A children's book written by the wife of anti-gay Standard of Liberty President Stephen Graham is being sold by over 100 Walmart stores. The book, Chased By An Elephant; The Gospel Truth About Today's Stampeding Sexuality, is a children's picture book that is anti-gay.
Janice Barrett Graham wrote the book saying it was 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 Truth Wins Out comments on the page are giving negative reviews to the book.
But the Grahams think this book can help change people and protect them from sin. They claim that their son, Andrew, was gay and successfully changed his sexual orientation and is now a happily married man.
Is this appropriate children's literature? Is it Christian to be anti-gay when Christians should not pass judgment on others?
Photo Credit: Truth Wins Out.
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 59
Maybe ... maybe not.
But your question leads to the typical reasoning behind providing the kind of book list I linked to and making sure that type of book gets into the hands of elementary school children; as a preventive for bullying and (as a book for which Kevin Jennings himself wrote the endorsement refers to it) as a vehicle for Queering Elementary Education
So, does the '..Elephant' type book "encourage bullies to pick on gay teens?" I don't know.
But whatever the answer to that one is, we are then led to ask another similar question.
Does this type of book encourage them to NOT pick on gay teens? When you get to that link, scroll down just past this warning to see the type of book to which I refer:
Hmmm... in fact, one in particular from, "Passages of Pride," sounds very familiar indeed. It's about a 15 year old boy sneeking out for a "relationship" with a man almost . . . twice ... his ... age ... hmmm....Can anyone say "Brewster"?
J. McDole - Pundit, shmundit. Oct 9, 2010, 8:46pm EDT
Really? We can't teach sex-ed, but Wal-Mart can sell an anti-gay children's book? WTH?
*I'd* hold off on any more of that until teachers start policing themselves a bit better than they have been recently.
What I mean is our "teachers" ... and I use the word lightly because many of them are having trouble living up to the idea of the high standards that fine career evokes ... many of our teachers have already been a bit too enthusiastic about teaching sex ed.
Teachers such as the one I spoke of previously.
And check out Keri Anne Brekne who assaulted a female student of hers in 2009. See here, as well as here.
Then there is Stanley Vickers.
In fact, they are only three of too many to name around the country, only three examples out of too many teachers who are fast becoming as well known, and are giving their profession (whatever these particular teachers think that is at any given moment) ... they are giving themselves and the teaching profession a similar reputation as the Catholic church and particular priests with the same predilections.
As a result I don't trust schools or teachers much anymore with English, Math, and History much less with this sensitive, personal, and sometimes dangerous subject.
J. McDole - Pundit, shmundit. Oct 9, 2010, 8:46pm EDT
Really? We can't teach sex-ed, but Wal-Mart can sell an anti-gay children's book? WTH?
This offends me, how about you? Excerpted from this Gather page:And if our "Safe" school czar and his buds have their way they will be, or already are, on school library shelves in elementary and high schools.
Sick and overstimulated? teachers (with the default encouragement from Principals and School Admins, and unions) are already allowing themselves as well as children to act out in weird and nasty ways ... And it's happening more and more. These kinds of books that are supposed to help curtail "bullying" are nothing more than legal kiddie porn and will further exacerbate a growing dangerous problem in our schools.
If "Chased by an Elephant" offends you all, I do hope you are just as offended at these other . . . more nose-wrinkling books. +shaking head+
I agree ... but is Chased by an Elephant really at an actual extreme end? Is it really at the same level of extreme as "Queer 13" is (from a GLSEN list for 7-12 graders)? --In which at one point a 13 year-old describes some of his "adventures" in a way that, were it a hetero book involving real children, it would be banned and/ or at the very least the compiler would be given a good going over (as in searching files and comp discs and looking and watching his/her activities and 'interviewing' at some length his/her friends and associates)..
I would have to say that I wouldn't mind a book promoting Christian based marriages but I do not think they need to be anti-gay. I think promoting a heterosexual relationship is enough, especially for children.
#whatsongather
It does seem funny that the publisher decided to use an elephant. Perhaps it's symbolic of repressed homosexuality among members of the GOP?
Oh, and the first search result on Google for "Chased by an Elephant" is for a decidedly non-religious theatre company: http://www.chasedbyanelephant.com/index.html :)
As to my opinion about the book, well, it is a Mormon book, and their theology is sort of a spin-off version of Christianity, anyway, so, um, yeah. I don't think the authors speak for mainstream Christianity at all.
Still, while it is only distributed in a small number of stores, when you consider that, let's see, Glenn Beck is Mormon and he is for some reason respected by the legion of folks who seem to find FoxNews credible, this sort of thing may spread even further than it normally would or even should, finding its way into the hands of folks who would never consider picking up a Mormon book.
I think it's a way for the LDS to proselytize to mainstream Christians who would never touch anything Mormon, by playing on the current fear of "Gay-ness."
Does that make sense? I may be a little rambly here. It's been a long day.
The books aimed at the younger children are entirely non-explicit, unless you think boys knitting is somehow "weird and nasty."
I'm all for sharing information and concerns, but you can do it without fear-mongering.
Cheers!
Appropriate? Some of the content isn't appropriate for you or for me ... none of it is appropriate for children ... even teenagers ... to be reading about other children. However, I can see how a pervert might find some of this stuff very good fodder for a rather well rounded fantasy life.
Hmm . . . I have to tell you that what you say here, and what I know it says on the web site, confuses me.
The reason for that is because every single time I've questioned the reasons for graphic sex ed (however "age appropriate" the touters say it is) or for this kind (or the milder kind at the below 7th grade level) of gay education and endorsement by the "safe school czar', the answer is usually that it is for the protection of children. To give them tools to be able to stay safe.
My first response is usually along the lines of, "huh?"
And then afterward, my response is that that is my job. It's my job to educate them about this stuff and the dangers of the world in regard to it when and if I think they are ready, in my own time, in my own way.
Then without fail I'm told something along these lines ... 'Well, so many parents are bad parents, so many don't want to or are inadeqate for the job, and/or if parents would do their jobs, if parents were educated, if parents would make good decisions, if parents weren't so yaddayadda, or if parents were more yadda yadda then we wouldn't have to do this or teach that or make that available without parental consent.
And then something like this happens ... a disclaimer which confuses the situation; these "necessary" and wonderful books ... these oh so educational tools and helps that will most certainly fend off school bullying and eventually make alll children safer ... well, we leave it up to those very same bozo neglectful stupid uneducated yaddayadda parents to decide if or which ones are appropriate for their children.
Very confusing.
However ... I'm sure a fix for that confusion is coming.
Soon parents will be pushed out of the picture altogether; it's already happening. For instance in case you hadn't heard these reports:Krista Westervelt Oct 10, 2010, 11:06am EDT
I did and actually went to the main website with the lists. The site very clearly states that for those books that contain the more explicit content, parents should use their judgement to determine if the work is appropriate for their teenager.
The books aimed at the younger children are entirely non-explicit, unless you think boys knitting is somehow "weird and nasty."
I'm all for sharing information and concerns, but you can do it without fear-mongering.
Cheers!
Umm ... no I don't guess boys knitting is weird and nasty per se. But the subject linked to that phrase in my comments is extremely weird and nasty. Did you go to the link? (no sarcasm... it just seems like you may have drawn a conclusion from remarks I didn't make --- maybe because you only read the words but did not go to the link?) Let me know.
As to the above two articles you just referenced:
1- The problem with trying to figure out an age limit for handing out condoms is that you never know at what age a young person will become sexually active. Though, giving them to first graders makes no sense, whatsoever.
Kids are going through puberty earlier, though, in part due to the high levels of obesity, which is leading girls especially to develop sooner, so these sorts of things are likely to be faced at younger ages now. Is it right? No. But that's the reality of it. So, it makes it difficult to say definitively what the minimum age of sexually active young people is.
There were some kids in my elementary school when I was a kid who were sexually active. It was a very small number, but there were some. It would be very unfortunate for an elementary school kid to be saddled with a lifelong sexually transmitted disease.
2- As to the abortion thing, the girl obviously didn't get parental consent before having sex, either.
---
BTW, I don't think those explicit books are appropriate for classrooms, either. I just felt that your saying that those are being placed in classrooms with kindergarteners, and young children was inaccurate.
I'll have to reserve judgement on those for the moment ... But, to refresh us both about my current concern, here is what I said (what I think you are referring to):I guess on a fast skim you could take the understanding that I meant the kindergartner books... but it doesn't seem to read that way to me. But nevermind, don't worry about it, I've done the same thing myself a time or two by reading or skimming too fast. It happens.
However, even though my point seems clear to me, let me reiterate and rephrase it a bit just to make sure...
Huh? Are you sure you want that to be your answer here?
For my response, if you are of a mind to look at one more link, in the comments section of this Gather article, you'll probably find more than you wanted to know about my thoughts in regard to that issue.
I may even have already addressed your exact comment somewhere over there. You can read them all or you can scroll about half way down comments to "Sandre M. Mar 25, 2010, 11:50pm EDT" and start there.
missy k. Oct 10, 2010, 9:27am EDT
this is sad and wrong that anyone would push so much trash ata childs mind with all th ebullying we have going on and now this and that " list " of books for children to read in school my kids school give my children those books i am burning them my children do not need to be reading about sex and masterbation and all that it is sick
Great family values.
But, I would be the one to decide when they were ready to hear and read certain teachings, in my own time, in my own way.
However, I've read and studied quite a bit of the Bible and none of what is found there is as nasty or vile as some of what is contained in the books described at the links I gave previously. There is no comparison.
Great family values.
Actually they are not. And that is probably one of the points of the story (which I quickly and briefly parphrased here for you, or for anyone who is interested).
Krista Westervelt Oct 10, 2010, 11:49pm EDT
Would you burn the Bible, or ban it from children's consumption? It has some pretty "vile" sexuality in it. Just look at the story of Lot. After his wife is turned to a pillar of salt, his daughters are convinced that they have to have sex with their father to repopulate the world, so they get him intoxicated and take turns having sex with him.
Great family values.
Did you get a chance to take a look at what I wrote for you here?
For instance, as I related previously, some parts of "Passages of Pride" sound very familiar. Very familiar indeed.
It's about a 15 year old boy sneeking out for a "relationship" with a man almost . . . twice ... his ... age ... hmmm....My question this time is, can anyone say fragments united?
Synopsis from alibris where you can buy the book online
Anti-gay? Possibly, maybe. But doesn't even approach the offensiveness or possible/probable range of distribution (due to who supports the group) of what I brought up in my comment above at Lee Y. Oct 9, 2010, 9:55pm EDT
Katryn D. Oct 10, 2010, 10:50am EDT
Overgrown jungles? Mad elephants? Tarzan and Jane? That's what LDS families will find in this book 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. Even more important is the emphasis on developing relationships with each member of the Godhead and the basic principles of the gospel this book illuminates, which children can learn to apply every day and which can prevent sexual sin like nothing else.
Synopsis from alibris where you can buy the book online
Me too.
#whatsongather
#whatsongather
I don't want my children (or children in general) being taught or exposed to the idea that daddies can sometimes be 'mommies,' any more than I want my children being taught that they can't or shouldn't be "mommies" as well as daddies; either way it opens a subject which is best left til they are out of elementary school and is in fact my job (not anyone else's) to teach or not teach at a time of my own choosing in regard to my own child.
I don't want my children being taught or exposed to any of that, any more than I want my children being taught that Mommy might be an adultress. Or that prostitution is just another worthy way to make money. Or that some people "get off" by smelling other people's socks.
And I certainly don't want them exposed to or taught about anything that happens in, during, around, or associated with parades and/or protests in San Francisco or Los Angeles etc. (such as things like this and this, and this and much worse...).
To me it's the same genre. All the same subject leading to more and more sexualization of children, mainstreaming of same, and titulation of a certain kind of adult (who can be found in the hetero as well and homosexual community).
And nothing about this stuff belongs on the shelves at Wal Mart or in our school rooms.
The actual problem is this kind of book (the "Elephant" book) and those which purport to "answer" it may eventually become prevalent in schools (if they aren't already) and in classrooms as a "preventive" for bullying and/or as a vehicle for the mainstreaming of homosexuality and the accompanying lifestyle).
And once the government and the schools endorse it ... once the "solution" is entrenched in our schools, I have a similar personal choice to make, the kind of choice I would most certainly be forced to make if books such as the Kama sutra became as prevalent as those in support of homosexuality are becoming.
I'd still have to pay the taxes, but, as I'd do with Wal Mart or Borders, I'd avoid allll of it to the best of my ability. I'd pull my kids out of school and either do private schooling or home schooling in order to avoid the Kama sutra as well as the Chased by an Elephant and the "Boy Meets Boy," and "Queer 13" crowds and the books they all tout. Until I thought my children were ready to be exposed to a way watered down and edited version that kind of stuff ...