10 Most Harmful Books

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I am looking for some info. The DRE at my parish has just started a book club and this is the line-up:

Doubt: A Parable by J. P. Shanley
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
A People Adrift by Peter Steinfels
Callings by Greg LaBoie
The History of the Catholic Church by Hans Kung
Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler

The DRE has stated in the Church bulletin that we are open to a diversity of book choices. My initial impression is that in this parish of diversity, tolerance and recycling we are not tolerant of anything that resembles Orthodoxy! Any (name removed by moderator)ut would be appreciated.
 
I am amazed by many of the comments on this list that condem the idea of identifying the top ten most harmful books. If you look at the books on that list from a historical perspective you can conclude that the ideas each of these books advanced degraded our society in some manner.

I would agree that Keynsian economics might not have the same negative impact as communism or nazism but it still had a negative impact.

I think it is very important to realize that a book can do irreperable harm and that when such books come out a well reasoned response must be made, Imagine if a credible author could have come forth and showed what the obvious consequences of communism would be when The Communist Manifesto became tre chic reading in Europes Universities.
 
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Cubsfan:
I am amazed by many of the comments on this list that condem the idea of identifying the top ten most harmful books. If you look at the books on that list from a historical perspective you can conclude that the ideas each of these books advanced degraded our society in some manner.

I would agree that Keynsian economics might not have the same negative impact as communism or nazism but it still had a negative impact.

I think it is very important to realize that a book can do irreperable harm and that when such books come out a well reasoned response must be made, Imagine if a credible author could have come forth and showed what the obvious consequences of communism would be when The Communist Manifesto became tre chic reading in Europes Universities.
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I am equally amazed that anyone would want to outright ban a book. I think a certain level of maturity and intellect is needed for some books, but we shouldn’t ban them. I highly doubt a book can do “irrepairable damage.”
 
Alfred Kinsey’s books have already done irreparable damage to our culture.
 
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wabrams:
I highly doubt a book can do “irrepairable damage.”
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I suppose it depends on what one calls damage and what one calls irrepairable. Say someone has a young teen girl read a book with graphic depictions of the sexual act. Then she is stuck with the images in her head. They remain and she thinks about them, perhaps forming some of her views of herself based on what she read. I would think that when she is older, she could wish she hadn’t read the book.

Can she turn into a fine adult? Of course! But she could be quite adamant that a school not put this book on its required reading list for her daughter. Perhaps she might even think it best to not have this book displayed for reading on the middle school library shelves. This is what most mean by “banning” a book…not having it displayed as a generally recommended book on the shelves next to the Trumpet of a Swan.
 
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Pug:
I suppose it depends on what one calls damage and what one calls irrepairable. Say someone has a young teen girl read a book with graphic depictions of the sexual act. Then she is stuck with the images in her head. They remain and she thinks about them, perhaps forming some of her views of herself based on what she read. I would think that when she is older, she could wish she hadn’t read the book.

Can she turn into a fine adult? Of course! But she could be quite adamant that a school not put this book on its required reading list for her daughter. Perhaps she might even think it best to not have this book displayed for reading on the middle school library shelves. This is what most mean by “banning” a book…not having it displayed as a generally recommended book on the shelves next to the Trumpet of a Swan.
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You just regurgitated what I posted earlier.
 
I’d have to say that to anyone not properly catechised or that does not have a strong person of faith in their lives or a strong faithful background and upbrining, anything written by someone that is not specifically writing about the Church could be harmful.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was a big proponent of preserving the works of pagans becuase, if read by those that already had a firm basis in their faith, wisdom could still be gleaned from them. C S Lewis, the World’s Greatest Almost Catholic (my term, meant as a term of respect) said some very similar things.

In other words, books are not evil in and of themselves, and are only dangerous if we don’t get a chance to put them into perspective. Its more important that we have resources in our lives to put matters into perspective than to avoid the books entirely, especially in the culture we live in.
 
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wabrams:
You just regurgitated what I posted earlier.
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In case I offended, I apologize. I can’t tell for sure, but your choice of words suggests offense.

I had wanted to be kind of specific about the scenario I laid out because there have been fights in local PTA groups over Forever, by Judy Blume. One side yells banning and the other side yells about harm. Petitions get signed, then the fight dies down and then starts up years later. I’m sympathetic to the side that wants the book gone. I thought this concrete example was a nice example of the threat topic intersecting daily life.
 
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Pug:
In case I offended, I apologize. I can’t tell for sure, but your choice of words suggests offense.

I had wanted to be kind of specific about the scenario I laid out because there have been fights in local PTA groups over Forever, by Judy Blume. One side yells banning and the other side yells about harm. Petitions get signed, then the fight dies down and then starts up years later. I’m sympathetic to the side that wants the book gone. I thought this concrete example was a nice example of the threat topic intersecting daily life.
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Fair enough.
 
Bobby A. Greene:
How about all the ‘banned’ books in America?

banned-books.com/bblista-i.html

Personally I cannot understand how anybook could be banned in a country which advocates free speech and an educated public?
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AMEN TO THAT! I think one of those books, Brave New World , should be read by all who think human cloning is a good idea.
 
I’m amazed at how many people seem to think that classifying a book ‘harmful’ is equivalent to BANNING it.

Nobody has a burn barrel going here guys. Learning does involve hearing the other side and analyzing it sometimes.

But it need not place each human in the place where he needs to decide for himself every principle of philosophy, ethics, morals, economics, politics, etc.

P.S. I liked the Gather comment!
 
We live in a country that allows us freedom of speech. If you don’t like it, don’t read it…it’s that simple
~ Kathy ~
 
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Katie1723:
We live in a country that allows us freedom of speech. If you don’t like it, don’t read it…it’s that simple
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I agree as long as I do not have to pay for it. I have severe moral reservations about being made to pay taxes used to buy filth. All the talk of bans do not refer to make literature illegal (and hence violating the first amendment), but choosing not to buy it and make it available for folks.

Tak dollars should only be spent on what tax payers want. If some one wants to read “The Joy of Sex”, buy they should use their own money.
 
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Strider:
Are you aware of the things Kinsey DID? Not only was he sick, sick, sck, but, for the reasons noted in my above post, the influence of his two books has probably affected more people negatively than Marx And Hitler together.
Similar damage has been done by Freidan and Keynes.
You see, people believe this dross. :banghead:
EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION!
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:eek: what say?!?!?
sure Kinsey did some sick things but that is drop in the bucket compared to a century or so of revolution, warfare, authoritarianism, and wholesale butchery that was the direct result of communism or fascism

and Freidan and Keynes?!!? you’re probably giving them way more credit than they deserve

Sure a mugger is still a bad guy but that doesn’t put him in the same league as Al Capone
 
Sadly, these books were and still are required reading in Catholic Universities with complete disregard for many of the beautiful writings of John Paul II and any of the Magisterial teachings. The flock has been led astray in so many ways.
 
Just finished reading the entire list and the honorable mentions…these knuckleheads have obviously never been subjected to the obscenity that is “The Turner Diaries.” Easily the most offensive, the most disgusting thing I have ever been privvy to, and it takes A LOT to even make me raise an eyebrow.
 
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Heavenston:
Sadly, these books were and still are required reading in Catholic Universities with complete disregard for many of the beautiful writings of John Paul II and any of the Magisterial teachings. The flock has been led astray in so many ways.
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Why is it sad? Is it so bad to read the workd of the opposition to better educate yourself?
 
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