http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/school-board-removes-sherlock-holmes-novel-as-derogatory-to-mormons/1
Are you f***ing kidding me??? :O

isolate the wacky factions of society from those who can put things into perspective.

that NEVER WAS a mormon strong point, was it?

The link has a sample passage. Kids read more controversial things than that all the time, where has this parent been?

Reading the Wiki summary, I can see why this parent objected to the book. However, I don't think that the plot is out of character for the Mormons of the time. Mountain Meadows, anyone? And how about when Brigham Young ordered that young man castrated because he wanted the man's fiancee for himself?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2011 05:34PM by summer.

Just as a point of clarification, the castrated young man was Thomas Lewis, and the man who castrated him was Bishop Warren S. Snow. Brigham Young gave his tacit approval of the castration, however, when he told the bishop's congregation to continue to sustain Snow in his calling. Young DID advocated the violent, bloody punishment of sinners, though, and the bishop claimed he was following the prophet's council

The reason for the castration is not entirely clear, either. One account says he refused to surrender his fiance to the bishop and another claims that Lewis was bedding with prostitutes. Either way, such violence is cruel and abominable.

Regarding the book, I find censorship disgusting, especially when it's the result of one loudmouthed religious fundie.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The link has a sample passage. Kids read more
> controversial things than that all the time, where
> has this parent been?
>
> Reading the Wiki summary, I can see why this
> parent objected to the book. However, I don't
> think that the plot is out of character for the
> Mormons of the time. Mountain Meadows, anyone? And
> how about when Brigham Young ordered that young
> man castrated because he wanted the man's fiancee
> for himself?

It wasn't Brigham Young. It was Bishop Warren Snow, though Brigham Young allowed such assaults.

http://www.exmormonforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3130&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=0d840b200929f4a528f6c03e48dc00d5&view=print

I was speaking off-the-cuff. Too lazy to go look it up!

The offender was Bishop Warren Snow of Manti... Young did, however, cover for Snow, and I seem to remember there's more to the story involving Young and the woman's mother, but I don't remember where I read it.

Not to offer any putdown with this correction (Young was clearly a monster in his own right) but factual accuracy is critical here on this board because otherwise TBM's will use the smallest error to raise a big stink and attempt to discredit something.

Will Bagley made a mistranslation of a handwritten word in the Dimick Huntington diary and the FAIR/FARMS crowd accused him of fabricating evidence.

Edit: And it's the middle of the night after a cab shift, and I was too lazy to read what everyone else wrote... Oh well... Onward...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2011 06:13AM by SL Cabbie.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_in_Scarlet

I had to refresh my memory. It's first Sherlock Holmes novel.

is he Next?

For language ("All right then, I'll go to hell!). And for the n-word...

The volume Guy is referring to is "Roughing It," which contains the famous "chloroform in print" line as well as as a description of Sam Clemens meeting with Brigham Young and and appendix at the end--in a voice quite different from the humorous one of the narrator (Twain appears to have been "evolving" his "voice of reason" literary introject, a technique I have shamelessly pilfered)--he gives a report on the Mountain Meadows Massacre and lays it at BY's feet...

Apologists have criticized that one, but Twain was in Nevada Territory a few years after the tragedy, and in adulthood he was friends with the son of Judge Cradlebaugh who attempted to prosecute the murderers.

When I read A Study In Scarlet as a kid I was shocked by how anti mormon I thought it was. I re-read it recently and was shocked by how accurate it all seems. Same with Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage and The Rainbow Trail. Especially The Rainbow Trail with it's tale of "sealed wives".

Censorship is a riderless horse spooked by embarrassment and the fear of exposure.

The internet makes the censor's job a bit more difficult these days... Especially for works that are now in the public domain.

Unabridged text:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/244

Free unabridged audio recording (nice british accent even):
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9556

I wonder if "Riders of the Purple Sage" is next....Zane Grey was really on-target in that one.

Thank nogod for the public domain. Otherwise, Mormon power would silence all critics retroactively.

Anagrammy

They make it sound like plain bigotry against Mormons.
It's NOT.

What they are talking about is polygamy! That is why...

"(John Ferrier) had always determined, deep down in his resolute heart, that nothing would ever induce him to allow his daughter to wed a Mormon. Such marriage he regarded as no marriage at all, but as a shame and a disgrace."

and prominently displays books that have been banned (or that somebody TRIED to have banned) at one time or another in the U.S. Most of the books are children's fiction.

I love to read these books and then try to figure out what offended somebody or other. The library keeps a notebook that shows who banned each book and for what reason.

I don't remember which book it was just now, but there was a really good novel about a young boy (around 12 or 13) during the Civil War. Sprinkled throughout the book are exclamations of "Lord have mercy!" Somebody thought this was blasphemous. Funny, when I lived in the Deep South, I heard that phrase just about every day. It wasn't blasphemy - it was spot-on regional dialogue.

If someone finds a book offensive, they don't have to read it. But I don't think they ought to have the right to impose their tastes on others.

catnip Wrote:
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> I don't remember which book it was just now, but there was a really good novel about a young boy (around 12 or 13) during the Civil War.

Maybe "Across Five Aprils"? That's a well-known Newbery honor book that is frequently taught in schools.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2011 03:35PM by summer.

so...should we remove galileo from science class too for contradicting the pope once thus making him an "anti-catholic"?

it's just as stupid.

goddamn it...that's makes me angry.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best. "Every burned book enlightens the world.", or possibly Persis M. Karim, who says, "The danger is not in the reading itself, but rather, the possiblity that the texts children read will incite questions, introduce novel ideas, and provoke critical inquiry."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2011 09:51AM by truckerexmo.

Were the stupidass parents who objected to the book ultra TBMs?

Do you have any real doubts?!

I loved all the Sherlock Holmes stories as a kid, and I could not figure out why one story had a Mormon as a "bad guy". Now I know.

I posted in the comments and have trashed with negative votes.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/school-board-removes-sherlock-holmes-novel-as-derogatory-to-mormons/1

I have tried to reply but it gets stuck in the waiting mode. I emailed the moderators but no reply yet. Here is what I am trying to say:

Mormonism began with the Book of Mormon. Within its pages is a fictional idea that America's indigenous people had anticipated the birth of Jesus, that he came and visited them in America, they accepted him but later rejected his teachings. This caused them to become devolved and degenerate, wicked, idle and loathsome.

The Book of Mormon also teaches that Europeans would come to America, scatter and nearly destroy the indigenous people because they were no longer Christian. If the Indians become Mormon they will "blossom as a rose". The title page of the Book of Mormon says it is written to America's indigenous people (Lamanites). They can become pure and delightsome if they become LDS (implying that they are impure and unpleasant if they are not Mormon).

Imagine what would be thought of a mainstream church if it taught that the Jewish people deserved the Holocaust because they did not accept Jesus Christ. Why are the Mormon teachings about America's indigenous people any different?

There are approximately 14 million Mormons worldwide. About 6 million live within the United States. Now think about it. A religion of about 14 million people teaches its members a false history concerning approximately 48 million indigenous American people. It degrades the American Indian with these teachings and only recognizes them as improved if they become Mormon.

So how is it that one student's parents can cause a schoolboard to remove a work of fiction from a 6th grade reading list while the 14 million members of the student's church are taught a horribly degrading fiction concerning 48 million living people?

When I first read the article there were already quite a few people who had posted their comments about how ridiculous this whole thing is. I'm sure there are many more by now.
Censoring and banning books like Harry Potter, Huck Finn, and now apparently Study in Scarlet.......that really pushes my buttons. Don Bagley's quote about censorship being 'the riderless horse' etc. is spot on.
None of the info I found online says anything about the parent who objected other than her name (Brette Stevenson), that she is Mormon, and that she somehow managed to convince the entire school board to pull the book from the reading curriculum.
Stevensen was quoted as being "very pleased with the decision". I'm sure she's not nearly as pleased with the overwhelmingly negative reaction and extremely unflattering comments as a result.