When I teach the lecture on the early Luther, I have a bit of fun with Martin Luther’s burning of the papal bulla Exsurge Domine, though it led to a burning of a number of books of medieval authors. I do notice that it set a dangerous precedent in Germany.
We have seen the way that that precedent was acted out in the 20th century Nazi book burnings. Very disturbing!
But I ask you, how is this report of what is happening in Toronto libraries really any different?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peel-school-board-library-book-weeding-1.6964332
This reminds me of my own public schooling experience here in the US. We read multiple books about the holocaust (Anne Frank), slavery (Frederick Douglass), colonization (Things Fall Apart), and segregation (MLK Letter from Birmingham Jail). In fact, until Senior year AP Literature, I can’t remember reading ANY positive depiction of a Christian at all. I think the closest was Friar Lawrence from Romeo and Juliet, which we read in 9th grade. Imagine entire generations of people whose view of Christian people are usually embodied by “colonizers” and racists. How important is the job of historians to help form the curriculums of the future to see more accurate views of God’s people?
It's like trying to go down a railroad track and pulling up the track behind you to put I front of you.(think some cartoon did that anyway the picture is in my mind).
Progress that has to erase the past is very dubious just on its face before you even get into the seedy details.