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SF-LIT  August 1997

SF-LIT August 1997

Subject:

Re: Corruption of American youth

From:

"Craig A. Loewen" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Science Fiction and Fantasy Listserv <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Mon, 25 Aug 1997 14:06:14 -0400

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (58 lines)

> The decline in American pride, patriotism, and piety can be directly
>  attributed to the extensive reading of so-called 'science fiction' by
>  our young people. This poisonous rot about creatures not of God's
>  making, societies of 'aliens' without a good Christian among them, and
>  raw sex between unhuman beings with three heads and God alone knows
>  what sort of reproductive apparatus keeps our young people from
>  realizing the true will of God.
>      [Jerry Falwell, "Can Our Young People Find God in the Pages of
>  Trashy Magazines? No, Of Course Not!" Reader's Digest, Aug. 1985:
> 142-157]

        As a member of the clergy who keeps a partially-jaundiced eye on
the literature of the Christian Right, and a reader of the  Reader�s
Digest since I was a child (my only shame!), I read the above quote with
interest sensing immediately it was bogus:
1)  The title was too long for Reader�s Digest,
2)  The article was too long for Reader�s Digest (15 pages!),
3)  There is no such word as "unhuman,"
4)  though conservative in thought and politics the Digest would never
publish an article that holds an inclusive religious view, and
5)  it sounded too much of a caricature of Falwell�s philosophy as well
as his writing style.

        So, this morning I went to the public library in Gettysburg and
did a periodical search with the assistance of the librarian. Sigh. There
was not one article listed as written by Falwell in 1985, though I did
find a baker�s dozen attacking him. Sorry, my friends, but IMHO we�ve
been snookered by a  literary equivilent of an urban legend.

        By the bye, this note is NOT an attack on anybody who reported or
commented on this quote. In the late '70�s it was my turn to misquote a
well-known individual (and mispronounce his name at the same time), but I
did it in a sermon in front of a large congregation composed mostly of
Shippensburg College (now University) professors and students. The
resulting firestorm was the best lesson I have ever learned in
double-checking my sources.

>Why don't we all pitch in and send Falwell a stack of science
fiction/fantasy
>books that don't include any aliens or unhuman beings with three heads,
but
>are guaranteed to keep our young people from realizing Falwell's idea of
God?

        I recommend a better idea. Though not a member of the Christian
Right, my theology is orthodox and conservative enough to raise the ire
of a small percentage of the readers of this listserve. If you will send
me your first edition Asimovs and autographed Heinleins, I will send you
in return a frameable handwritten note on official church stationary
espousing shock and indignation which you can show to your friends and
family in smug satisfaction. I am also in need of being enraged by
Stapledon�s _Sirius_ (I lost my copy during my last move) and I promise
to be wonderfully mortified at any hardback editions of Susan Cooper�s
_The Dark Is Rising_ series.   ;-)

The Rev. Craig A. Loewen   ><>
Gettysburg, PA

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