A bunch of readers took offense to this e-mail I posted earlier and my endorsement of it. The offended readers are right in their complaints and I was wrong. In my own defense, I was merely agreeing with the principle, but I should have read the actual details more skeptically. A couple e-mails:

Jonah, The next time that someone brings up the chained Bibles you might point out that in the days before printing Bibles were expensive books that required extensive work to produce. Each Bible was made individually, and may well have been illustrated. So Bibles were expensive. They were also the property of the church or cathedral, and had to be protected against theft, or mutilation. Therefore they were chained. Not to prevent the spread of knowledge, but to prevent theft. You might also point out that many businesses chain computers today for a similar reason, to prevent the theft of expensive property.

And:

Hey, a Catholic guy here. Why did you post that email about 15th century priests keeping the Bible from the people? The email’s assumptions and assertions are untrue. They also rest on an anachronistic viewpoint that forgets that widespread literacy and the printing press weren’t around back then. It’s a shame that some anti-Catholics (and that email was clearly anti-Catholic) believe that nonsense, but shame on you for posting it.