EDITORIAL: The rattle and hiss of misplaced public service
The congregation was passionate but small, about what you might find in a backwoods church where snake-handling is a test of righteousness. Near the end the congregation grew smaller by two who got up and left.
“We have a higher authority in a book called The Holy Bible,” the speaker said. “The Bible is God’s word given to us for guidance and protection through His great love for us.”
You could almost hear the snakes hissing in a wooden crate behind the pulpit.
“So really,” the speaker said, holding up a copy of The Holy Bible, “love lives here. And truth lives here. And I want to share God’s love for us.”
The love-sharing took place not in a dimly lit, mouse-poor church down a dirt road next to a swamp. It took place last Thursday at the Pinehurst Public Library.
The speaker was Karen Campbell, Community Library Network trustee.
By many accounts, Campbell is a good person. Coupled with her faith, Campbell said her love of children helped lead her to step up when longtime trustee Katie Blank resigned last summer.
And yet, Campbell’s sermon was as ominous to some as it might have been inspiring to others. On Tuesday she announced her immediate resignation — but not over last week's remarks. She said she must resign because her new address is outside the CLN district.
In June, Campbell was one of just two people nominated by board members to replace Blank, who had served for three decades. That the current trustees — Vanessa Robinson, Tim Plass, Tom Hanley and Rachelle Ottosen — couldn’t produce a more robust field or engage the public more genuinely and transparently in the process was disappointing. Perhaps it will also prove dangerous.
To better understand Campbell's preference to proselytize than to set policy, think back to last year. Ottosen, the board’s chair, cited her Christian faith as the reason why libraries should close Sundays.
"I know many people at these tables don't subscribe to this, but the Lord blesses people when we keep the Sabbath day holy," Ottosen said in a July 2023 library board meeting. "I think having people work on Sunday is actually to our detriment."
That comment and others were addressed weeks later in a letter sent to the board by the nonprofit Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which asserts that closing libraries based on Ottosen's religious beliefs violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"Ms. Ottosen is entitled to her religious beliefs, but she is not entitled to use the power of the government to enshrine those beliefs into law and to thereby force them on her constituents," the letter said in part. "The board has a legal obligation to refuse to act on Ms. Ottosen's religious grounds."
Now? All seven CLN libraries are closed on Sundays.
It's fair to wonder if library network attorney Colton Boyles' lawsuit-wary antenna was going haywire Thursday in Pinehurst. Trustees swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution and Idaho laws. Those are, in fact, trustees' highest authorities.
It’s also fair for patrons to wonder if the will of trustees to do their jobs is locked away like some controversial book — or if it existed at all. When Campbell's replacement is named by the same trustees who picked her, snakes might be hissing in the background.
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Campbell’s comments around 2:42 of this video: https://tinyurl.com/yxe62562