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After receiving numerous threats that appear to originate from members of a single Baptist Church, a South Carolina library system has canceled its young adult summer reading program. A deluge of phone calls and emails included statements such as “We’re going to get you.” The library decided to shut the program down for the protection of patrons, comparing the situation to receiving an anonymous bomb threat. I don’t think that’s hyperbole. We know that christianists have murdered abortion doctors, so what would stop them from physically attacking those they believe to be spreading witchcraft and (horror of horrors) other religions?

In point of fact, I question whether the people making these threats honestly believed their rhetoric– or at least whether those who organized the campaign did. You see, one of the things criticized was a tie-dyeing workshop for promoting “hippie culture and drug use”. That’s a lot to put on a method of dyeing. The thing is that programs like these attract young people to libraries. Maybe they check out a few books they wouldn’t otherwise have read. Increasing your knowledge of the world increases your ability to think for yourself. Somehow, I suspect that that is what the real issue was.

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