MAGA’s counterculture attack on public libraries

In a surprise move, ultra-conservatives are taking a page from hippie icon Abbie Hoffman.

Somewhere, 1960s hippie and counterculture icon Abbie Hoffman must be smiling. In 1971, he published a book with the ironic title “Steal This Book.”

Though it did not offer tips for stealing books, it did give “advice on how to get free food, housing, transportation, medical care, and more, as well as how to run a guerrilla movement.” Little could Hoffman have known that more than 50 years later, an ultra-conservative Kentucky church would urge its members to take the title of his book literally by checking books out of the Shelby County Public Library and never returning them.

News broke on Aug. 18 that the Reformation Church of Shelbyville wants parishioners to remove and keep books that “portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.” I guess some things are more important to it than obedience to the Eighth Commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

There was nothing subtle about the appeal.

Last year, the church posted a video to Facebook explaining that “Satan is targeting the next generation” through the books being “peddled at your local library.” The video warns that books like “My Two Dads” and “My Two Moms,” which it labels “abominations,” are designed to sweep up young people in “a torrent of perversion and darkness.”

The video includes the contact information for the Shelby County librarian and claims that it is the duty of Christians to combat the “perversion” found in the local library.

Leaders of the Reformation Church continue to push that message. But now they are doing more than urging people to call librarians and local leaders. Now they are asking them to remove objectionable material.

They don’t want to call the new strategy theft. Instead, channeling Hoffman, they prefer to call it “civil disobedience.”

An evangelist with Reformation Frontline Missions put it this way: “Yes — 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 — and if found, to check them out and never return them as an act of civil disobedience.”

But theft by another name is still theft.

This is just the latest wrinkle in the escalating attacks on libraries that have marked the Trump era. In this era, as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) argued, “control of what happens on bookshelves has turned into a pitched battle, with white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups on one side facing off against an unlikely coalition of progressives, educators, Black leaders, and drag queens on the other.”

Many of those attacks have, like the one in Kentucky, come at the local level.

Conservative groups have put pressure on libraries to remove books they find offensive. Among them are books that contain critical histories of the United States, describe the pervasiveness of American racism, or are meant to allow readers the opportunity to learn about ways of life that those groups think are dangerous and unworthy.

For example, in October 2021, a Texas state representative compiled and publicized “a list of about 850 books that he said ‘might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.’”

And of the 4,218 books banned from school libraries across the country during the 2023-2024 school year, more than a third dealt with racial issues or highlighted the achievements of people of color. In 2024, the American Library Association said that in public libraries, there were “821 attempts to censor library materials and services. In those cases, 2,452 unique titles were challenged.”

It explained that “the number of documented attempts to censor books continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020.”

However, many of them did not succeed. That’s why the Reformation Church’s approach is so appealing to those who want to bring libraries to heel--and also so disturbing.

And they are not alone. Previously, a Catholic organization launched a “Hide the Pride” campaign, part of which involved taking LGBTQ books from libraries and not bringing them back. It targeted displays of those books put out as part of a public library’s recognition of Gay Pride Month.

Even so-called Little Free Libraries have been the objects of theft of LGBTQ books.

These “steal this book” campaigns have an ally in the Oval Office, though he has not endorsed it. Since the president started his second term, he and his administration have been only too happy to lead the charge against libraries.

In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at shuttering, among other agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In 2024, its budget was $295 million, hardly more than a rounding error in the multi-trillion-dollar federal budget.

As an NPR report explained, “The IMLS was established by Congress in 1996. It is the main source of federal funding for public libraries. Through its Grants to States program, it particularly helps small and rural libraries provide services for its patrons.”

Those services included: “Early literacy development and grade-level reading programs; Summer reading programs for kids; High-speed internet access; Employment assistance for job seekers; Braille and talking books for people with visual impairments; Homework and research resources for students and faculty; and Veterans’ telehealth spaces equipped with technology and staff support.”

Though the president’s executive order, like many others, has been challenged in court, the American Library Association’s Alan Inouye described it as “not simply a matter of concern—it is a five-alarm fire.” He pointed out that it is a continuation of what Trump tried to do during his first term, when he tried to eliminate funding for the IMLS in each of the annual budget proposals he sent to Congress.

In addition, the administration has fired many federal workers who were in charge of libraries serving the public or government agencies. Libraries on military bases have been told to remove books “related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics.”

The AP noted that at the Naval Academy, the order “led to the removal of books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism, and Maya Angelou’s famous autobiography, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.’”

In the end, the SPLC rightly suggests that “No one used to envision libraries as battlefields. But in 2025, that’s what they have become.”

And on that battlefield, as the Reformation Church of Shelbyville’s tactics show, “All’s fair in love and war.” Abbie Hoffman would be surprised but pleased that a religious group would follow his advice about what to do with books.

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.

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