Born Again UU

I don't know if y'all have been following the story of the Federal Bureau of Prisons vs. religious texts story at all, but it's pretty insane.

Basically, there were complaints that prisoners had access to radical religious texts that the government believed they shouldn't have, so rather than ban particular books from prison libraries, the Bureau instead created a short list of books that are o.k. All books that didn't make the short list were subsequently boxed up and removed from prisons.

Of course, the list is short relative to the number of books on religion in the world today (seriously, there must be gazillions, right?) and *surprise* not a single book on Unitarian Universalism made the list.

I don't at all think this is because we're considered radical or dangerous, but assume it's more to do with the fact that we're often overlooked, and if not overlooked, written off as "not a real religion."

Of course, this irks me on a personal level, but much more than that it's a huge Constitutional issue. Essentially, this list of "approved" religious texts more or less amounts to approved religions for prisoners, no? If a prisoner is banned from having a book describing Unitarian Universalism (or any of the other religious systems that the governement has decided to ignore), it's going to be very hard for her/him to explore this spiritual option while locked away by the government.

Philocrites really summed it up best saying, "Although one can argue that the government has a limited but real interest in restricting prisoners' access to certain kinds of information, state interest cannot override prisoners' Constitutional right to a free exercise of religion."

I'm going to follow Philocrites advice and contact the Federal Bureau of Prisons through the Sojourners website. I ask you to do the same.