Tolerance? In a library? What a truly novel idea

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By JAN GLIDEWELL

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 1, 2001

File this one under places some folks in Citrus County wouldn't expect to find Glidewell.

In the midst of a months-long hullabaloo about who should pray at Citrus County School Board meetings and how they should go about it, Barbara Burke, an old friend of mine who lives in Inverness, stirred the pot a little more by objecting to there being a Christian Fiction section in the Lakes Region Library in Inverness.

I understand her concern, but I don't share it.

Diversity in libraries is important, something not all residents of some counties hereabouts have realized. And just as the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow for the establishment of a state religion, it likewise doesn't say any religion or its literature can be prohibited.

It could be the section -- later renamed Inspirational Fiction -- was a tiny bit mislabeled anyhow, since it included a book titled Miriam about the life of Moses' sister, two characters that predate Christianity.

And one wonders whether a section so labeled would ever include Gore Vidal's Live From Golgotha or Nikos Kazantzakis' Last Temptation of Christ, both featuring somewhat untraditional views of the life of Jesus.

But the fact remains that the extremely popular Harry Potter novels could all be classified as Wiccan fiction, all of the works of Philip Roth (except, possibly, The Breast) and Isaac Bashevis Singer are certainly Jewish fiction.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, insofar as anyone can figure out what he's saying (I confess an inability to do so), is Islamic fiction (not to the great joy of some Muslims) and the library in question, along with the Rushdie book, also carries Mistress of the Spices, which is Hindu fiction.

Most good libraries also carry books like Zen Flesh Zen Bones, a collection of Zen Buddhist tales and biographies, and nonfiction works of and about religious figures such as Joseph Smith, the Dalai Lama or, for that matter, L. Ron Hubbard.

Libraries also carry books fiction and non-fiction on the Holocaust and the strife in Northern Ireland, not inspirational occurrences in the sphere of interreligious relations, and they should. Libraries are places of knowledge and entertainment, and it is absolutely necessary that they celebrate diversity.

Special labeling of shelves isn't that big a deal. Bookstores routinely label religious and inspirational works both Christian and otherwise, and label shelves of books dealing with gay and lesbian issues, diet, health and secular self-help, and the world doesn't end.

In fact, it is the gay rights issue that I find pertinent here.

If Citrus folks ever get their underwear in a bunch the way some people from the Christian right in Spring Hill did a few years back over a gay-pride display in a local library, the current Christian Fiction display will be a fine tool for pointing out to them that the sword of diversity cuts both ways and that a library that encourages multiple points of view is a good thing.

And labeling a group of books by subject is just as much help to those who don't want to read them as to those who do.

Romance novels are usually labeled in libraries and bookstores (I, personally, believe they should be declared toxic sites and surrounded by yellow tape, but I will defend to the death their right to be there) and I am grateful for that.

The self-help section is usually clearly labeled, and is another one I avoid (except for those times in the past when I was feverishly seeking desperate women) and, needless to say, you won't find me in the auto mechanics, home improvement or computer geek sections.

And I think I am barred from the sports sections because I don't know who plays in what league, who got traded to whom or who has acquired the most points in what series of events where people drive around in circles.

So I go where I'm comfortable, sections dealing with philosophy, eastern religions, true crime stories and trashy horror and mystery novels.

When I see yet another stack of those books from the post-apocalyptic Left Behind series, which some people enjoy reading and I don't -- I just walk by them.

It's not that difficult.

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