Theft or civil disobedience? 16 volumes go missing after Shelbyville church urges members to check out, never return library books about LGBTQ+ people
A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.
Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, says the action is tantamount to “stealing.”
But three leaders of the Reformation Church of Shelbyville defend what they call an “act of civil disobedience.”
https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/08/18/theft-or-civil-disobedience/Open linkView original on lemmy.world499
Comments179
I wonder how long it would take for them to cry foul if a group did the same thing for all of the Christian-themed books in the libraries...
Only one way to find out.
That's the spirit!
They wouldn't give a shit if the library burnt down.
I mean, they open their doors every week to allow all who want to worship with them to enter into their space and share resources. Most places have prayer books and hymnals just laying around for all to use. Those items certainly wouldn't be expected to "walk away" typically, but it sure would be inconvenient for the churchgoers of that establishment if that were to start happening, I'd imagine. And the staff would have to replenish volumes to ensure they have enough on-hand. Every single week, this happens. If it's the church causing the pain that happens to start wondering where all the spare books went, that's gonna be a bigger statement than the library books going missing. Guess who will be happy to provide a general summary of all the info that suddenly disappeared from the libraries? If you guessed The Church Spoken Of Earlier, you see where I'm going...
The library might not be the target you are seeking, is all I'm saying. They are usually staffed by very nice and nerdy people with small budgets and a desire to help their communities have equitable access to information.
Are you saying I should take those bibles from the Jackasses that stand in front of my university science building doors every semester? Maybe ask for the whole box? I wonder if bibles are recyclable lol
The thin pages sure do make a nice tinder for the campfire.
You mean rolling papers?
You don’t want to smoke the ink
Speak for yourself
But then how will I feel the Holy Spirit inside of me?
cough cough
And toilet paper.
I've seen them used more often as rolling papers.
Can confirm they work great for this purpose.
Absolutely. As many as possible. Then bin em.
Yeah, but that would require actually going into a church on a regular basis.
Headphones and watch videos? Plus a lot of them have juice, coffee and snacks!
The difference is that the church would just pass the credit card reader around and get all new bibles every week. And they can throw in a little underage hooker for the priest, as a treat
And who gives that money? The people that support the church. Who doesn't pay that money? The tax payers who already bought books once for the library. That's the real difference. Instead of everyone footing the bill for this nonsense, imagine a world where the problem is mitigated with ONE EASY TRICK.
Edit to add: stealing from the library is just an ugly move, that's all I'm saying. Libraries are learning institutions.
No, the church supporters take a tax deduction that leads to everyone still footing the bill.
Theft and destruction of books is bad, period. Even fucking mein kampf should be allowed to exist (with context).
But if the goal is to actually make it go away? Churches will just fleece Those People and The People Who Don't Want To Antagonize Those People.
Good. Make them spend more money.
I've worked in libraries and this isn't a new tactic. The funny thing to me is that the library will almost always rebuy the missing book unless they were planning on removing it anyway, so the net result is a signal to the publishers to print more LGBTQ books.
This is the butterfly flutter that brings about the first trans president and cements the USA as the queerest place on Earth, a country so gay that none dare challenge us.
please dear God I've never asked you for anything before and I'll never ask for anything again but
ICBMs covered in glitter.
ICBMs where the payload is glitter: new war crime unlocked. Glitter will be there for centuries to come
Nuclear disarmament is easy once we have something worse
But biodegradable glitter cause we're not planet-hating monsters!
Not only print more of those books, but exhaust the library's budget for other books.
Heard this?
I hadn't but it's accurate. Weeding it's essential to a good collection. Librarians do not want to keep copies of all books. We aren't archivists.
And exactly where does this administration's reach end where DEI is concerned?
They are already trying to undo same sex marriage.
Even if the librarians and the libraries want to replace the books, if this becomes a widely abused tactic, and the corruption spreads to all mention of Undesirables in anyway the current administration wants to keep expanding their net, the damage will be done
So much for “Thou shalt not steal.”
But then, the most ardent believers do the most cherry picking with The Bible.
Even if they followed JESUS himself, they'd love God and then treat everyone else the way they would want to be treated.
Fake Christians, imho
(I'm an atheist)
There's no hate quite like Christian love.
As an imperfect, trying-my-best Christian, thank you for sticking up for us, outnumbered and doing our best in this dark world whilst getting false-flagged by hate-cults since the beginning.
It's safe to say we genuinely love you for it. <3
Take good care. :)
I recognize that you are out there (hot take, I know)
Nah, these are real Christians. Don't make their fallacious arguments for them.
I know a (very) few who walk the walk.
This are the only ones I would give the benefit of the doubt to
Right. Exactly. When the majority of the people of a religion behave a certain way, that's common trait of the religion. "Not walking the walk" is about as Christian as it gets.
American Evangelicals are not the majority of Christians, even though American exceptionalism makes them view themselves as such
Nope definitely fake. Take your anti-theisitic edgelord nonsense back to r/atheism if you wanna paint people with a broad brush
They need to change the name of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy to "no true Christian" as it makes a lot more sense these days...
You do realize that extremists are louder than the majority of the group right?
I was raised in the group, I am intimately aware of what they believe.
Again. I don't care that you had a wacko creationist church when you were a kid. That's not what most Christians believe
Source: Was also raised Christian and so were most people in Western Countries
Reading the bible, at least the old testament, it's pretty obvious that the commandments generally apply only towards your fellow kin (that is, another devout person of the religion). Everybody else is usually fair game (for example, during war with an outside tribe you could [should] do whatever - murder, rape, kidnap, steal, etc.)
I'd say it's both, but for a hateful and regressive cause that I despise.
Steal the bibles from their pews. Steal the after-service refreshments and give them to the homeless.
This is the Reformation Church of Shelbyville, KY.
It sure would be a shame if the bibles they leave out every day went missing.
Those pews look pretty comfy too.
Yeah, so when you take something that isn't yours and don't give it back. That's theft.
Of course religious freaks are going to create their own reality in which theft isn't theft. They're pros at creating alternate realities when it benefits them.
These are criminals not only committing theft, but also a hate crime.
Not a hate crime, but they could easily stack on criminal conspiracy and solicitation charges.
I get both sides of this not or is a hate crime but they make a good point that it is a crime motivated by hate of a specific people/group. So while the law doesn't have hate theft listed, it does make sense people would argue it is a hate crime
I'm sorry, but stealing a book from a library is not a hate crime, although I get the context and your sentiment. I would say that I'm low-key impressed by their sort of shenanigans as I admire civil disobedience.
It makes me feel like the alternative is to crowdsource some funding, buy all these books back, and... hold the thieves accountable by not allowing them to be lent books until paid or returned. Plus the stupid church people amp up library card holder numbers for funding from local taxes!
Stealing books alone isn't a hate crime.
Targeting specific books because you hate a specific group of people, well maybe there's no hate crime enhancer for theft. But it's motivated by hate, it's a hate crime.
I upvoted this vs. the other comment (yikes). I'm not disagreeing that this is hate motivated and it's a crime... so yah... technically a "hate crime" but it doesn't fit the legal definition and yah there should be consequences, but it's not shooting up a gay bar. My intent wasn't to minimize the hate, but to discuss how to push back against it for what it is...
"Hate crime" is a specific legal term. While unfortunate, the parent commenter is right; stealing books even when motivated by hate is not legally considered a hate crime.
Under federal law, only actions leading to bodily injury or attempts thereof can qualify as hate crimes.
Under Kentucky law (KRS 532.031), criminal mischief is only considered a hate crime if the amount of damage exceeds $500. While the total cost might exceed that, this is counted on a per-offender basis.
Don't get me wrong, it definitely should be considered a hate crime and the legislature should change the law to define this action as a hate crime (even if it is a relatively minor one), but under the current law, it isn't. It's merely criminal mischief in the second degree.
If I were a prosecutor I would be trying to throw the book at these morons though.
yeah I hear you, I was just pointing out that it's motivated by hate. And if it was any sort of violent crime it would have a hate crime enhancer on it.
It's not direct harm, but the intention is to erase queer lives and queer media, that queer people rely on to find their reflection in. Especially if they grow up places where they don't get exposure to other folks like themselves.
It's more than theft. Because intentions matter. But, there's also no legal framework for the prosecution.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think there needs to be an enhancement of some sort that recognises an offence, even if minor, was motivated by hate.
Right now, I associate the words "hate crime" with serious criminal behaviour that results in bodily harm or threats to personal safety or destruction of large amounts of property. I think it might need to stay that way to avoid watering down the term.
Rather, there should probably be a new category called something like "hateful anti-social behaviour" to refer to minor transgressions like stealing the LGBTQ books or things like calling all the LGBTQ people you encounter slurs and other forms of harassment.
I hear you. And honestly we need to be better about using the hate crime enhancer for violent crimes generally.
But, I'd prefer to live in a society that doesn't tolerate hateful criminal behavior. If someone wants to call me a trans slur that sucks, but if someone spray painted hateful slurs on my property, I'd like that to be prosecuted with a more serious consequence than simple vandalism.
And, I have no idea how to frame it so that more violent offenses aren't watered down. But, as I mentioned at the outset, we don't use the enhancer often enough as it is. And maybe if we used it for less violent offenses, with smaller enhancers, we'd normalize using it more generally.
The question I have is whether or not it can be considered censorship by the fact that they're stealing books related to a specific minority group/topic with the intent to censor information about that group.
I think there's a better case to be made there for federal charges.
There it is. Thanks for the sanity check. I swear people go off half cocked if you aren't 100% hive minding. The book theft is absolutely motivated by hatred, intolerance and probably repression against LGBTQ in some misguided attempt to Save the Children ^TM^. I 100% agree they are looking to cause ignorance and indirectly that could lead to a person not getting information that could help them, but it's not permanent damage and certainly caused no direct harm.
I hear you but there's not a court in the land that would uphold book theft as a hate crime. And there are some heinous hate crimes that it would minimize by association (think eye rolling). In my town a guy got nearly destroyed by some drunk bar bros. His face was permanently broken up, he quit work at a friend's place and as far as I know, left the country. That's real hate with real impact And I could get behind considerjng targeted shit like this as hate-motivated crime, but then we need some sort of impact level and I have a feeling the fundies would turn it around to say they are being "hate crimed" when there's a pride parade or some other nonsense....
Hate-by-proxy?
What is their motivation for stealing the library books?
Deyr turning the kids geyyyy!
It's a targeted hate crime against LGBTQ. If you can't see that, you're part of the problem.
tl;dr "hate crime" has a legal definition and these actions don't meet that definition. The definition should probably be updated to include this kind of antisocial behaviour.
Pasting an excerpt from my earlier comment:
Comment sections are not legal documents it's live language.
Why are you trying to apply a legal definition to what is a commonly accepted understanding of the words used?
Stealing these books because to cause hurt and damage to a specific group of people who is hateful. It is emotion and communication, it is not a legal definition that is being used. You are welcome to point out how the legal systems are failing to protect people and the mechanisms, like not including all actions motivated by hate for another person, is kind of missing the point.
Yes it's not a legal argument, but that's not how people actually talk or communicate unless they are specifically trying to speak legalese.
You are using the wrong language(though it could be a dialect instead I suppose)
By all means when someone is claiming it's a legal definition that are taking about, then disabuse then if their error, but don't simply assume "hate-crime" is intended to be anything other than its most literal usage, you can just ask them if they mean that phrase in a legal sense if you suspect that is what they are and or want to do.
otherwise your arguing that hate crimes never happened before they were legislatuted into law. Which is stupid and I don't believe you are stupid
Absolute trash response. STEALING A BOOK is NOT A HATE CRIME and you diminish real hate crimes against my LGBTQ friends and family by acting like it is. I am absolutely NOT part of whatever problem you think I am. Did you even read the comment? Nevermind... I dont' care.
Literally any crime can be a hate crime if it is motivated by hate.
no one is diminishing anything. Because nothing is diminished by recognizing minority cases when they're are major cases involved. They are separate actions that are also hate crimes.
You are using the oppresors arguments against your own allies here. Your outrage is juvenile and misplaced. You should stop attacking your allies if you want to help your friends and family. That's keeping your unknown family and friends, the ones you haven't met yet, from finding you by your needless aggression.
Let me give a reality check here... First, calling me outraged is pretty humorous. Second, it does diminish real hate crime and you make yourself insufferable by saying otherwise.
Winning over the public is an important part in the fight for equity. If you go to your average person and say lynching a person of color with a burned cross on the front yard is a hate crime and then in the same breath say that "stealing hymnals from a predominantly POC congregation" is a hate crime, you're going to lose people. Quickly. Your average mainly conservative who hears this will probably make snide remarks about being Social Justice Warriors or the like. Making distinctions is what we do, words matter, and we have to pick our battles.
Stealing from a library with intent is a crime. Keeping LGBTQ kids from learning more about themselves is certainly hate oriented (and/or repression, ignorance and self-hatred). So by your black and white rules it's technically a hate crime (I don't disagree with the technicality here, BTW and said that in another comment elsewhere). But these are simply not at the same level. The world is nuanced and full of gray. You can get into all the semantics you have above about legal vs. layperson comments, yadda yadda... in the end, in the real world you lose people who could have been allies and your average person DOES speak with legal frames of reference. REAL allies who vote and support when they see heinous crimes called out. If you lash out at every perceived micro aggression and annoyance as one grouped level of hate, in the real world you'll lose your audience because you're saturating them with noise.
I'm not using any oppresor's arguments here. This is simple reality. It holds true across a massive spectrum of life. And you can be as juvenile as you want by sticking to your unthinking dogma "all hate is hate" and meanwhile, you'll erode the good will you have and lose what you could have had if you focused down real damage to those you support. Countering this sort of idiotic bible thumping hatred was the point of my first post, BTW - as in "how can we cheekily make their annoying and stupid hate turn against them" because it's a minor infraction. It still bears paying attention to (which ultimately is probably what you're trying to convey?) but it doesn't bear the same level of language or response. Simple as that.
P.S., I plan on running this conversation by some friends who happen to be a gay married couple and expect some giggles at both the original theft and your naivete. And I'm utterly unconcerned that someone won't find me and ask for my support because of this. You know why? I make it clear who I support and what I do through my actions. In fact, I would support them and tell them to pick their battles and choose their words carefully so they can have a positive impact.
That's a lot of words for someone who wasnt showing outrage.
That's a complete lack of argument for someone who didn't have a good one.
Sue the church for damages, both physical and mental. It should cost them a lot to promote bigotry and hate.
The library will just bill them after a year. What idiots.
And then ban the people from the library.
they would find out if they could read
If they could read, they probably wouldn't be so bigoted and angry about books
Most libraries wolnt let you check out more if you have overdue books. Also fairly certain it dings your credit if they sell the debt.
But if three or more of them are doing it, then it's criminal gang activity. If one of them sold the books and donated the money to the church, the pastor could be charged with a class c felony.
Yeah but it's a year. They consider that a win.
Imagine doing shit like this and thinking history will remember you fondly.
“Are we the baddies?”
Shocked by this. The pastor seems like a great guy with totally normal opinions.
Sounds like they're this far --><-- away from honor killing their daughters.
Yeah.... totally stable genus
What is with racists not understanding that their mixed race grandkids would probably look like their mixed race grandkids‽
I like how his handle is named after unstable material that is fun to watch violently explode when it's bothered enough.
Civil disobedience often comes with the cost of breaking the law and enduring the consequences.
You may not agree with their non violent protest but as long as they suffer the consequences, I'm okay with it.
Just tell me where to donate to replace the books so they can accrue more punishment.
The way to fight this is easy. Offer to buy new library copies. Eventually they'll run out of people without overdue books.
Burning or disposing of the books will also generate bad press because it associates them with their kindred spirits: Nazis and church censors.
I was gonna say start taking pews out of their church until the books come back, but buying new books works, too.
Or just hang around till the offering plate comes by and then help yourself to money to rebuy books.
I'm not sure what the "or" is for. Acts of civil disobedience are generally illegal or close to it. This is theft and civil disobedience, though not one I agree with (nor do I think it would be particularly effective, tbh). But something being civil disobedience doesn't make it not illegal or not wrong it's just the reasoning behind doing it.
I think they are saying that civil disobedience is seperate from criminal disobedience. Which theft is criminal.
So protesting by standing on the sidewalk, civil disobedience; protesting in the middle of the street in a place with laws against, would be criminal disobedience.
In this case theft was clearly criminal.
Civil disobedience is a peaceful way to protest unfair laws when the regular methods of changing the law are too restricted or too slow to protect the civil rights of citizens. Civil disobedience in this case would be refusing to check out or read books that they find objectionable, if the government were to mandate that they be read.
You could make the argument that government is mandating this content if public schools assign it to students, but there is no real punishment under the law for rejecting a school assignment. It’s that they don’t want YOU to have access to this information, which is the opposite of civil disobedience: oppression. If the government were to mandate the removal of this content, as these citizens would like, the act of disobedience would be to read the books.
This is stealing from a public library.
This is the best description I've seen yet. It's censorship at best and criminal imho.
Go to their church, and borrow money from the collection tray without returning it
The religious.... Always willing to break the law
And always willing to punosh others with it.
This ultimately just leads to more sales of the book they hate when the library has to replace it.
And being convicted of 34 felonies ultimately leads to jail time, and not being allowed to cross state lines but that hasn't stopped Donald before and after he became the president of the United States from avoiding those penalties....
That's theft. There's nothing CIVIL about trying to erase the presence of a particular group of people from society ...
No theft is cool. This is religious censorship and the precursor to an extermination campaign. They'll kill us if we dont stop them.
How is theft from public institutions, which keep getting funding cuts, considered cool?
Replied to wrong comment?
Nope.
It's a direct response to what you said. Not sure why you would think otherwise.
It does not seem to follow or engage with what i was saying.
You: No theft is cool.
Me: How is theft cool?
You: how is this related to what I said?
Are you illiterate?
I was ae&<ing that this is not th... Never mind, sure, yes, i hate libraries and kittens.
Hope they enjoy their item replacement fees and collection agency reports, and not being able to use the library at all 'til all of that is resolved (no matter how much a fit they throw when they can't use the printers.) They'll still pay for the material with their taxes. They're paying for public unbiased access to information either way. We'll serve LGBTQIA+ books the same way we serve faith books the same way we serve Bill O'Reilly's slop and tomes of questionable fad diets and endless ghostwritten hackjob murder mysteries. For free. For everyone.
Their loss if they wanna stay dumb and mad.
Pretty sure God's not big on stealing stuff that ain't yours, too. These "churches" are cults of lost, confused, angry children, and I pray they find their brains somewhere along the way.
Thanks for supporting your local libraries, especially as we're under siege from so many angles every single day.
---With love, a library employee (also a Christian)
Shame on you.
Yes, I can tell you don't value them, or the hard work of librarians and enrichment of other readers.
Chill yourself. A stranger online disapproves of your actions and said something to try and get you to change your behavior. Take the L and give their books back.
Return them. Give someone else the chance to enjoy them too.
My library doesn't charge late fees for children's books, but does for other books.
Bruh.
Bill them fees. Then take them to court when they don't pay and if they do pay use the money to buy more of the books. These are fools that are used to being milked like cattle...use it for good.
Not if. Heil hydra, replace each stolen copy with two more.
This would be a good charity that sees what books have been missing, buy them and just drop them in the library return box. Also, picket that church and dig into the pastor's dealings with their community. I bet they have secrets.
There are two groups here. One wants to be allowed to live their lives in peace and one wants to control you. The press and the ones that want to control you you have twisted it and it’s infuriating.
Cause the press is afraid of not being able to talk to the ones that want to control you, So they double up by covering up/slanting stories that are critical of the controllers while punching down at everyone else..
Then, like good dogs, they look up at the controllers, panting and satisfied with themselves, begging for masters affection.
If it's religious, yeah, it's theft. These assholes happily break every commandments they have "in the name of Christ"
Why is it always always the religious that really truly fuck everyone else over?
I'm at the point where if someone claims to be religious that I'm just assuming they'll rape their children because chances are big that they do.
It takes religion to make a good man do terrible deeds.
Mankind will never be free until the last politician is strangled with the robes of the last priest
Mankind will never be free until the last politician is strangled with the
robesentrails of the last priestYou're right, I went from memory and got it wrong
I figured you just saw some sanitized version somewhere. I remember getting called psychotic for posting that quote in the other place.
I should put that on a tshirt.
Theft, plain and simple. The only hope is that they actually read those books and learn something.
Maybe the library should raise and enforce their late-return-fees...
It's also a criminal conspiracy.
We can only hope the judge sees it as such, too.
So if I steal a song book from a church that is okay with them. Right?
Just send a bill to the church for the books. If they don't pay, you sue them.
Charge them late fees and use the funds to buy more copies. Make them required to have a debit card on file in order to check out more if they have more than 5 late books.
Typical Shelbyville.
This is what inbred cousin marriage does to a town.
Wow these LGBT books are flying off the shelves! We should buy a lot more of them!
Uhh so if somebody did the same for books about conversion therapy? Would they still consider it civil disobedience or does that become an attack on "freedom of religion."
I think it would be funnier to checkout copies of the bible and highlight ezekiel 23:20 before returning it.
If you ever come across one of those Gideon bibles in a hotel or similar, do similar.
Gideons actually encourages people to take those bibles, giving away Bibles is kind of their whole schtick.
Sure, if enough people do it, maybe eventually the idiots donating to it will run out of money, but more likely they'd just think that what they're doing is working really well and use brag about it to get even more people to donate to them.
That's why you take it and throw it in the trash (somewhere else).
Steal the Book of Mormons from the Marriott hotels too lol
Replace it with a Quoran. It's basically the same thing.
Might as well. Never read it myself. I might eventually
Or even in a backwoods Kentucky church, perhaps.
Stealing from a library should be a deadly sin like kicking a puppy or pineapple on a pizza.
It's a fucked up state of affairs when people think putting pineapple on a pizza is worse than putting the secretions and flesh of vulnerable individuals who suffered cruelty and violence under atrocity on a pizza.
Look, if you weee to torture me for a couple years make sausage out of me then eat it, i might be annoyed.
If you were to make it trash wiyh pineapple, i would definitely be annoyed.
Copium disguised as humour.
Are you one of those people who tjinks you shouldn't joke about horrible shit just because it's horrible, but also cannot handle being in any way not a good person? Because im neither thing.
These dumbfucks need real hobbies.
Too many people don’t have a life. I keep getting stalked by a neighbor because I smoke weed when I walk the dog at night. I got the weed 5 minutes away from home at a new dispensary… they don’t have a personality besides oppressing others.
It’s not civil disobedience if the root of the action is hate. It’s just expressions of hate and repression
It's demesric religious terrorism, not civil disobedience
Can't it be both? No one ever said that civil disobedience is without consequences. The consequences here are that the people who stole the books have to pay for a new one and aren't able to check out any more books. All they managed to do is take it out of the library's collection for a little bit and increase the book's sales by one.
I mean, the consequence is generally not being allowed to checkout more books.
It’s not even considered petty larceny.
It would be hilarious if you were able to sum everything up and roll it into a RICO or something. I just don’t think it would hold up.
Intent matters. Losing a book isn't theft. Checking one out with intent to keep it is. Normally this would be very hard to prove, in this case it's not.
And yeah, if one of the members of the congregation did this and then sold the books. And then donated that back to the church, the pastor could be charged for running a criminal syndicate which is a class c felony in Kentucky.
But I would be really surprised if a Kentucky jury would allow the charges to stick. Even if a DA was willing to try and prosecute
Civil disobedience and "petty crime" aren't mutually exclusive. It is integral to civil disobedience that laws are broken. Also there is probably a difficulty and lots of legal debate about when violating a civil contract, borrowing an item for a specified time, becomes theft of the item by not returning it.
I think non of these should be the question here though. It is simply a dick move.
Uncivil disobedience
Nah, don't give em an inch. Theft of property is, by it's very nature, a criminal act. Absolutely does not qualify as civil disobedience in any way. Worse it perverts the meaning of that term.
Civil disobedience is criminal by definition. It's breaking laws with the intention of making society more moral or just (in your own view).
But I agree, the pastor is perverting the term. Because he's acting as if they are mutually exclusive in order to evade consequences.
This tracks as shelbyville always advocated for cousin marriage, leading to the eventual rift with Jebediah Springfield.
Charge them for the full replacement value of the book, and then replace the book with 3 copies.
Don't forget the late fees. So late fees + full replacement value, to easily fund the 3 copies.
I didn't really read this, but it might not be that simple.
Most libraries will actually let you check out books "indefinitely," as long as you come back and renew every once in awhile.
If this church is splitting up checking out these books among different members, then it would be very difficult for a library to properly detect and enforce restrictions on them.
Even if the library could identify these people and put methods in place to stop them from what they're doing, it would still be a hassle and the church could be happy with just inconveniencing the 'liberal' library.
Shelbyville? Seriously?
If I had fuck you money, I would just put a dump-truck load of LGBTQ+ themed books in front of their church entrances.
There's a nice wall over there perhaps some of these people would like to lean on it. And then I have these exciting pieces of lead I wish to introduce them to
That's actually really funny.
I can't believe what goes through these people's minds.
It's usually in the eye of the beholder I suppose. To this beholder I would say that civil disobedience implies resistance to an unjust law. Is this an unjust law? I don't see any. I don't even see a law they're objecting too. I see them trying to remove books because they hate people that are different from them. They want to erase people from existence they don't like. So no that's not civil disobedience. That's just the same horrendous despicable vile heinous hatred that these people do and have done for the better part of 2,000 years.
Nuke the nazis from orbit
It's the only way to be sure.
There is a proverb in germany, that germans would still buy a train ticket to attend/travel to a riot/revolution.
This is as funny, just that it's actually happening.
Looks like those topics are incredibly popular! Replace the missing volumes and expand the section!