Censored

On the last Tuesday of January I was at book club at St Ann's in Stoughton, WI. While we normally discuss a chapter or perhaps chapters of a book at each meeting, we read The Giver  over one week and discussed the full book that evening. Before beginning our discussion, the leader of the group read an email she received from a friend of hers. The email recounted how a live stream of a mass for her parish (the last Sunday in Jan) on Facebook suddenly disappeared. Turns out the broadcast had been censored by Facebook during the second reading. 

Scene from Movie "The Giver"
Jonas (r)  and friends Fiona and Asher

At the time, the parish leaders did not know why the feed was cut, and I suppose it took a bit of time to realize it had been cut off. A techie at the parish was able to reestablish a live link before mass concluded. Reasonably, the parish leaders wanted to know what caused the live stream broadcast to be cut off. They discovered that Facebook had censored it due to its content. What content was so egregious to Facebook that it had to censor that mass? The censor, probably AI, got upset and cut off the stream due to the second reading which involved 1 Corinthians (St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians), 7:32-35. The reading goes like this:

 I would like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is concerned about the  things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the things of this world, how he can please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the affairs of this world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction. (Bold by author)

Facebook's censors, although as I said probably AI to catch it even before it aired (meaning their must be some delay), apparently thought the reading too much for their liking. I suppose the use of a husband wanting to please his wife,  virgins, followed by married woman wanting to please the husband was too much for the censor algorithm. The affected Church, in a funny quip, noted that the church was not banning bibles. The person who wrote the email the church sent out had a good sense of humor.

Scene from Movie, "The Giver"
Jonas saving baby Gabe from being euthanized

The book The Giver, was apparently banned for a time in a few states, the first being California. It was banned in the 1990's for its sexual expression and euthanasia of children and adults. There is some irony about this middle school selection being banned and mass the prior weekend being censored. The book is actually quite good, giving a glimpse into what the pursuit of sameness can affect a world or society. They even lacked color, with much in black and white and 50 shades of gray. It is also a movie, available on Netflix. Our copy of the book notes an interview with Taylor Swift and a few other actors in the movie. I did not realize that Tay (we all know Tay as Trav's girlfriend; the NFL is not about to let Tay travel by her private jet back from Tokyo only to see Trav lose in the Super Bowl; a power couple that Roger Goodell seems to love the money they bring) was in the movie, but when watching it a couple weeks ago, she had a fleeting moment playing the Giver's daughter Rosemary. Blink and you would miss her. 

Those who wish to ban or censor material cannot have it both ways--cutting out what they don't like, but keeping what they do. This reminds me of the scene in the move Footloose, where Roger starts burning books. The pastor stopped the book burning, in part by asking "When did you all decide to sit in judgement?" and later saying while pointing to his heart: "Satan is not in these books, it's in here." Would Roger have thought the bible so salacious that it too should be burned? When it comes to censorship, who decides? That was the point of the pastor in the movie. In the US, social media companies now play a large role in censorship.