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Reformation Church, Shelbyville, KY

Kentucky Church Fights Back Against Gay Library Books

One of the many failures of the church is its routine acquiescence to the decline in the culture. Rather than double down on the true morality, many Christian institutions have lagged behind the culture: they went soft on homosexuality, embraced soft-egalitarianism, or outright promoted the demographic replacement of their culture.

For years, the church was chastised to “love thy neighbor,” which meant tolerance of perversion. Drag Queen Story Time became a national story as ultra-liberal librarians were bringing transvestites to public libraries. Often, the public libraries and the schools are the greatest purveyors of perversion towards the youths, as they stock the shelves with sodomitical literature and impose it into the curriculum.

One church in Shelbyville, KY, has fought back. Reformation Church of Shelbyville encouraged its members, in an act of civil disobedience, to check out the queer literature from the library and not return it. By not returning the books, they were effectively being removed from the inventory. Reformation Church is a 1689 Baptist church led by Jerry Dorris, Tanner Cartwright, and Austin Keeler. The church brands itself as “confessionally Baptist, culturally engaged, and evangelistically zealous fellowship in the heart of Shelbyville, KY.” The church boasts 357 members. The act of civil disobedience was encouraged by the church publicly as far back as June of 2024, but it is the actions of the individuals rather than a coordinated effort.

The story was reported by the liberal outlet, Kentucky Lantern, who wrote the following:

“Yes — we have urged Christians, both locally and across the country, to search their libraries for books that promote sodomy, gender confusion and rebellion against God — and if found, to check them out and never return them as an act of civil disobedience,” pastors Jerry Dorris and Tanner Cartwright and Austin Keeler, an evangelist with the church mission, Reformation Frontline Missions, recently told the Lantern in an email.

The library has “lost” 16 books valued at $410.85 since a member of the church checked them out last year with due dates in late June 2024, said Federspiel. Some of the books were written for children, some for adults. (The list of books is at the bottom of this story.)

Federspiel did not identify the library patron and said the books were never returned after several notices.

Titles to the books included Kind Like Marsha: Lessons from LGBTQ+ Leaders, which celebrates sodomites like Harvey Milk, a renowned pedophile, by Sarah Prager, a nonreligious Jew who functions as a gay activist. This was the targeted book highlighted by the article.

While the article is very much a hit piece against the church, wherein they are presented as more extreme than other efforts against gay literature in libraries. They cite various activist organizations but do allow the comments of Pastor Dorris to shine through.

Analysis

The Kentucky Lantern asks the question in the headline: theft of civil disobedience. While there are certainly some “Christians” who will call checking out sodomitical literature and refusing to return it theft, Scripture advises otherwise. A similar instance was seen in the Iowa capital, where Michael Cassidy tore down the satanic idol that was erected.

For starters, Gideon committed destruction of property against his father’s idol, and Christ commits assault (under modern law) by clearing the temple. In neither case were such acts sinful, for the idol has no right of existence, nor should there have been moneychangers extorting temple-goers. Purging idolatry from a society is not sinful, even if it involves desecrating the property of another, because they fundamentally do not have the right to sin.

Another consideration is that the library itself is a public good, meaning it is owned by the people. In this circumstance, the people were acting with agency over their public utility and cleansing the gay propaganda from the shelves. At best, the material is removed and unreplaced. At worst, the library spends its funds to replace the books, which is still a victory by attrition. Pastor Dorris claims they have not been replaced, rendering this protest successful.

Often, the libraries are rife with progressive activists, and Reformation Church took the fight to the public square. For this, they ought to be commended.

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2 Responses

  1. Dude, checking them out is dumb. They could take them to the bathroom and drop them in the trashcan there. Why rack up fines?

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