More On Prison Chapel Library Book Limitations

A New York Times article today offers new details about the federal Bureau of Prisons restrictions on titles that are permitted in prison chapel libraries. The limitations are the subject of a pending lawsuit. (See prior posting.) The Times discloses that the titles selected by the Bureau of Prisons for inclusion are apparently far from balanced. 80 of the 120 permitted Jewish titles are from the same Orthodox publishing house. Wheaton College Professor Timothy Larsen says that the Christian materials "show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism" and do not include materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.