And yet the freedoms our troops fought for are being eroded before us. History is repeating itself in a different fashion, but few seem to be truly remembering.
Where will this stop? Some want to ban the Bible, or to at least have a Bible that offends no one and makes everyone feel good about themselves. Across the West we are seeing people lose their jobs, being fined, and even being jailed merely for being people of faith.
Hardcore censorship is always the hallmark of totalitarian regimes which at first masquerade as respectful.
Their members cannot tolerate others having access to differing points of view and actually thinking for themselves, especially on matters of faith and religious belief – and now on sexual attraction.
Wherever we discover the closing of minds in the West, we should vehemently resist it.
Banning books is merely a modern form of book burning. In place of Nazism, now read Corporate Fascism. And for Amazon also read Apple, Google, Twitter, and Facebook – not forgetting Rugby Australia, Qantas and ANZ.
NSW Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has said: “Ordinary people of faith are now, understandably, asking the question: if I quote my Bible, will it get me into trouble?”
If for this reason alone, all those who value our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage need to show full support for this Senator’s petition asking the Senate to pass a Religious Freedom Act that contains not only a protection against religious discrimination, but also contains watertight protections for religious believers.
If decisions about which books that bookstores and libraries will or can carry is undertaken by public interest groups, then the Christian majority cannot, indeed it must not, remain silent.
It is time to challenge the un-Australian spirit in our midst and to give careful attention to the words of American philosopher, George Santayana, who said less than a decade before World War I, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
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