On March 15, Hendersonville Public Library director Allan Morales was terminated after a 4-3 vote by the Sumner County Library Board due to the “unkind pushback” he allegedly demonstrated during Kirk Cameron’s children’s book reading.
Cameron’s event was hosted by Brave Books on Feb. 25 and included Duck Dynasty star Missy Robertson and former University of Kentucky swimmer-turned-women’s-sports-advocate Riley Gaines.
“At our stop in Hendersonville for the Freedom Island Tour, we received negative pushback from a head official at the public library,” Cameron said in an interview with ChurchLeaders. “The community, however, including hundreds of grateful families and gracious mayors and county commissioners, welcomed us with open arms even while the leadership at the library tried to cancel our event. This is happening all over the country! Many public institutions have been infiltrated with individuals who intentionally silence.”
Duck Dynasty Star Missy Robertson Details What Happened
Robertson joined her husband Jase, father-in-law Phil, and brother-in-law Allen on their “Unashamed with Phil & Jase Robertson Podcast” to give details regarding what she called “unkind pushback” they received at the Henderson Public Library.
“I saw some things that happened this past weekend that really scared me for our country and for my grandkids,” Robertson said.
Robertson, whose children’s book Because You’re My Family tells a story about adoption, said the Brave Books’ Freedom Island series from which she and Cameron read is based on conservative Christian traditional values but doesn’t explicitly mention God, Jesus, or church. This was by design on the part of Brave Books to eliminate the possibility of being barred from government establishments, such as public schools and libraries.
Expressing her displeasure, Robertson said, “I think it’s going to take Christians getting angry about this for us to actually stand up and do something about it, because it’s our nature and what we are taught through the Bible to not be confrontational, not start fights—don’t start factions and dissensions. But when we are faced with total untruths and what our children are being attacked with in the public school systems and in the community…families need to know about this.”
According to the authors, before the library opened its doors to the public for the day, Brave Books set up a promotional video shoot to market the books in a specific part of the library. While Cameron and Robertson were shooting the videos, they said library staff were so loud that the Brave Books team had to stop filming because the noise made the footage unusable.
Robertson said that a Brave Books team member asked the staff behind the main desk to lower their voices, but the request was ignored. In addition to speaking loudly, Robertson said the staff started slamming books together, kicking cabinets, clapping, and “hollering out loud.”
