In 1989 strange things began to happen in these United States. Musicians and music store owners were charged with crimes for singing songs or selling tapes and records. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution condemning a major museum for permitting a display that "encourages disrespect for the flag." The federal arts funding agency was accused of blasphemy for assisting artists whose work dealt with religious themes. And so "censorship" became a key word in political debate. In Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy, the founding director of the ACLU Arts Censorship Project discusses the most hotly contested censorship issues.
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Editorial Reviews
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Censorship has been perpetrated in the name of religion and morality (blasphemy and book banning), in the name of decency (public nudity and obscenity), and in the name of protecting women (pornography). Artistic expression has been one of its primary casualties, and so has attention to the real social issues that lead to breakdowns in our society. Delving into a variety of instances of censorship, Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy discloses the ultimate casualty of censorship: freedom, especially for marginalized groups like women and minorities. It is rich with examples that are both chilling and pointed. This is an excellent resource for enabling all of us to reexamine our own knee-jerk responses to censorship, and to ask ourselves where the real danger lies and what we stand to lose. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Ilene Rosoff
With great courage and skill, Marjorie Heins has kept the First Amendment and cultural freedom alive in America today. Her book shows why she deserves a major chapter when the next history of the First Amendment gets written. -- Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor, Rutgers University
With great courage and skill, Marjorie Heins has kept the First Amendment and cultural freedom alive in America today. Her book shows why she deserves a major chapter when the next history of the First Amendment gets written. -- Catharine R. Stimpson, University Professor, Rutgers University
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
If words and pictures are to be blamed for the behavior of unstable individuals, we might as well start by outlawing the Bible. That good book has probably been cited as inspiration or justification for crime more frequently than any other text in Western history, from the inquisitions, witch-burnings, and pogoms of earlier eras to child abuse and ritual murders today. As one writer puts it, "If the state can ban pornography because it "causes" violence against women, it can also ban The Wretched of the Earth because it causes revolution, Gay Community News because it causes homosexuality, Steal This Book because it causes thievery, and The Feminine Mystique because it causes divorce."
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1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
REPUBLICAN FORCED MORALITY!,
By B. NASKI "Bamboo" (earth) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America's Censorship Wars (Paperback)
THIS BOOK WAS THE RESULT OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WHO FOUND OUT THAT BY PANDERING TO THE CHRISTIANS FOR THIER VOTE, WOULD PUT THEM IN POWER, AND THEN ALLOWED THEM ACCESS TO THE BACK DOOR OF THE WHITEHOUSE, TO MOLEST OUR YOUNG CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS!IT WAS REGAN , MABY NIXON, WITH MCCARTHY'S RANT ON THE COMMUNISTS, I FEEL, MABY IT WAS THAT COMMUNISTS WERE ATHEISTS, WAS MORE IMPORTANT ? REGAN LET IN MAINSTREAM CHRISTIANITY, LIKE CONSTANTINE, IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE! REGAN PUT IN AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, ED MEESE, WHO AS ATTORNEY GENERAL WENT AFTER THE ISSUES OF CHRISTIAN'S RATHER THAN DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION, REALLY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, TOPLESS SEAS WOMEN, THAT IS REAL PARONIOD! THE REPUBLICANS THROUGH BUSH SR. AND ESPECIALLY BUSH JR. SHOW HOW SYMBOTICALLY THE REPUBLICANS AND EVANGILICALS WORKED TO TRY TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE, USING FEARS AND RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMING SIMILAR TO ORWELLS 1984! OUR COUNTRY HASNT BEEN THE SAME SINCE THE GOVERNMENT IN ITS QUEST TO TOTALLY CONTROL THE MASSES, BROUGHT BACK HITLER'S PHYSOLIGICAL CONTROL THE GERMAN GOBELLS FRUEDIAN CONTROLLERS, AND STARTED TO USE THEM ON THE MASSES HERE IN THE USA A FEW YEARS AFTER, I THINK MUCH OF THE PROBLEUMS WE FACE HERE IN THE USA IS THE RESULT OF THESE LAST 60 YRS OF TRYING TO CONTROL THE MASSES, THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST! THIS BOOK GIVES ONE SOME KNOWLEDGE ON HOW RELIGION CONTROLS THE MASSES ADDICTED TO ITS PROMISES, WITH THE GOVERNMENT ENFORCING MORALILTY! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE THAT CAN THINK FOR THEMSELVES, AND WHOSE MIND IS NOT CAUGHT UP IN FANTASY WORLDS AND OLD ANCIENT IDEALS, TAKE OFF THOSE ROSE COLLORED GLASSES AND TRY NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD FOR WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK IT IS!
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