A children’s book (geared to 4- to 8- year-olds) about two male penguins who care for an egg that isn’t theirs, and then raise as their own the baby penguin that subsequently hatches, will be a center of attention in the upcoming days surrounding Banned Books Week, organized by the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In an article about this in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, Judith Krug, head of the library association’s office for intellectual freedom, was quoted saying, “Absolutely, parents should have the right to decide whether their children should have access to a book, but that right ends where my nose begins.” She reasoned that other parents might find the same book appropriate reading for their kids.

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Similarly, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, weighing in on the same subject, reasoned, “I am not saying that books cannot roil the placid waters of your soul. That’s what books are for, ideally. Nor am I saying that kids can’t be upset by books.

“ . . . The truth is, in this life, you’re going to be upset at some point, and confronting life’s stark and seductive realities is what turns you from a child to an adult. Everybody is ready for different things at different times. My 11-year-old is ripping through Stephen King; I’m still not ready for it. This flexibility is anathema to parents who see their role as shielding their children from the world instead of introducing them to it.”

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We know from the Apostle Paul’s writings that Satan is “the god of this world,” and that as “the course of this world” continues to spiral out under the reign of sin, man’s ungodliness will not only continue to evolve, but will progressively worsen.

Rather than acknowledge any of this being the reality, though, man will simply profess evolving freedom of expression, human sophistry and exploration of human satisfaction, contentment and potential.

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In a recent article posted to Enjoythebible.org, Bible teacher Keith Blades warns that Satan’s policy of evil against Believers “will take notice of any of our failures to become suitably unimpressed with what our Father condemns, and it will exploit this to its own advantage, as it seeks to hamper and thwart the success of our sonship education and edification.”

Blades continues, “Moreover if we fail to become suitably unimpressed with such things, they can even become ‘strongholds of resistance’ to us, and we may not even recognize that this has happened.

“Hence, if we fail to condemn what we ought to condemn, we can actually put ourselves in the most difficult position of all when it comes to being able to figure out what’s wrong.

“In other words we can put ourselves in the position of being ones who ‘oppose ourselves.’ And indeed ‘self-opposition’ is the most difficult form of opposition to detect, acknowledge, and overcome. For deliverance from it requires a degree of honesty of heart, (and hence honesty with oneself), that the position itself is quite averse to producing.

“Therefore, when we fail to become suitably unimpressed with what God our Father tells us that He discounts, denounces, or condemns, we ourselves can then become our own stumbling block, even our own worst enemy.

“For by having improper regard for something that God condemns, we actually carry around in our own minds the very means by which we can be tripped up, or sidetracked, or misled, or seduced, and thereby have the progress of our ‘godly edifying’ impeded.

“And, unfortunately, we also carry around in our minds built-in resistance to being able to honestly perceive and admit that we ourselves are actually hindering our own ‘godly edifying.’

“Wherefore, when we fail to become suitably unimpressed with something that our Father condemns, we actually can give it ‘a second lease on life,’ so to speak. What’s more, we also foolishly provide the opportunity for us to be deceived into becoming more impressed with it. Whereupon we open ourselves up to the double danger, and double disaster, of being deceived and of deceiving ourselves.”