ASU Library's Special Series

Who is absent?

My wife completed her Master’s Degree in library science. The experience was a wild one. She has some stories about the curriculum that would make my Substack look tame. Students would share that they entered into library studies rather than teaching because the library can by-pass parents and get books into the hands of children whereas the teacher still has accountability to parents. And what was the universal cause that these librarian students wanted to promote to children? LGBTQ issues. The curriculum was geared toward helping enable this activist role for librarians.

Why do I bring this up? Let’s look at an inherent contradiction in the secular Academy as found at the ASU library. In this image you will see the “special collections” they promote each month. What topic/group is missing? Who is privileged and who is silenced?

The principle on which the library, and really all of the secular Academy, works today is “giving a voice to the marginalized.” So they see no need to have a special month for groups like Christians or conservatives because 1) Christian are dominant according to them and 2) Christians are the ones marginalizing these other groups who need a voice (and therefore, I’ve been told by a faculty member, it is the Christian’s turn to suffer).

But here is the contradiction: ASU also wants its faculty to represent the community in which it works. So if we take for granted their claim that Christians are dominant in the greater Phoenix community, then that should be represented in the faculty. Not only is it not represented, it is so far from being represented that it couldn’t be repaired without massive reforms. And massive reform is just what we need.

Both of these arguments (voice to the marginalized, faculty represent community) are only brought out went it is convenient to explain why Christians and conservatives are not given at least equal if not statistic representation in faculty, library special events, and ASU’s community events. When these argument represent a direct contradiction at the heart of this agenda there is no concern to change course.

What are the reasons that Christians might be the specific target of these policies and what agenda does that help advance at our country’s largest state university?

It is important for parents and students to know that libraries and librarians have agendas. They aren’t simply “seeking the truth wherever we can find it.” They want you to think a certain way about the topics that are important to librarians. They don’t want the community represented in the library because that would mean that in October they have a month dedicated to the work of Martin Luther and other Reformers who made the modern university possible.