RICK WARREN PUT BACK IN PRISON -AT LEAST FOR THE TIME BEING

Rick Warren and Karl Barth are going back to jail according to an article posted on September 26, 2007 by Chuck Warnock.
'Okay, so the header is a little bit of a tease. The good news is, according to the NY Times, the federal Bureau of Prisons is returning the books it had banned just this spring. Under a wrong-headed policy called the Standardized Chapel Library Project (yes, they really had a name for censorship), the Bureau of Prisons had instructed all prison chaplains to remove all books from prison chapel libraries that were not included on the BoP’s "approved" list.

Of course, the BoP declined to say how they had compiled the authorized list, and why notable authors such as Karl Barth and Rick Warren were not on it. Now, apparently, the BoP has relented under withering pressure from a lot of different groups, plus the promise of lawsuits and public embarassment. The books are "immediately" being re-shelved in prison libraries.

But, and this is a big but, these books are only being returned until the BoP can come up with a new list. And I quote –

"The bureau has not abandoned the idea of creating such lists, Judi Simon Garrett, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message. But rather than packing away everything while those lists were compiled, the religious materials will remain on the shelves, Ms. Garrett explained." — NY Times, 9/26/07

So, we could be right back where we started. Of course by then the spotlight will be off, and the BoP will do whatever they want to, I suppose. Cynical, yes, but also probably realistic. When that happens, hopefully someone will blow yet another whistle to alert us to the unwarranted and arrogant intrusion of government into matters of faith'. — Amicus Dei

Above, Rick Warren's cell mate the eminent theologian Prof. Karl Barth.