A little library busybody

Created
Fri, 11/08/2023 - 06:30
Updated
Fri, 11/08/2023 - 06:30
They have to ruin everything: The wife of an Arkansas Republican state lawmaker has expanded the culture wars to miniature free libraries that encourage passersby to take a book and maybe leave one. “I have been swapping out books in little free libraries for awhile,” Jennifer Meeks announced in a Facebook post. “From what I have seen a lot of these books and other things don’t align with Christian values.” The Aug. 1 post has since been either deleted or made private, but not before it was screenshot by the Faulkner County Social Justice Coalition, which displayed it on the group’s website. “Today, I saw a bunch of Pride stuff in one,” Meeks said in the post. “There’s a group of leftists, especially in Conway, who are very active in keeping little libraries well-stocked.” Meeks wrote that she had been doing some stocking of her own. “Recently I have been picking up free Bibles at flea markets and thrift stores,” she reported. “Sometimes I find good devotion books or kids’ Bible stories at a good price to add. Or just great books, and a gospel tract is a nice idea, too.” Meeks did not respond to a call from The Daily Beast about her literary vigilantism. But after the coalition publicized Meeks’ post, her husband tried to claim her words were being twisted into “a complete lie” perpetrated by “a leftist, activist group.” “She’s not removing books that she disagrees with and does not advocate … that anybody else do…