The ‘cancel culture’

Richard A. Sokerka

Amazon continues to be part of “cancel culture” by purging free speech and religious liberty in banning certain books from its online store. The latest example is its removal of scholar Ryan Anderson’s 2018 book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. The book, which had been sold for three years on Amazon, explores the meaning of human embodiment and public policy considerations related to transgender issues.

Not coincidentally, the ban of the book came as Congress was nearing a vote on the Equality Act that claims to ban discrimination based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” However, the bill actually codifies discrimination against anyone with a different belief about human sexuality and forces them to conform to government-mandated beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity under threat of criminal and financial penalties that would obviously discriminate against people of faith.

In responding to the book ban, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights stated, “If Anderson is too controversial for Amazon, then it is only a matter of time before Pope Francis is censored.” It pointed out that available on Amazon is a book, San Giovanni Paolo Magno, authored by Father Luigi Maria Epicoco and Pope Francis that was published last year in Italian. In it, the Pope condemns gender theory — the idea that men and women can switch their sex — as “evil.” The Pope makes it clear that it is “an attack on difference, on God’s creativity, on man and woman,” the Catholic League said.

So the Catholic League asked, “Is Amazon going to censor this book? If so, where will it stop? If not, why not?”

Several Republican senators were critical of Amazon’s removal of the book. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized Amazon in a speech on the Senate floor. “The author’s real offense, the only offense, was telling the truth,” he said of Anderson, while noting that Amazon customers can still purchase copies of such controversial works as Adolf Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf or the manifesto of the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, Industrial Society and Its Future. “How dangerous it is for the one of the biggest corporations in the history of the world to start banning books,” Cotton said.

Sadly, there is a growing history that Amazon is banning books that do not fit with the company’s current political and social viewpoints. However, this type of censorship is an assault on free speech and in many cases, religious liberty.

It is time that Amazon be put under greater scrutiny by our elected representatives as it continues down the path of the dreaded “cancel culture.”