A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.
Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, says the action is tantamount to “stealing.”
But three leaders of the Reformation Church of Shelbyville defend what they call an “act of civil disobedience.”
I mean, the consequence is generally not being allowed to checkout more books.
It’s not even considered petty larceny.
It would be hilarious if you were able to sum everything up and roll it into a RICO or something. I just don’t think it would hold up.
Intent matters. Losing a book isn’t theft. Checking one out with intent to keep it is. Normally this would be very hard to prove, in this case it’s not.
And yeah, if one of the members of the congregation did this and then sold the books. And then donated that back to the church, the pastor could be charged for running a criminal syndicate which is a class c felony in Kentucky.
But I would be really surprised if a Kentucky jury would allow the charges to stick. Even if a DA was willing to try and prosecute