IN THE August 1, 1975 issue of the South Coast SUN, the front page carried the story of a Warner Beach author, Corrie Lessing, whose book Will Jesus Return in a Spaceship? was banned by the then government.

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When banning it, the Publications Control Board said Lessing’s book was ‘subtly cynical, and therefore blasphemous”. The author, who was puzzled by the banning, denied she was cynical, saying she was perfectly sincere. She also described herself as deeply religious.

Lessing maintained that a mechanical space vehicle is described in great detail in the Bible.

“It says that the mechanical object was for camouflage, and I found that every time this cloud was mentioned in the Bible, they really meant the mechanical vehicle. The Bible does say that Jesus was covered by a cloud when he left the earth,” she told the journalist.

She unsuccessfully appealed the ban to the Publications Control Board.

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