[Bill Ferny]

Now, the irony here is that the leading followers of this famous man's teachings soon began to fall into the pattern of the previous priesthood; banning oppoosition.

This may be true of some individuals (a few who, no doubt, found themselves in positions of authority) throughout history, but to characterize them as “the leading followers,” which I would assume you mean the leaders of organized religions, is ungrounded in its generality. However, if you consider the censure of an idea based on the principles of a given religion banning the opposition, then all us religious types are guilty of it. But censorship and banning are two different things. It is just as valid for a religion to practice censorship based on their principles as there are valid reasons for individuals to practice personal censorship upon personal principles, or for a movie critic to practice censorship upon her principles.

If you as a principal have a hard time accepting what Tolkien wrote, first you have to read him and get to know him yourself.

This is exactly what book burners, generally speaking, of course, do not do, and ironically enough its something that they will not be able to do if they get their way. If someone does thoroughly investigate a book or idea, and then decides to ban it… well, that’s a huge inconsistency, and it begs the question: so what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander?