What’s next? “Mommy and Daddy Hate Foreigners”?
What do quadriplegics and the christian right have in common? They can’t draw. At least that’s the lesson I’m taking from reason #79 not to shop at Walmart: they’ve decided to carry Janice Barrett Graham’s latest kid’s book, Chased by an Elephant.
And while I’ll admit, I doubt my reading tastes coincide with the typical Walmart shopper’s, the fact that they’ll sell a homophobic children’s book is, well, bullshit.
Now, before you get all Fahrenheit 451 on my ass and claim I support censorship, consider the following.
One, would Walmart carry a kid’s book published by the KKK?
And two, this is the same store that refuses to sell certain records if they don’t meet Walmart’s decency standards. So while Walmart protects teens from the latest Kayne West (and I admit, I think we all could use a little protection from Kayne West), they will sell hate to children.
Nice one.
Which makes the illustration quality of this book all the more appropriate. That cover is barely one-step removed from clip-art.
And the title? It makes Heather Has Two Mommies sound poetic.
Read on…..
Walmart Carrying Anti-Gay Book for Children
QSaltLake Staff | Oct 07, 2010 | Comments 11
A children’s book written by the wife of anti-gay Standard of Liberty president Stephen Graham is being carried by over 100 Walmart stores. Chased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today’s Stampeding Sexuality by Janice Barrett Graham was written to “help shed the clear light of truth on today’s dark and tangled ideas about male and female, proper gender roles, the law of chastity, and the God-given sexual appetite,” according to Janice Graham in the book’s introduction.
“The number of our young people involved in sexual sins has greatly increased in recent years. Some of the most stalwart-seeming youth find themselves involved in pornography, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and the like,” Janice continued.
According to the Standards of Liberty Web site, the book is available at 104 Walmart stores in the Intermountain West, the Brigham Young University bookstore, and through its sister sites.
“This charming, unique, and important book is a must-read for leaders and parents to use as they see fit that stunningly and resoundingly echos the truths and warnings presented in President Boyd K. Packer’s conference talk this past Sunday,” the announcement said. “For the sake of our children and youth, we can no longer afford to be silent on this topic. Given the licentious world around them, they need to be purposely taught the correct information and attitudes concerning human sexuality and God’s law of chastity.”
ha! Here’s a choice review from Amazon. Sounds like a page-turner:
A peculiar book for peculiar people,
19 Oct 2010 By Alan Hansen “man of tofu and limes”
A moving story of a mother who struggles with delusional feelings about sexuality and religion, and the son who is unable to help her overcome them (probably because his psycho mother is intent on making him hate himself). I’m not quite sure where the elephant comes in, because by that point I didn’t know whether to laugh or vomit.