Beliefs not shared

Dear Editor:

RE: No Bibles? (March 7).

In this letter reader Vic Palmer asks “ is it too much to ask that each branch (of the Wellington County Public Library) have a physical copy  of the Bible available for viewing by walk-in readers”?

I’d answer this question in the affirmative. Yes, it is too much to ask. 

This is a public library, not a church reading room. Do you think other groups in our community have an equal right to representation of their beliefs on the shelves of our neighborhood libraries? 

Surely if we provide Christians with their Bible, we have an equal obligation to provide Muslims with the Quran, Jews with the Talmud, and non-believers like myself with their own books. 

Your religious beliefs are not shared by everyone in our community. Unless you want to provide reading materials that give voice to all of our belief systems, it seems presumptuous to single out one religious viewpoint for our public libraries as if it were somehow superior or universal.

Believe me, it is neither.

Hank Davis,
Puslinch