Do you think it would be wrong to "white-out" 3 cuss words in a Christian book? This book and a couple of others are by a popular Christian publishing company. The entire book has a great message. Why was the publisher able to give us 270 pages of words without cussing and felt the need to include those 3 words? (I am going to write to the publisher and ask them the same question.)
Reading the story, I am sure there are more cusses that could have been included but weren't. We have readers who will be very offended to see those words in print - - - so I want to hide them. Also, when we read offensive words, they stick in our mind and I would prefer not to see them, too.
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I appreciate your sensitivity and diligence as well as the personal accountability that your library takes to insure, to the best of your ability, that you provide good Christian material for your readers.
Writing not only as a church librarian but also as someone who has a Library Technician certificate from a community college and 20+ years as a public school Library Media Tech (elementary and middle school grades), censorship is a very tricky/sticky area, especially for Christians.
First, a (published) book is like a work of art in the sense that it is the author's finished work (and presumably has also been edited by a good editor for the market it is planned for - one reason I usually stay away from self-published works - they usually aren't edited well!) and the author is entitled to have his/her finished work presented as s/he INTENDED it to be. Would you paint over Mona Lisa's smile to "fix" it? Granted, not all works of art are classics, and there are some works of "art" you and I would not want to cast our eyes on, and may even protest being shown or supported by public funding (the crucifix in the glass of urine, for example). But part of art (or literature) is to make some sort of statement, and art (or literature) may challenge our thinking and cause us to re-examine our own thoughts or assumptions. That can be a good thing.
Secondly, "real life" is not as sanitary as we would like it. How does an author (especially when writing for the Christian market) honestly convey a "gritty" situation with the proper intensity and authenticity yet without offending anyone? I'm not justifying the "cusses" you mentioned, since I don't know the context, but I think it would be difficult to do in some circumstances. On the other hand, some authors (like some movie producers) may add some things in which we could easily describe as "gratuitous" - meaning unnecessary to the story but added for prurient interest (and to increase sales). Great literature isn't always squeaky clean, but the gritty spots are intrinsic to the story or essential to character development.
You wrote that you don't like certain words and don't want to see them in print. I can certainly understand that, but then the question becomes, where do you draw the line? You might white out three words, and another reader may white out more, because we all have different levels of acceptability. Pretty soon, the book is littered with whited-out sections; or, your borrower, seeing that it's "okay" to censor, may decide to help you out by censoring other books, perhaps even removing pages! Perhaps it would be better to place a small disclaimer at the front of the book, something like "This is a work of fiction intended for adult readers and contains some adult language (or frank portrayals, etc.). - not recommended for those easily offended."
Let's take the Bible, for example. There are plenty of "offensive" statements or events so should we white those out? Our good deeds are as "filthy rags" to the Lord, and the literal translation means used menstrual cloths. Pretty yucky! God wasn't shy about "telling it like it is" although our modern translators have certainly changed the translation so as not to offend us! Although "filthy rags" may be more polite in Sunday morning service it doesn't really convey truthfully what God meant, does it? Filthy rags around my house means I've been busy dusting behind the fridge or hubby's been busy cleaning something greasy on the car - that's a good thing! As yucky as those rags may be, it's not the same as a used menstrual cloth - which indicates/represents something unclean issuing from US - not the outward cleaning everyday dust of life! That's quite a difference in meaning, isn't it? (sorry if I've grossed you out, but it's a good example).
What if we went through the Bible and removed all the references to the Israelites who sinned and were disciplined (or in some cases, eradicated!) by God - like when Moses was up receiving the Ten Commandments and the people sinned greatly? Would we then be able to understand why God was so angry? Or why the commandments were important? Or if we censored the woman who said to Jesus that Mary was blessed because she had nursed (breast-fed) him as a baby? He didn't chastise her for the reference for rather for her lack of spiritual insight about what was really important. The reference to Mary's breasts and breastfeeding may make us uncomfortable, but it didn't embarrass Jesus!
Lynda, I agree that it's not easy - after all, God expects us to "be holy" - and we may feel that reading cuss words is a violation of our minds, but God understands that we live in this world now, not in a perfected world. Authors have to, at times, reflect that world accurately, or the story just doesn't have the authenticity, and perhaps not the "power" to confront us. Stop and think about "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." In its original form, it used the "N-word" a number of times. Most of us feel VERY uncomfortable with racial slurs, but without those words, would it really reflect the authentic speech of those times and depravity of slavery? We SHOULD feel uncomfortable, even shocked at those words, at those particular situations. Without the original text, the story may be "nicer" but it is not authentic and it is not what the author intended.
I hope I have given you some food for thought. Many of us struggle with this issue, so I hope others will also share their thoughts with us. I can't say what is right for every situation, but I would recommend considering a disclaimer rather than the white out, and let your readers make their own decision.
Disclaimer: this is not a Christian news article, it is from the secular Boston Globe. However, it deals with the concept of censorship and I think it makes some good points. I thought it was fascinating that the author used several of the same examples that I used in my response (back in June 2010) to Lynda!
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/blogs/the_angle...
While church libraries may not stock Tom Sawyer, etc., there may be Christian schools who need to decide on whether to purchase the original or adapted versions of certain titles. Some food for thought.
BTW, Lynda, did you ever get a response from the author of the biography? Please keep us posted!
Definitely write to the publisher and to the editor, and tell them why you will not be recommending the book to patrons. They need to know. They should want to know.
Since this is a biography (presumably of a Christian), was the cussing a quote TO the biographee (the person who is the subject of the biography) or was it the biographee's (not author's) words? I'm not "excusing" it either way, but if someone said something to the person (biographee), the recipient of those words can't help what was said and it might be intrinsic to her/his response or what the author chose to write about the person. And, it might, for legal purposes, need to be an exact quote, although I got the impression from your response that it was just gratuitous or unnecessary, in which case it certainly could have been written differently.
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