UCC General Synod - Banned Books

[hermionesviolin]

I am skeptical about the utility of the Synod service project this year -- like, how effective is it necessarily to build a Banned Books Library in a church? (Last year's project -- putting together packs of menstrual hygiene products -- felt to me much more like we were doing something actually helpful.)

But am I gonna seed this service project by donating some banned books written by trans people?  Probably.

(Speaking of supporting trans authors: The Transfeminine Review's Pride Month mutual aid drive)

There was a webinar this afternoon:

Join us to learn more about our General Synod service project this year focusing on creating Banned Book libraries in Kansas City and across our wider Church! We'll dive deeper into why banned book libraries matter, how to participate in this year's service project and how to create a banned book library in your congregation.

Synod this year is in Kansas City -- co-hosted by the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference and the Missouri Mid-South Conference (Missouri; Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee) -- and one of the panelists on the webinar (who's on the staff of the Missouri Mid-South Conference) said that Missouri is the #3 state in the country for the most banned books. I'm not sure where that stat comes from -- and if it means number of books banned or number of book bans (so, like, if Book A gets banned 10 times, does that count as 1 or 10), and if this is a cumulative total or for the last year or what -- but it does help suggest why this issue is so big for the Synod organizers. [Interestingly, I had just been on this banned book list from the project's toolkit, and Kansas is not on it at all. In fairness, it's a September 2023 article that says, "Reproduced here, the PEN list covers books that were banned or challenged during the first half of the 2022 school year—the most recent data available." So it's not the most comprehensive list. But still.]

On the subject of, "how effective is doing a Banned Book Library in your church?" excerpts from the chat during the webinar:

Rebecca L:
I think its so important though that the wider community knows we have these books- free of charge. Especially if they have been banned in libraries and schools. We need them to be available to more than just our "members"

me:
+1 to Rebecca's comment. I was wondering how effective church libraries are for this -- do people read the books that are in church libraries, or do they just gather dust?

Janet G:
We are scanning our books into Libbib, it's $74 annually. We haven't launched it yet, but it has gone out to several to test while we are getting the library organized. Eventually, we will share the link on our website.

Susan J:
In response to church libraries...my experience is people don't pull those books. Small baskets of books throughout the church can put books in peoples' hands. Some UCC churches are having Drag Story Hour for kids & parents (I'm a retired Kindergarten teacher..so I focus on young children..reading banned books is a great intergenerational learning activity).

Rebecca L:
We have our banned books on a book cart that we can wheel into different areas and bring to certain programs or even have in narthex for kids to bring into church to read or into our Wednesday night area to read and to remind people they can check them out

Eugene D:
What if we went to our local library and ask what they might need to be protected.

Susan J:
Local libraries are a great idea - our local library in this southern smalltown is rather progressive in the books it orders. Our library has community rooms that can be reserved...a church or churches might lead a banned book presentation or host a banned book club and reserve local library space for meetings