The artillery opened fire at 10 p.m. Using bracketing salvos, measuring the precise range of their volleys, spotters began to report direct hits. The structure imploded from the heat generated from the incendiary shells, created by igniting the contents of the building. Stained glass shattered. Sections of the roof collapsed. Walls caved in. People escaped with their lives. The valuables inside the building were not so fortunate. Among the materials incinerated were over 150,000 rare items of print, music, journals, photographs, and books. The building destroyed in the night sky of August 25th, 1992 was the University Library of Bosnia. The Serbian soldiers that night were attacking memory, a people’s history, wishing the eradication of a people-groups’ existence. Serbs, Croats, and Muslims were attempting to wipe out each other during the Croatian and Bosnian wars of the early 1990’s. In this case, the university library was a Christian building. According to sources, only Christian books were burned, others having been removed ahead of the attack. British journalist, Robert Fisk described what he saw during the wars as “culturecide” the attempt to wipe out the cultural identity of a population. In this case, Christian history was in jeopardy.
We have yet to endure artillery trained on American libraries. But destruction of ideas is not limited to real warfare. Before coming to Liberty, I taught at Indiana University Indianapolis. Ahead of each teaching day I w
ould pass under a large sign that read, “Discrimination has no place here.” And I would tell my students and my colleagues the sign was a lie: viewpoint discrimination occurred every day on campus. Not every perspective was welcome. Students self-censored. Professors did not say what they believed. You see, destroying communities of thought takes place in many ways: vilification, denunciation, misinterpretation, disinformation, omission, or total elimination. We stand against all these and other destroyers of Truth.
Yet, here, I would offer that the worst of these destructive forces, indeed the answer to all the rest, has nothing to do with discrimination. You can be sure that people will hate what you believe and they will discriminate against you. We stand in good company since Jesus said people would hate us because they hated Him first. If you are in a position to make sure all voices are heard, good. Godspeed in your endeavors.
I would suggest that the real destruction of libraries is neglect. If I could be so bold, all we need to do is care. In my Indianapolis community, one of my friends spent 18 months of his life rallying people to vote for school board members that held a common sense, common truth, common grace view of ideas, people, education, and viewpoint diversity. And you know where he started? In the public library. I was there to support him when he cogently, caringly, clearly went toe-to-toe with the reigning ideologies in 2020-24. That’s where our work is: whatever venue, in whatever vocation we are called to, we conserve what has been given to us.
Before there was the great commission in Matthew 28 there was the great commandment in Genesis 1:28. The vestiges of that command ripple through every culture, time, people, and place. We are to steward, preserve, keep, produce, protect, manage, conserve all that we have been given. We rightly encourage the great commission, delivering the gospel of Jesus’ grace to all while crafting what is beautiful and good through revelational truths. As regenerate image-bearers, your very presence on any street, in any town, with any company, toward any future, no matter who you are, or how you’ve been gifted, is a beacon of light in a dark world. One of the greatest ways to stave off neglect – to show you care – is by reading, discussing, critiquing, and sharing great and good books. 
Now I can hear some of you thinking, “That’s all well and good for him. He’s a professor. Libraries are part of his world.” And my response to you would be, “Welcome to my world.” Look at this magnificent edifice, one of the great collections in all of Christian higher education resides here. From the archives in the basement to the quiet rooms in the nooks and crannies of the Jerry Falwell Library, you have the opportunity to read, research, study, collaborate and converse about big ideas, big books, to do big research, to write big papers, to make a big impact on the world as champions for Christ. Don’t neglect the gift of this library. Don’t take for granted the opportunity to learn at Liberty University.
In my first semester, my first class teaching in public university, Asher was one of my students. Asher’s final paper was a well-researched piece on the decline of reading-for-leisure amongst his classmates. We struck up a friendship. We would meet to talk inside used bookstores. We shared books with each other. We talked about the importance of reading. The only reason Asher listened to my entreaties about his eternal soul was because I cared about what he thought and what he read. Just this past week, nine years later, Asher texted me his insights about the great tome The Count of Monte Cristo. Do you want to marry Genesis 1:28 with Matthew 28? Don’t neglect books.
I can still hear some of you thinking, “Again, easy for you. You’re a professor.” Okay. I get it. Let’s put the cookies on the bottom shelf. Let’s make this a marker, right here, right now, for the rest of your life. I will offer five simple ways that you can stave off neglect of libraries, show care for others, witnessing with beauty and goodness to show the Truth.
One: Create personal libraries. And, no, I don’t mean read books on screens. I mean purchase real paper books. We are incarnational, in-flesh persons. We don’t need studies to tell us – though the research is everywhere – that physical contact with reading and writing is best for the human brain. Don’t neglect personal libraries.
Two: Create home libraries. Again, evidence abounds that children growing up in a house of books begin life with a better disposition toward education. If, as a parent, you read books to your children, encourage them to read, and continue to set an example of reading, you will set your children on the Providential path of success. Don’t neglect home libraries.
Three: Create space for the humanities. Am I anti-STEM? Of course not. I am pro-STREAMS: science, technology, religion, engineering, arts, math, and synthesis of all things under Christ’s Lordship. Whenever I have taught master’s and PhD level courses one assignment always included reading a novel. You know why? Because novels don’t preach, novels breach the defenses of people who are reticent to receive truth. Don’t neglect the humanities.
Four: Create repositories and archives. Why? We are to preserve history. History is the most important of all subjects since the past orders the present and future, not to mention that the whole of our Christian worldview rests on physical-person, space-time events. Don’t neglect history.
Five: Create gratitude for who and what has come before you. We are all here because someone was here before us. Gratitude is the basis for ethics. Don’t neglect gratitude.
Those of us, your professors, who have come before you, depend on you now, our students, not to neglect but to protect, preserve, produce from, and provide for the generations who follow you, ideas, words, books, curricula, archives, libraries, universities, all to reclaim and restore the great commandment, the original marching orders from our King, not to conquer or subjugate – as some other worldviews want to do – but to benefit all people with the common grace of God’s goodness given to us, through the most important book, The Word of God. Herein the grace of Christ will be seen in you as you seek for, what Jeremiah wrote in a letter to the exiles in Jerusalem, “the welfare of the city, pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.”
May it be so.
How to Destroy a Library
Research Week Awards Address
6 May 26, Liberty University
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.