mdoneil writes “Are you weeding in the 200s.? Well you better be careful about which books you pitch. Some of those books cannot be thrown away according to The God Squad.
No Bibles with the coffee grounds. No Korans in the dustbin. You have to bury them. The books would be covered and buried respectfully though not necessarily in a cemetery. They should be covered and then buried. “Dust to dust” refers to the disposal of all holy vessels.”
Holy book disposal
So, does anyone know if there’s an organization that will do this for us? I know that the VFW handles disposal of worn American flags. Will Catholic churches generally take worn Bibles and other revered works and dispose of them?
So as Ye weed, so shall Ye weep
Umph! This looks like a problem in the making. Books in government libraries (schools, public, academic, etc.), like equipment, needs to be discarded and weeded the same way as other materials. Opening up the library policies to special interest groups may cause some problems, such as why you allow some folks (Jews, Christians, Moslems) dispose of books, but not witches, atheists or minorities.
As a Christian, I also was taught not to throw away Bibles or Anglican Prayer Books, but to burn the pages (usually in the first fire in our home of the winter season) so they would not be profaned. But what applies to my personal beliefs should not apply to library materials, especially if you have a regular policy of disposing materials.
If you invite special interest non-librarian people in to oversee and approve your weeding policies, you may get more than you bargained for.
what?
if you are getting rid of holy books on a regular basis then you have a problem. How often do you need to replace or get new Bibles? Did it change? Is this the edition with a “counting carbs” section? The new Tarantino-directed Koran? I think we replace or refresh the holy books about every Pope or so.
I’m sure that the local diocese would know who would “take care” of a Bible being euthanized, and yes, I am enjoying the delicious comic irony. Ditto for a local mosque.
This doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that mainline protestant churches would have even heard of, much less do. Or reformed Jews.
Re:what?
If items are damaged to the point where they are unusable, then you would need to discard them. Brittle pages, mold and mildew, excessive highlighting and ink damage affect the usablity of items.
Re:what?
I think writing in Bibles is a Protestant thing. I’ve never seen a Catholic do it.
Then again I seldom see a Catholic with a bible. (Yes, I own two. I just don’t carry them around. )
Re:Holy book disposal
I did weed that section a few years ago. All of our weeded books (except the ones with urine or some other icky stuff on them) go to the friends book nook. The bibles went quickly. I didn’t weed any Korans or Torahs so no idea how those would go, but if shopworn but still readable I can’t see why their respective congregations would not take them to dispose of them or give them to people who cannot afford one – even a used one.
Of course I called the local rabbi (which I originally spelled wrong in the headline -thanks for fixing that Birdie) when I set up a display for the High Holy days, and the local Mosque for advice on my Eid al Fitr display – both of which were well recieved.
I can’t imagine any library will have any trouble getting rid of the satanic bible or wiccan texts, people steal those all the time.