by Rev. Mark Creech
Return America
Unfortunately, North Carolina’s HB 636—Promoting Wholesome Content for Students—is stalled in the North Carolina Senate Rules Committee. It shouldn’t be languishing there. The legislation is not about politics; it’s about the souls of our children.
HB 636 calls for every public school to form a committee of parents and staff to review every library book and every book-fair title. Anything obscene, vulgar, or sexually charged is rejected. The approved and rejected lists are posted online for everyone to see. Parents can object. If schools defy the standards, parents can seek justice in court. This is not censorship. This is reasonable stewardship of our children’s minds and hearts.
Jesus said:
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6)
That is not gentle poetry. It is a thunderclap! In the ancient world, a millstone weighed hundreds of pounds. To have one tied around your neck and be thrown into deep water was a picture of swift, inescapable judgment. Christ is warning us that God’s wrath burns the hottest against those who lead children into sin, confusion, or despair.
A child’s innocence is not a trifle. It is a sacred trust. When adults, institutions, or governments present children with material that glamorizes vice, sexualizes their imaginations, or undermines their grasp of right and wrong, they are not merely careless; they are placing a stumbling block before a precious soul.
Our culture shrugs and calls this a “rite of passage.” God calls it spiritual child abuse! It is one thing to debate ideas among adults; it is another thing altogether to seed confusion, shame, and temptation in the hearts of the young. Every book, every lesson, every program in our schools either helps children grow in virtue or plants seeds of vice. There is no neutrality.
The Pavement Education Project in North Carolina has exposed this darkness. Books such as All Boys Aren’t Blue, Gender Queer, Tricks, Push, and Jack of Hearts saturate school shelves with sexual content, obscenity, and perversion. These are not “edgy” novels for mature adults to read. These are stumbling blocks placed in the paths of minors with taxpayer money.
The Courts are now beginning to recognize and address this problem. In Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Maryland parents who objected to LGBTQ storybooks being forced on their children without an opt-out. Decades earlier, in Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools, Christian parents challenged mandatory readings they believed violated their faith. These cases show that parental objections are not from people on the fringe. They come from parents’ deeply felt, legally cognizable concerns.
In a classic episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Buddy Ebsen plays a drifter who charms young Opie with stories of his carefree life, no school, no chores, just fishing and freedom. Opie begins to idolize him and copy his behavior.
Andy soon sees what’s happening. He confronts the hobo, who defends himself by saying the boy should be allowed to decide for himself. Andy answers with the kind of fatherly wisdom our age desperately needs. Andy responds:
“You can’t let a young’n decide for himself. He’ll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it. Then, when he finds out there’s a hook in it, it’s too late. Wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter that it’s hard to convince ’em that other things might be better in the long run. All a parent can do is say ‘wait’ and ‘trust me’ and try to keep temptation away.”
The drifter, chastened, offers to leave, assuming the problem will be solved. But Andy corrects him again, saying:
“That’s where you’re wrong. That boy thinks just about everything you do is perfect. So, my problem is just beginning. You left behind an awful lot of unscrambling to be done.”
This is precisely where we stand with obscene, sexualized, inappropriate books accessible to children in our public schools. Like the hobo’s stories, they look colorful – “flashy things with shiny ribbons on it.” But once the hook is set in a young heart, “unscrambling” the damage can take years. Sadly, it may not be possible at all. HB 636 is an effort to keep temptation away before it ever reaches our children’s hands.
This is not censorship; it’s Mayberry-plain common sense and biblical stewardship of our children’s souls. The North Carolina Senate needs to act on this bill!
