A Reference For Mellors

Being an Eastern Orthodox theologian seems an odd choice of vocation to me. But then I imagine followers of that particular strand of religious thinking would claim that it was not they who did the choosing anyway.
Fortunately for them, however, Eastern Orthodoxy certainly appears to have some rather fine perks: free room and board on Mount Athos for your holidays; large selection of John Tavener albums to choose from; highly decorative artworks on the walls and fancy-style liturgical robes on your shoulders; opportunity of having your essays published in the magazine called First Things. A far superior calling, you will agree, than just being a regular Catholic whose only days out are spent ferrying old ladies to Lourdes once a year in a rusty old van.
Anyway ... readers of the June edition of First Things will be aware that Eastern Orthodox Theologian David Bentley Hart has taken advantage of his aforementioned publishing perk (although I still believe that evidence points to this name possibly being just another pseudonym of Anthony Daniels) and he has written an essay called "Freedom and Decency". Several paragraphs of this excellent essay are devoted to a discussion of the relative merits of censorship - notably the extremely laudable notion of protection from other people's bad taste - and Hart concludes that a little restriction here and there is not such a bad idea. However, being the fair-minded theologian that he is, Hart also draws attention to some of the laughable forms censorship can take - the banning of works by James Joyce, for example, and also, Hart adds with well-founded reservations, the prosecution for obscenity of D.H Lawrence's risible study of inter-class pseudo-pornography Lady Chatterly's Lover.
But what our theological friend forgets to mention, alas, is that the records of the subsequent legal proceedings surrounding the Lawrence book in 1960 provide in themselves an excellent argument for rigorous censorship of permissive literature. Where else in the annals of law - or, indeed, any other kind of annals - can be heard the supreme and ultimate question of all questions, that truly tremendous question asked by the prosecuting counsel: "Is this a book you would wish your wife or servants to read?"
And neither should we forget the memorable rejoinder: "I don't mind my wife or servants reading it as long as my gamekeeper doesn't."
Now that's what I call entertainment; and it would not exist were it not for censorship. Pass the scissors!