GLR November-December 2022

vatism, was a holdout in this respect. Singapore is probably the closest thing we have on earth to Plato’s Republic : a city-state whose avowedly benevolent, albeit dictatorial, government reg ulates every aspect of social life to achieve the ultimate in order and harmony. It’s the dream of Jeremy “greatest good for the greatest number” Bentham and various utopian novels on up to B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two , which imagines a republic of opti mal outcomes through the rational control of behavior. Singa pore clearly aspires to be such a utopia, so when it outlaws gum-chewing or swearing in public, it’s only to ensure that no one is offended or likely to step in a wad of Wrigleys. It is what U.S. conservatives would call the ultimate “nanny state.” Thus we can be sure that if Singapore repealed 377, it was all in the interest of the greater good. But Plato already knew that. The extremism of the religious Right has gone so far that its proponents are running up against an inconvenient obstacle: the Bible itself. Two recent examples with an LGBT theme: MakingOur Case The American FamilyAssociation has come out swinging against Christians who aren’t sufficiently anti-gay and all but admitted that the trouble with these groups is that they’re adhering to a biblical version of Christianity rather than the intolerant one that they prefer. The AFA, which is officially listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is sued a warning about what they called “gay Christianity” and provided a handy list of statements to watch out for, such as: “Jesus never mentioned homosexuality even once”; “The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is about inhospitality and greed, not homosexuality”; “The Bible doesn’t say anything about sexual orientation.” What’s odd is that these are all true statements, and the AFA makes no attempt to refute them. They even pro duced a 2.5-minute video that consists mostly of LGBT people expounding on the biblical case for gay equality. Of course, the AFA is presenting these views as something to be shunned. Ap parently the goal is to alert the flock pre-emptively to any bib lical passages that could be interpreted as supporting LGBT rights, or human rights in general. Pay no attention to those pas sages that preach tolerance and equality; move along! Banning Books Is Bottomless A school district in Texas ac tually banned the Bible itself for a time—along with Toni Mor rison’s The Bluest Eye , The Diary of Anne Frank , and many other titles that were found to be in violation of the Keller dis trict’s guidelines on sex and violence. The Bible was banned for its “sexual content, violence, including rape, murder, human sacrifice,” and so on. Some of the 41 banned books were later reinstated, but the point was made: any book is fair game if you look hard enough for something to be offended by, including the very book whose religious teachings these school boards are ostensibly trying to uphold. Needless to add, the book-banning effort in Keller is part of a movement in red states across the U.S., and the resonance with past episodes of book-banning is obvious. Today such bans are a largely sym bolic gesture, since kids find out about sex and gender on the Internet and not at the library. But it has always been about the symbolism. What the Nazis were saying when burning whole libraries was: “If we can burn your books, we can burn you.” And that’s a sobering message in any age. November–December 2022

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