Pickens County (S.C.) Library System officials have withdrawn the library’s participation in a nationwide teen reading program within days of its scheduled June 7 launch due to 11th-hour threats against the library, PCLS Director Marguerite Keenan told American Libraries. “My understanding is that it was announced at a church service that we were promoting witchcraft and teaching other religions in our young adult program,” Keenan explained, saying that the library received one call stating they were “going to get us” and threatening to picket. Faced with the prospect of “having children walk through pickets was just horrible, so from that perspective, we decided we would just cancel [the entire series].”
“We weren’t against the reading program itself at all,” asserted Pastor David Gallamore in the June 6 Greenville News. He acknowledged telling parishioners of the Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, South Carolina, about PCLS’s mystery-and-suspense-themed “You Never Know @ your library” summer series and his objections to horoscopes and Tarot cards being part of the June 14 “What’s Your Sign?” evening. “We just want our children being taught the right things,” he added.
The controversial activities were among those suggested by the Collaborative Summer Library Program for Highsmith’s prepackaged 2007 summer reading program, which has garnered participation from libraries in 40 states.
According to Keenan, the teen summer programming traditionally draws a few youngsters from Pickens County’s population of 110,000 overall. However, the 2007 program might have seen an upward spike: Media Specialist Christina Connell of the Gettys Middle School in Easley told American Libraries that she had “pitched it” to the 1,400 students at her campus, which is two blocks from PCLS’s Hampton branch, and that “they were really excited about it.” Connell went on to contend that the library is “sending the wrong message to teens, who will feel that they are not important enough to fight for, and to the church groups, who will only be empowered to launch further crusades against books.”
“Maybe I was taking a worst-case-scenario approach,” Keenan reflected, “but to me the safety of the children we invite in here to our summer programs—the elementary schoolchildren and the preschoolers—is very, very important.”
“We weren’t against the reading program itself at all,” asserted Pastor David Gallamore in the June 6 Greenville News. He acknowledged telling parishioners of the Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, South Carolina, about PCLS’s mystery-and-suspense-themed “You Never Know @ your library” summer series and his objections to horoscopes and Tarot cards being part of the June 14 “What’s Your Sign?” evening. “We just want our children being taught the right things,” he added.
The controversial activities were among those suggested by the Collaborative Summer Library Program for Highsmith’s prepackaged 2007 summer reading program, which has garnered participation from libraries in 40 states.
According to Keenan, the teen summer programming traditionally draws a few youngsters from Pickens County’s population of 110,000 overall. However, the 2007 program might have seen an upward spike: Media Specialist Christina Connell of the Gettys Middle School in Easley told American Libraries that she had “pitched it” to the 1,400 students at her campus, which is two blocks from PCLS’s Hampton branch, and that “they were really excited about it.” Connell went on to contend that the library is “sending the wrong message to teens, who will feel that they are not important enough to fight for, and to the church groups, who will only be empowered to launch further crusades against books.”
“Maybe I was taking a worst-case-scenario approach,” Keenan reflected, “but to me the safety of the children we invite in here to our summer programs—the elementary schoolchildren and the preschoolers—is very, very important.”
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Indiana
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 12:46 PMDo any of the ninnies running these book/activity banning committees look at the content of other famous books?
I know that they go first after the big sellers (Harry Potter) and the long-standing-banned (Fahrenheit 451, Catcher in the Rye.) If they were to apply these standards to everything in the library, I think half the books in there would have to go.
Ancient mythology: mortals fornicating with gods, murder, monsters with magical powers.
Religious texts (scripture): murder, torture, genocide, xenocide, incest, fornication.
Religious texts (historical): ^ (see above)
**He acknowledged telling parishioners of the Rock Springs Baptist Church in Easley, South Carolina, about PCLS’s mystery-and-suspense-themed “You Never Know @ your library” summer series and his objections to horoscopes and Tarot cards being part of the June 14 “What’s Your Sign?” evening. “We just want our children being taught the right things,” he added.**
Fantastic. So the "right things" now include drumming into your child that if you're an irritating, threatening bully about your personal viewpoint, you'll get your way.
I've long ago stopped wondering where the current 13-22y/o (sometimes, even as old as early 30s!) generation's indignant sense of entitlement comes from.
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Sat, June 16, 2007 - 12:49 PMI do not have religious objections to Tarot reading myself, but as a player of Tarot card games, I object to what appears to be one-sided presentations of Tarot cards only in terms of divination. Based on my own research on this nationwide Collaborative Summer Library Program, I must say that the "You Never Know" program as it applies to Tarot is NOT promoting education at all. As practiced in these summer reading programs around the country, a monolithic view of Tarot as a divination art is presented to the youth of America.
Tarot cards, according to playing card historians, were not originally designed for fortune telling. They were created for playing a type of card game similar to Whist. Tarot card games are still played today in France, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. There also appears to be a small but growing number of players outside Europe.
www.pagat.com/tarot/
i-p-c-s.org/history.html
If public educational institutions foster the notion that Tarot is only about divination and the occult, then they are not doing the job for which we pay them.
I think that taxpayer funded institutions such as public libraries and public schools which are designed to educate the public should give equal time to the card playing aspects of Tarot. Tarot is often presented in this country only as something to accept or reject in terms of its alleged accuracy in predicting the future. When other options such as card playing are being supressed, one is not actually free in how one views or uses the cards.
I must ask why must all presentations of Tarot in this country have to be occult related? Why do we not expose the young people to actual card games played with Tarot decks? Teens should be aware that Tarot cards are not just used for the occult or for divination. We should teach teenagers the rules for Tarot card games too. It is highly possible that young people may come to prefer the card games over the divination practices. They should be given an informed choice. We should educate young people about all aspects of culture including Tarot and not present one sided depictions of these matters.
I do not wish for these Tarot presentations to be banned or cancelled as they have in some parts of the country, but I do think they should be more balanced by including some information regarding Tarot's role in the history of card games.
James D. Wickson
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Mon, June 18, 2007 - 7:29 AMI dont know if this one program in South Carolina is enough to show a "monolithic view of Tarot as a divination art " In libraries across the country.
While the primary purpose of Libraries is to provide access to infomation for both education and entertainment, the primary obsticle to providing library services to teens is just getting them in the door in the first place. And this program on divination (which was supposed to be about Astrology and Tarot both) was designed to be intriguing to teens.
If the use of Tarot Cards as playing cards was not part of the program (which may or may not have been the case), this hardly constitutes this aspect of the cards being "supressed" any more than a demo on how to make chicken soup is supressing the fact that you can make fried chicken too. -
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Wed, June 20, 2007 - 7:38 PMThere was a similar controversy over a Tarot presentation at a Dubuque Iowa Library. It was not as intense however as what happened in South Carolina with alleged bomb threats and protests over tie-dying. I think Tarot as playing cards SHOULD be part of these programs. Teens who already play Spades or Hearts might also be intrigued by the possibility that similar games could be played with Tarot.
The fact that these controversies exist I think proves my point that we "'Mericans" need a better Tarot education.
Among users of Tarot cards there are two schools of thought. There are those who want to maintain the myths and occultic image of Tarot and there are others such as myself who desire the demolition of Tarot myths and stereotypes.
It is my opinion that those promoting Tarot myths are at least partly to blame for these controversies.
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Wed, June 20, 2007 - 8:17 PMIt's not hard to see that something associated with the occult might drive those who are concerned about the occult in to some form of apoplexy. But occult, like "establishment" religion, is a matter of faith. When you "desire the demolition of Tarot myths and stereotypes," do you mean that you intend to censor an interpretation you don't approve of, in order to support an interpretation you do approve of? -
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Re: Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
Thu, June 21, 2007 - 12:09 AMI advocate the use of EXPOSURE instead of CENSORSHIP to demolish myths and stereotypes. I find the occult to be entertaining although I'm not a "true believer" in anything paranormal, supernatural, or religious.
From what I understand about these library presentations, they are intended for fun and not religious indoctrination. I have myself dabbled in the occult simply for fun and recreation and I find nothing inherently wrong with it. My perspective is not an anti-occult one.
I support the use of Tarot cards in public education. However I would not want the occult partisans to monopolise it. Tarot does have a broader cultural significance than the common divination uses and I think schools and libraries should better reflect that.
It would be unthinkable to teach about Runes without even mentioning that they are an alphabet. So I think all presentations of Tarot in public education should devote some time to its game playing practices.
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