27 June 2026

Roman Catholics in Poland and evangelical Christians in Tennessee burned JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books because they thought they corrupted children with an introduction to witchcraft. Thomas Hardy’s ‘Jude the Obscure’ was famously thrown into  the fire by the Bishop of Wakefield.

Hardy’s novel was caricatured  as ‘Jude the Obscene’. Victorians were offended by his exposure of sexual relations outside marriage, the hypocrisy of the English clergy and the elitism of the universities. As a result, Hardy never wrote another novel again and spent the rest of his life writing poetry.

Burning books has been done by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The Reformers, the Roman Catholics, the Nazis and the Communists have all had a go but to no avail. It is a public spectacle but it has done nothing stop the flow of ideas which cannot be burnt in a fire!

Today we are not worried about books but about the internet and, in particular, social media which has caused serious problems with young people not least with their mental health. There is a move to ban certain social media platforms for children under sixteen.

Artificial Intelligence has democratised information and ideas and inspired medical and scientific advances which are to our benefit. But we need to be vigilant. AI is not neutral. It is addictive. It exploits the earth’s resources and enslaves children mining materials used in the technology.

In welcoming the good, we must do something about the bad. Government finds it difficult to regulate the internet. It is run by a small number of entrepreneurs who have become very rich. We are left wondering, ‘Does AI make human life on earth more human?’ The church has much to say on this.