Banned Book: The Bible
This week, libraries nationwide are celebrating Banned Books Week. The American Library Association names And Tango Makes Three – a children’s book about a same-sex penguin couple who hatch their own baby penguin – the book challenged most often in 2006. But how did the Bible, a historically banned book, fare over the past 12 months?
November, 2006: British Christians accused campus authorities of driving their beliefs underground. They cited examples dating back to October 2005, when Edinburgh University banned the Bible from residence halls because it was “discriminatory” and unwelcoming to students of other faiths.
December, 2006: A British airline banned Bibles for airline personnel flying to Saudi Arabia, afraid of upsetting Muslims with non-Islamic religious material. A stewardess challenged the ban.
January, 2007: In Burnaby, Canada, the school board banned Gideon International’s distribution of free Bibles to elementary school students. School trustee Ron Burton told CBC news, “I think people see the school system as a haven where there is no religion, there is no politics.”
April, 2007: In Turkey, Muslims murdered three employees of a Bible publishing house, binding their hands and feet and slitting their throats. Protesters had targeted the publishing house and threatened its employees before the attack, one of “a string of attacks on Turkey’s Christian community,” according to the Associated Press.
August 22, 2007: A federal appeals court upheld a Bible ban in Annapolis, Maryland, and Gideon International can no longer distribute free Bibles to fifth-graders in South Iron Elementary School.

















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back to top27 Comments to “Banned Book: The Bible”
Not only that, the well-known group Atheists for Jesus has been banned at many locations.
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Random
You are welcome at my house of worship. My house too!
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ALA’s event is aimed at the US and Children. So while it might be interesting to talk about how other countries handle the, it would be inappropriate to start up the traditional “liberal organization hypocrisies” cat-call over the ALA not turning banned book week into “let’s get Christophobia in the New English Dictionary” week.
That is where the hordes are supposed to be going, isn’t it Alisa?
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Random – Why would any atheist be “for” Jesus? By their reckoning, He was either a lunatic or a con man.
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It disgusts me that homosexual activism has made its way into children’s books. Parents need to keep up with what these kids are reading.
I wonder how many parents actually support these types of propaganda books? I suspect that the vast majority do not, so maybe this children’s book is on display for the adult activists who want to go and revel in their influence of innocent children’s lives.
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And Randy answers the horns sound!
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#2
Thank you for the invitations, Bob.
#4
It’s a joke. OK, a dumb one, but still.
#5
When my granddaughter gets old enough to go to school, unless she turns on her moms, she will be, I guess, a “homosexual activist.”
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Actually, the ALA is being far less than honest here. By “banned” books, they don’t mean books that have actually been banned from any library or bookstore in the US. When they say “banned”, they mean books opposed/disapproved of by Christians and conservatives. They’re all for banning books that liberals disapprove of. Go to any library and see how many stock books with out of the mainstream views on such topics as sex roles, racial differences, the mutability of homosexual identity, the holocaust, etc. Those kinds of books are the ones that are routinely banned from libraries, even when bought and paid for by donors.
Of course, a lot of Christians and conservatives would oppose some of the above books, especially about race and the holocaust. But since these books are opposed/disapproved of by liberals, it’s fine to ban them. It’s books that are opposed by ONLY Christians and conservatives that make the list.
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I would like to see more information about each one of these incidents. I usually find that when one drills down into the detail and context, one finds that things aren’t always what they appear to be on the surface.
I also generally find that individuals and groups (of all persuasions) are very adept at taking an incident and building a case for their grievance (or a string of incidents and building a case for a conspiracy). We all do it to one degree or another. In today’s politicized atmosphere it’s become almost mandatory to get attention for our cause.
Instead of attacking the ALA’s “Banned Books” list, would it not be better to build a solid case out of the cited cases (using reason), and work with the ALA on inclusion?
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Years ago, I think in Reason, Liberty, or some other libertarian magazine, I read a very interesting article which showed just how hypocritical the ALA is. It seems someone sent every public library in America a copy of The Hoax of the 20th Century, which questions the holocaust. Out of the thousands and thousands of libraries in the country, only a handful accepted the book and stocked it. What was even funnier was when the man’s local library had their self righteous Banned Books Week display and “festival”, he wasn’t all that impressed. So he showed up with copies of Hoax of the 20th Century and other books contradicting the accepted version s of WWII history, which the library had refuse to stock, and set up a table on the sidewalk in front of the building exposing the ALA’s hypocrisy, demonstrating that they ban books all the time, and they’re all for banning books. Just not books that right wingers and Christians want banned. Anyway, they fumed and ranted and raved, and threated to have him arrested, but he stood his ground. When they called the cops, the cops told them that as long as he wasn’t impeding passerby, there was nothing they could do as the sidewalk is public.
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Night Train,
By all means, provide me with some title and I’ll see if I can find them at my mainstream library. But I’m not walking up to the page desk and saying,” I’m looking for books that prove black people are stupider than white people” (racial difference) or “excuse me, but could you show me where the jewish conspiracy section is”?
P.S.- The Hoax of the 20th Century by Arthur R. Butz, who argues against the most documented events in western history, is available at the San Francisco Public Library in the reference section.
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Thank you for this useful article, Alisa. With so much religious discussion and reaction constantly being thrown about, I sometimes find it quite difficult to see through the headlines and loud opinions and gauge how Christianity is truly faring in our countries — that is, to distinguish between merely a lot of noise and an actual shift in general attitude.
Marking acceptance or rejection of Scripture (Scripture being so close to the heart of Christianity) is a relatively objective way to put a finger on our nations’ religious pulses to determine what path we are headed down and how far and how quickly we have progressed. Articles such as this are really quite helpful.
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The cases cited are mostly ridiculous. Look at the Annapolis case. The Gideons were trying to distribute Bibles to public school students IN CLASS, a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Or the quote in regard to the Canadian case: “I think people see the school system as a haven where there is no religion, there is no politics.” Well yes, that’s exactly what a public school should be … a place where religious and political differences are left outside because the purpose of a school is to teach children the things that all citizens should know, regardless of their religion and politics.
I have never seen a library, at a school or a public one, that lacked Bibles. The book is not “banned,” you just can’t use the public schools to evangelize.
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Checking all the links, I’m not sure how they connect to banned book week.
The University of Edinburgh did not ban the Bible. They banned the Gideons from placing a bible in every dorm room. The bible can be found in the library and of course students can bring their own.
The British airline banned the Bible in accordance with Saudi rules. Similarly, they would ban marijuana on flights to the US and for that matter cheap Canadian drugs to the US etc. Its a matter of respecting local laws. The grievance is with the Saudis not BMI and the Hindu and Buddha scriptures are also banned here so noone is picking on Christians.
As for the Turksih incident. The Bible wasn’t banned. Criminals blew up a priniting press in clear violation of Turkish law.
Playing the victim card should at least demand evidence.
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So how is the Bible considered “discrimination”, yet nothing is said about the sacred texts of other religions? Isn’t the act of banning the Bible a nod to atheistic beliefs? How is that not a religion?
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#4: Not necessarily. A lot of atheists believe Jesus was a reformer, a teacher, a compassionate man, who was deified after his death by his followers. No lying or conning in that.
#15: The point of most of the comments is that none of the cases cited in the article are anything close to a “ban.” Read #14 to understand that.
As for the case that used the word “discriminatory,” read the linked article. What was discriminatory was having a Bible in every dorm room, regardless of the beliefs of the students living there. If some group was trying to aggressively force another religion’s sacred text on the students, that too would be discriminatory … but no one was.
Now if someone ever said “students at this school cannot have or read a Bible,” that would be a ban. You’ll never find a case of that happening in any Western country.
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It was the Bible that inspired the greatest invention of all time — the printing press. Without the printing press there would be no need for libraries. Banning the Bible from libraries? That’s gratitude for you!
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School trustee Ron Burton told CBC news, “I think people see the school system as a haven where there is no religion, there is no politics.”
Public school is a political entity that only permits a single religion, one that hardly anyone belongs to.
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Well here I go, my first ever submittal to a blog. (I haven’t yet registerd a bio. So let me start by saying ,that I am an adult sunday school and bible study leader at a small rural non-denominational church. And to get to the subject…) We as christians must be careful when we shout discrimination without having rock solid proof. We neither help our Lord’s nor our own cause when we cry wolf. I for one believe that children do need to be introduced to Jesus. But in a free country would we want our own children to be given copies of the koran or the satanic bible. Remember that just as the Gideon’s can supply free bibles (which I approve of!) some other group could supply other “religious texts”. Which most of us would find totally unacceptable. Please remember that the freedom of religion sword can cut many different directions.
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In 303 the emperor Diocletian decreed that all Christian scriptures must be burned. The worldwide edict remained in effect for ten years.
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Personally, I think it’d be great if the Bible got banned in schools.
Lunchroom conversation:
“What’s that?”
“It’s a Bible.”
“Are you serious?!”
“Shh! Not so loud!”
“Lemme see!”
Banning generates interest.
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“Atheists for Jesus”
“Random – Why would any atheist be ‘for’ Jesus? By their reckoning, He was either a lunatic or a con man.”
“It’s a joke.”
Random, only on this blog would you have to explain it was a joke.
Who was Jesus? Did this person ever exist? I suppose he did, but who cares? Did he really say all the things the NT Bible claims he said? I doubt it. The Bible is full of made up stories. Certainly the Resurrection is a myth, believed only by the most gullible people.
Did Jesus really claim his daddy was God? I doubt it. Even back then he probably would have been laughed at.
Anyway, the Jesus myth, and all the miracle nonsense that comes with the Jesus myth, continues today, which proves the human race, in general, is just as stupid as it was many centuries ago.
“December, 2006: A British airline banned Bibles for airline personnel flying to Saudi Arabia, afraid of upsetting Muslims with non-Islamic religious material. A stewardess challenged the ban.”
This proves 2 things. The people in charge of that British airline are cowards, and that stewardess was most likely some holy roller idiot.
The Bible is good for only one thing: toilet paper for people too poor to buy the real thing.
Ban the Bible? Why bother? It’s just a worthless piece of fiction. Let the god nutjobs read want they want. Who cares?
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