Protecting our children?

The other day I was browsing in a store and came upon the CD section. One jewel case in particular caught my attention. Not because of the title or artist – I had never heard of either – but because of the sticker affixed to the outside. It read: PARENTAL ADVISORY.

I had heard of these warning labels, which I think came about when Tipper Gore campaigned to have the recording industry notify parents of material which they might find objectionable for their children. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesn’t interfere with free speech. But this particular Parental Advisory Label struck me as odd. Underneath the bold letters were slightly smaller letters indicating the type of potentially objectionable material.

There were only two words. The words were not “sexually explicit” or “violent language” as one might expect. The words were: “Christian Lyrics.”

Now I can understand that some atheists, like the late Madeline Murray O’Hare, might not want their children to hear such dangerous lyrics, for fear that they might come under some cult-like spell. But I have to wonder what our founding fathers would have thought of this warning label when they indicated we were one nation, under God.

As Walt Kelly wrote in the comic strip POGO, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”