Unintelligent and under-educated religious nut-jobs like Cameron will always see their religion as the answer to every question. They never stop trying to shoehorn the universe into their magic book. It's no secret that the religious right would love to replace actual education in this country with religious indoctrination in spite of the fact it is never the job of the public schools to backstop anyone's religion, and our secular government cannot choose one religion over another. These people are doomed to fail in the long run, because their philosophy is intellectually bankrupt. None of which means they can't do a lot of damage on their road to failure.
Lanah Burkhardt, If reading about a "single kiss" led to a life of porn addiction then one has to wonder what else may have triggered it if you didn't read that one book. Would you have witnessed two dogs getting it on and decided to ban pets? Would you have seen your mother wash a cucumber and decide to ban vegetables? How about that electric toothbrush? Would you no longer brush your teeth?
You are a moron if you think you developed a "porn addiction" because you read a book. On top of that it was not that one book that caused you to be "depressed and suicidal", it was your religion. Your religion made you feel like you had dirty thoughts but for many people those thoughts are a Tuesday. We are sexual creatures Ms. Burkhardt. The human race would not have survived if we weren't. Your thoughts are not abnormal but your religion seeks to repress them because they are trying to control you the same way you want to control everyone else.
When I used to go to christian youth conferences, I remember one guy* talking about speaking at a previous event. Each speaker would tell their life story of coming to christ at the lowest point in their life. Then the youth were to break off into groups by selecting the person who's life story most spoke to them. As each speaker talked about their "lives," the stories just got worse and worse. It was a silent game of one-upmanship. He was the second to last, so he really had to work to top everyone. The last guy just told his plain-old boring story, which most of the youth identified with.
These extreme stories that come out - "a illustrated kiss led me to porn**" - remind me of that guy, literally fabricating stories for the sheer sake of climbing Mount Exaggeration. It's like religious Munchausen Syndrome. At least The Four Yorkshiremen is funny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE). These christian attention-seekers bolstering their low self-esteem with genuine faux significance don't actually realize the harm they are causing to people. They have to keep it up to keep the limelight on them. And there's a lot of competition for that limelight.
What can I say? Satanic Panics can't be fueled without fear.
What next? Gay frog? ... Ummm ... Oh. Yeah.
* They were always men, I don't recall a single woman ever guest speaking at these events.
** Oh, and the massive volume of passionate kissing on TV and movies has no affect what-so-ever?
First off, Cameron using the Matrix as a dig at the LGBT community, or Woke as he said, is pretty fucking ironic. Since the Matrix was written by a transgender person about the bigots in conservative world. It’s a shallow interpretation being turned about as a childish response to valid criticism of the right.
Secondly, that shallow interpretation and turn about is exactly what the SkyTree book fair is, as well as all the appropriated Christianized popular culture. Their assessment of what is popular in culture is never very deep, music is just plagarizing a song or genre and throwing god or Jesu wherever they might stick. But they don’t seek to understand why the music struck the right chord. That is why Christian pop culture has no traction outside of the small evangelical Christian bubble. This book fair isn’t going to take off, I doubt they do have 100 confirmed public schools right now anyway, because they do not understand why Scholastic is so popular. There’s more to it than just a bunch of books, or even the marketing for it. Scholastic is great at providing the age appropriate materials, with a variety for skill levels within a grade, plus they account for tastes, and include, as mentioned above, real life experiences and people. The purpose of SkyFairy is to remove all the variety to push an agenda, to ignore the many facets of life and abilities of the children they’re claiming to serve. They might get their claws in a few schools for a while, but the lack of titles and flexibility will turn so many parents off that they will find other ways to get back to Scholastic.
Thirdly, I am a bit concerned because my children’s school district has some very loud right wing voices attacking the school and the local public library and who are also affecting elections that want to ban books under the guise of age appropriateness or keeping porn away from children. When they’re focusing on the same LGBT themes the Moms against any real Liberty push. We’ve had the litterboxes in the bathrooms scare lose us an actual decent school board member. We’ve had the attack on our library claiming the LGBT display during Pride month was grooming children which led to death threats against our librarians. We now have folks claiming that not further disseminating a video of a bully in a bathroom attacking (verbally) a Down’s syndrome child is censorship but they ought to be able to knee jerk remove books from the school they deem inappropriate for all students. I’m fed up with my town and I do not want Kirk Cameron soiling my neighborhood with his lies and indoctrination. But I’m afraid it might be something suggested soon.
Porn addiction? And from a single kiss in a Scholastic book? Seriously? How mentally and emotionally weak do you have to be to become addicted to porn after reading about a single kiss? Is Burkhardt a Christian? Does she have a clue to the content of the bible, especially what's found in Song of Solomon and elsewhere within its pages? What might she become addicted to if she read the bible? Adultery? Incest? Bestiality?
The bible belt is the biggest consumer of porn in the nation. Must be something they read in their holy book that triggered it.
I do believe you've identified the entire point of the exercise, Hemant. Stoking an interest in reading creates a curious mind, and 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 minds are precisely what the wingnuts need more of. Their 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 goal may be to stop kids from reading books which might broaden their horizons, affirm their identities, or help them understand abstract ideas... but their 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 goal is to stop kids from reading so much, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥. A person kept from reading 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯 content in youth might go on to find it on a shelf in adulthood, when they've escaped their parents' and pastors' control, and read it anyway; someone whose entire passion for reading has been smothered in its infancy might never pick up a book again.
“SkyTree, named after a place in Brave Books’ imaginary universe of Freedom Island...”
Guys I don’t think we’re focusing enough attention on the fact that they build an imaginary universe and the best idea they could come up with for a name is fucking Freedom Island.
It seems as though Cameron and his evangelical brethren cannot do anything without being surreptitious, underhanded, and anything but open and above-board. Then, too, this has been his and his associates' modus operandi for roughly as long as I've been aware of him.
The usual problem is that, while WE are aware of Cameron's predilections, the average citizen isn't, and they might see SkyTree as just one more book fair with little or nothing to set it apart from Scholastic Book Fair's efforts. Obviously, understanding the difference requires looking BELOW the surface, in order to see Cameron's intent.
How many parents will make that effort? Therein lies the rub.
The reason why these Evangelical kids books are shit is the same reason Evangelical movies are shit. They aren’t art; they’re propaganda sermons.
It IS possible to produce good art that incorporates Christian theme. Books like The Brothers Karamazov, Flannery O’Conner’s stories, and A Wrinkle in Time. Movies like Tender Mercies, Chariots of Fire, and A Place in the Heart. The difference is that art allows for moral ambiguity. It doesn’t shy from dark themes. It doesn’t lecture you on what the answers are.
This other shit is just a more glossy update on the old cheap paper Bible tracts. Like those paper tracts, this stuff will be quickly tossed aside and forgotten.
After his show “Growing Pains was canceled, he moved on to making dough, peddling religious themed TV shows and movies that went straight to DVD.
I’d say he’s a failed actor, but like all these religious wing-nuts; they always have a grift to pawn off on their ignorant and easily manipulated flock.
Isn’t he famous for his “Left Behind” series? Fortunately, most school districts decided he and his religious fanaticism should be left-behind.
Good riddance this ridiculous clown and really bad actor, except when he plays a religious wing-nut; but that’s not acting, is it?....:)
The librarian at my middle school has had Scholastic book fairs for years. The point of the fairs, in addition to giving students access to many appropriate books, was to raise money for the library...which happened every year.
So, what you're telling me is when he played the dumb son in Growing Pains, he wasn't acting.
Unintelligent and under-educated religious nut-jobs like Cameron will always see their religion as the answer to every question. They never stop trying to shoehorn the universe into their magic book. It's no secret that the religious right would love to replace actual education in this country with religious indoctrination in spite of the fact it is never the job of the public schools to backstop anyone's religion, and our secular government cannot choose one religion over another. These people are doomed to fail in the long run, because their philosophy is intellectually bankrupt. None of which means they can't do a lot of damage on their road to failure.
Lanah Burkhardt, If reading about a "single kiss" led to a life of porn addiction then one has to wonder what else may have triggered it if you didn't read that one book. Would you have witnessed two dogs getting it on and decided to ban pets? Would you have seen your mother wash a cucumber and decide to ban vegetables? How about that electric toothbrush? Would you no longer brush your teeth?
You are a moron if you think you developed a "porn addiction" because you read a book. On top of that it was not that one book that caused you to be "depressed and suicidal", it was your religion. Your religion made you feel like you had dirty thoughts but for many people those thoughts are a Tuesday. We are sexual creatures Ms. Burkhardt. The human race would not have survived if we weren't. Your thoughts are not abnormal but your religion seeks to repress them because they are trying to control you the same way you want to control everyone else.
When I used to go to christian youth conferences, I remember one guy* talking about speaking at a previous event. Each speaker would tell their life story of coming to christ at the lowest point in their life. Then the youth were to break off into groups by selecting the person who's life story most spoke to them. As each speaker talked about their "lives," the stories just got worse and worse. It was a silent game of one-upmanship. He was the second to last, so he really had to work to top everyone. The last guy just told his plain-old boring story, which most of the youth identified with.
These extreme stories that come out - "a illustrated kiss led me to porn**" - remind me of that guy, literally fabricating stories for the sheer sake of climbing Mount Exaggeration. It's like religious Munchausen Syndrome. At least The Four Yorkshiremen is funny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE). These christian attention-seekers bolstering their low self-esteem with genuine faux significance don't actually realize the harm they are causing to people. They have to keep it up to keep the limelight on them. And there's a lot of competition for that limelight.
What can I say? Satanic Panics can't be fueled without fear.
What next? Gay frog? ... Ummm ... Oh. Yeah.
* They were always men, I don't recall a single woman ever guest speaking at these events.
** Oh, and the massive volume of passionate kissing on TV and movies has no affect what-so-ever?
First off, Cameron using the Matrix as a dig at the LGBT community, or Woke as he said, is pretty fucking ironic. Since the Matrix was written by a transgender person about the bigots in conservative world. It’s a shallow interpretation being turned about as a childish response to valid criticism of the right.
Secondly, that shallow interpretation and turn about is exactly what the SkyTree book fair is, as well as all the appropriated Christianized popular culture. Their assessment of what is popular in culture is never very deep, music is just plagarizing a song or genre and throwing god or Jesu wherever they might stick. But they don’t seek to understand why the music struck the right chord. That is why Christian pop culture has no traction outside of the small evangelical Christian bubble. This book fair isn’t going to take off, I doubt they do have 100 confirmed public schools right now anyway, because they do not understand why Scholastic is so popular. There’s more to it than just a bunch of books, or even the marketing for it. Scholastic is great at providing the age appropriate materials, with a variety for skill levels within a grade, plus they account for tastes, and include, as mentioned above, real life experiences and people. The purpose of SkyFairy is to remove all the variety to push an agenda, to ignore the many facets of life and abilities of the children they’re claiming to serve. They might get their claws in a few schools for a while, but the lack of titles and flexibility will turn so many parents off that they will find other ways to get back to Scholastic.
Thirdly, I am a bit concerned because my children’s school district has some very loud right wing voices attacking the school and the local public library and who are also affecting elections that want to ban books under the guise of age appropriateness or keeping porn away from children. When they’re focusing on the same LGBT themes the Moms against any real Liberty push. We’ve had the litterboxes in the bathrooms scare lose us an actual decent school board member. We’ve had the attack on our library claiming the LGBT display during Pride month was grooming children which led to death threats against our librarians. We now have folks claiming that not further disseminating a video of a bully in a bathroom attacking (verbally) a Down’s syndrome child is censorship but they ought to be able to knee jerk remove books from the school they deem inappropriate for all students. I’m fed up with my town and I do not want Kirk Cameron soiling my neighborhood with his lies and indoctrination. But I’m afraid it might be something suggested soon.
Porn addiction? And from a single kiss in a Scholastic book? Seriously? How mentally and emotionally weak do you have to be to become addicted to porn after reading about a single kiss? Is Burkhardt a Christian? Does she have a clue to the content of the bible, especially what's found in Song of Solomon and elsewhere within its pages? What might she become addicted to if she read the bible? Adultery? Incest? Bestiality?
The bible belt is the biggest consumer of porn in the nation. Must be something they read in their holy book that triggered it.
"...𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘴?"
--------------
I do believe you've identified the entire point of the exercise, Hemant. Stoking an interest in reading creates a curious mind, and 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 minds are precisely what the wingnuts need more of. Their 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 goal may be to stop kids from reading books which might broaden their horizons, affirm their identities, or help them understand abstract ideas... but their 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 goal is to stop kids from reading so much, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥. A person kept from reading 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯 content in youth might go on to find it on a shelf in adulthood, when they've escaped their parents' and pastors' control, and read it anyway; someone whose entire passion for reading has been smothered in its infancy might never pick up a book again.
New titles to look forward to:
"A Christian Child's Guide to the Solar System."
"Fido the Faithful Dog."
"How to Get Anywhere by Always Turning Right."
"Timmy the Very Macho Boy."
"How to Think Like a Christian" (a pictures-only book)
"If You Pray It'll Be Okay." (a rhyming book)
"Christina and the Bad Thought"
"Yes, Yes, It's Absolutely True"
"How You Feel is What is Real"
"Andy and Andrea, the Aardvarks on the Ark"
“SkyTree, named after a place in Brave Books’ imaginary universe of Freedom Island...”
Guys I don’t think we’re focusing enough attention on the fact that they build an imaginary universe and the best idea they could come up with for a name is fucking Freedom Island.
It seems as though Cameron and his evangelical brethren cannot do anything without being surreptitious, underhanded, and anything but open and above-board. Then, too, this has been his and his associates' modus operandi for roughly as long as I've been aware of him.
The usual problem is that, while WE are aware of Cameron's predilections, the average citizen isn't, and they might see SkyTree as just one more book fair with little or nothing to set it apart from Scholastic Book Fair's efforts. Obviously, understanding the difference requires looking BELOW the surface, in order to see Cameron's intent.
How many parents will make that effort? Therein lies the rub.
"With over 1,000 books to choose from, it’s not hard to find content that some parents will object to."
“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” ― Jo Godwin
You know where to find me.
I loved Scolastic book fairs as a kid. I’d be so excited to get their lists and pore through the possibilities. My mom never said no.
Kirk Cameron is no Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison nor Eric Carle (if you know children’s authors). I wonder how often his books are remaindered?
The reason why these Evangelical kids books are shit is the same reason Evangelical movies are shit. They aren’t art; they’re propaganda sermons.
It IS possible to produce good art that incorporates Christian theme. Books like The Brothers Karamazov, Flannery O’Conner’s stories, and A Wrinkle in Time. Movies like Tender Mercies, Chariots of Fire, and A Place in the Heart. The difference is that art allows for moral ambiguity. It doesn’t shy from dark themes. It doesn’t lecture you on what the answers are.
This other shit is just a more glossy update on the old cheap paper Bible tracts. Like those paper tracts, this stuff will be quickly tossed aside and forgotten.
Question: Why are books at the SKyTree Book Fair printed with white ink.
Answer: Because black characters aren't allowed.
After his show “Growing Pains was canceled, he moved on to making dough, peddling religious themed TV shows and movies that went straight to DVD.
I’d say he’s a failed actor, but like all these religious wing-nuts; they always have a grift to pawn off on their ignorant and easily manipulated flock.
Isn’t he famous for his “Left Behind” series? Fortunately, most school districts decided he and his religious fanaticism should be left-behind.
Good riddance this ridiculous clown and really bad actor, except when he plays a religious wing-nut; but that’s not acting, is it?....:)
The librarian at my middle school has had Scholastic book fairs for years. The point of the fairs, in addition to giving students access to many appropriate books, was to raise money for the library...which happened every year.