LDS Banned Books

Oh, we ARE a peculiar people, aren’t we?

Way peculiar…

Deseret Book has announced that it won’t be carrying the newest book by LDS Wunderkind Richard Paul Evans. He’s the guy that wrote the tear-jerker “The Christmas Box”

Why, you ask? Why won’t the most LDS bookstore carry the most LDS author?

Quoted from the Deseret News: “Evans said he knows his new book is not another "Christmas Box." "It's not a warm, fuzzy, 'Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul' kind of book. It's a sophisticated, adult story about a woman caught in an abusive marriage. To me the message is as important as anything. We need to understand that we need to take care of each other. We all need love — and if we're deprived of it, eventually we're gonna find it. So, I wanted to write about that."

Deseret Book’s side of the story: "We love Richard, but in this book, adultery is implied — and the bigger issue is a married woman having a physical relationship and falling in love with a man she is not married to."

Back to Evans: "Adultery is a pernicious evil, but there is no adultery in this book. I didn't write something that condones adultery. A man stays with a woman through the night on the banks of the Arno River. To me, it was a compassionate, tender thing he is doing to a woman who has been emotionally abused for seven years."

For the full text of the article jump to the DesNews website.

For the full text of the book, well, buy the book.

This, of course, is making some things kinda difficult for DB. Not the least of which is the fact that now they have to actually read through the Non-LDS books they’ve been carrying all these years to see if there’s even a hint of impropriety, even implied sex in any of those books.

Here’s the shocker: I’ll bet there are a few…

This whole story leaves me with a couple of thoughts: One: Only in Utah would this even be news.

Two: As an LDS artist (whatever the medium), ya gotta be EXTRA, EXTRA careful what you write, sing, paint, or whatever…



MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com