LIBRARY: PORN YES, JESUS NO

The library in Meridan, Connecticut has banned certain images of Jesus for fear of "endorsing" Christianity:

The library rejected three of Mary Morley's pieces, Trotta said, though Tuesday the local artist said the library had asked her to exclude five.

Trotta did not object to the images of Christ in Morley's work, as much as her depictions of events, including the Crucifixion, Jesus carrying the cross and the Nativity, she said.....

"I believe that if we physically display it, we've taken responsibility for the message, even if her name is on it," Trotta said.

But some messages are acceptable:

Paintings the library would accept included a tribute to the victims of 9-11, and portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and President John F. Kennedy.

"Those are historical figures," Trotta said.

The library also accepted paintings of Biblical scenes, including Moses accepting the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. "He just looks like an old man. You would really have to know the whole story behind it," Trotta said.

The story behind Jesus is too well known, and more importantly, tied to Christianity, Trotta said.

So JFK and MLK are "historical figures", but Jesus isn't? But Moses is. But wasn't MLK a minister who (ostensibly) preached a Christian message? I'm so confused.

But the library isn't off the hook:

"This is just nonsense," said Louis J. Giovino, a spokesman for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a national organization based in New York City. "You're specifically censoring Christianity here."...

"In the name of protecting kids from seeing a portrait of Jesus, the censors are busy practicing intolerance. Perhaps they would have been more at home with a portrait of Lucifer," Catholic League President William Donohue said in the statement released Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Giovino criticized the library for refusing to install software on public computers that would block access to certain Internet sites, specifically those that include pornography.

"We can't," library Director of Community Affairs Victoria Navin said. "It's up to the parent. That's not for library officials to do. We'd be sued by the American Civil Liberties Union."

When it comes to a possible lawsuit from Morley, though, Navin referred to library policy.

A library policy that says "The library will not accept exhibits which are judged ‘inappropriate,' or ‘offensive' to any segment of the community." But that seems to mean as interpreted by the ACLU and not those who desire to limit easy access to pornography on taxpayer bought computers.

But the good Ms. Trotta could never live with herself if she were (gasp!) responsible for someone being offended by religious imagery:

"It may mean that individuals who see it are offended and may never ever walk into a library again, and I can't be responsible for that," Trotta said.

Oh, I think never walking into that library is a very, very good idea.