This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When Benjamin Flint went to a Davis County library in Farmington last week to order Hillary Clinton's new book, "Stronger Together," he was told it was deemed inappropriate and would be unavailable.

"I checked the status of this with our collection development team. When they were looking into reviews, they found that 'Stronger Together' [by Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine] was very poorly reviewed across the whole board, and so decided not to purchase it for our collection," library staffer Paul Astin explained to Flint in an email.

Flint posted the rejection on Facebook and some folks then let the library know how they felt about it.

They pointed out that Davis County libraries carry Donald Trump's "Art of the Deal" and "Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again," as well as a number of anti-Hillary Clinton volumes, including "Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary," "The Queen: The Epic Ambition of Hillary and the Coming of a Second 'Clinton Era,' " and "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It and How Far She Will Go to Become President."

"Taxpayers pay the salaries of the personnel and for operation of this library. It is not only Republican taxpayers who pay," wrote one woman. "Hillary's book must be in this library and displayed and available for check out."

Library Director Chris Sanford said it was a misunderstanding due to a miscommunication by a relatively new staffer.

"I found out about it on Monday afternoon and had staff go to Barnes & Noble and buy seven copies," she said. "By Tuesday morning, they were on the shelves in each of our branches. We also have ordered more copies."

Sanford said the library has 28 books about Clinton — with five of them written by the candidate herself, including "Hard Choices" and "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us."

The library carries 12 books about Trump, five written by him. At least two titles appear to be negative: "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money and Power," and "Trumped! The Inside Story of the Real Donald Trump — His Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall."

The library system is nonpartisan and strives to give readers a variety of viewpoints, Sanford said. "We want to represent as many sides as possible."

Revealing the Sodomites • I wrote recently about an ultraconservative group's meetings at a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) building in Orem that focused on controversial right-wing talking points. That prompted the BSA, fearful of jeopardizing its tax-exempt status, to stop renting its space to the organization.

One of the group's leaders, Republican activist and moral crusader Cherilyn Eagar, then invited me to join her and other members on her KTALK radio program in which the discussion cut to my religious convictions.

I had questioned the group's meeting agendas, which included such topics as the "mark of the beast" in the New Testament's Book of Revelation manifesting itself in today's public education system, the decline of values, the effect of government mandates and politicians not understanding the consequences, and why parents should consider pulling their children out of public schools.

Group members were not pleased with my skepticism — the heathen that I am — or with being banished from the Scout building.

But there is a happy ending. The group is in a new venue with a robust program scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. in Highland in northern Utah County.

The speaker will be Pastor James David Manning from the Atlah Worldwide Missionary Church in Harlem. He is an African-American firebrand who has been called out by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a bigot for his anti-LGBT views.

He has even been a guest on radio shows hosted by white supremacists who share a dislike for gays.

The flier promoting Friday's meeting says Manning's topics will include: "Same-sex marriage and the further Sodomite agenda; the George Soros-funded Black Lives Matter movement and the coming race wars, Barack Hussein Obama and his unconstitutional legacy, the upcoming election and the truth about the institution of racism and reverse racism."

The group hosting the meeting includes activists Oak Norton, founder of Utahns Against Common Core; Lowell Nelson, former vice chairman of the Utah Republican Party who was rebuked by fellow Republicans for comments that seemed to advocate the abolition of public education while he was a GOP officer, and Thomas Butler, who organized the meetings at the BSA building.

And the new venue for the meeting: the Highland City government building.