Church Urges Congregants to Steal LGBTQ+ Books From Library

A Kentucky church is turning the Ten Commandments into "Just Nine Commandments" in the name of Jesus.

Faith leaders at Reformation Church in Shelbyville, Kentucky are encouraging congregants to ignore "thou shalt not steal" by checking out LGBTQ+ books from the local library and never returning them.

Church officials are billing it as an “an act of civil disobedience,” as opposed to openly defying the Eighth Commandment. They argue that plundering the small town library’s stock of gay content is a necessary step to keep kids safe from what they say is a sinister grooming agenda.

Others are calling it the name it more commonly goes by: Theft.

Theft or Activism?

“My local library, the Shelby County Public Library, is peddling this filth to children,” says Pastor Austin Keller, holding aloft a book entitled ‘The Art of Drag’, in a video shared by Reformation Church on Facebook. “The encroachment of evil is happening in your community,” he warns, “and you may not even be aware.”

Keeler and his fellow pastors at Reformation, Tanner Cartwright and Jerry Dorris, are leading the charge in what they say is nothing less than a holy war for the hearts and minds of their community’s children. 

This isn’t the first time they’ve dipped their toes into political activism. In the past, Reformation leaders protested a local bar which hosted a drag show, and they also branded a nearby town “a hotbed of witchcraft” for hosting a witch-themed community event.

Now they’re escalating, knowingly asking parishioners to break the law. 

“This is Not Literacy”

“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,” they wrote in an email, “and if found, to check them out and never return them as an act of civil disobedience.” 

According to Pastor Dorris, the church and their 357 parishioners are taking a “public stand against sexual perversion being pushed upon children through taxpayer-funded institutions.” 

“This is not literacy,” said Dorris. “It’s grooming.” 

Libraries Under Siege

Libraries have come under fire in recent years by anti-LGBTQ+ activists who say public libraries give children unfettered access to material they deem objectionable. And while librarians are familiar with most methods to censor their material, Kentucky library officials say that strategically checking out books with no intention of returning them is a new one.

So far, the Shelbyville library has curiously “lost” 16 LGBTQ+ books with a total value of over $400. 

While the 16 books being targeted by Reformation are all LGBTQ+-focused, not all of them are for children – as implied by the pastors. The targeted books range from juvenile fiction like “My Two Dads,” to young adult books on puberty, to adult nonfiction like “He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters.”

The lost books are currently being treated the same as any other delinquent books in the library system, meaning a collection agency is contacted after 60 days of the book being overdue. Whether that stays the same in the future, or recouping the cost of the books is pursued more aggressively, remains to be seen.

What is your reaction? Does the Bible condone this type of civil disobedience, or is it a clear violation of "thou shalt not steal"?