Book Bans in Alabama

By Nathan Young on June 27, 2012

How could any public library decide to ban a book that is very popular. The book “50 Shades of Grey” by E.L. James is the first book of the trilogy being labeled by many as mommy porn, sexy, and twilight for adults. And it’s sweeping the nation by storm. This book has been number 1 on the New York Times best-selling list and has been a top seller on Amazon. The readers of the book who are mostly women have been saying this book is hard-core in sex and porn. And many people do not admit they have read this book until someone else admits they have read this book. But you knew that someone here in Alabama would ban this book because it is too “erotic”. The Mobile Public Library has not carried this book because they have deemed it too erotic and they do not carry any books deemed “erotica”. Here’s the story from al.com.

http://blog.al.com/live/2012/06/fifty_shades_of_grey_banned_fr.html#incart_river_default

Of course this has not been the first time someone has considered banning a book or book series in Alabama. A prisoner in the Alabama Prison System has brought on a federal lawsuit over the banned book “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.” that is banned in prison.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/09/ban_at_alabama_prison_on_pulit_1.html

And a Alabama Legislator back in 2005 named Gerald Allen proposed banning all books that sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of the state. Books such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof“, “The Color Purple”, “Bridget Jones’ Diary“, “The World According to Garp”, “The Portrait of Dorian Gray“, and Stephen King’s book “It” would be categorized as illegal. Thankfully this bill did not pass. http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2920970

These book bans in Alabama are pretty crazy. And I know I am about to make some people angry again at me and this blog. I believe that these book bans are being done by some people who wants to force everyone to only read, watch, and see things that are Christian and God worthy. These people believe that anything that does not represent God and Christianity is a sin and is wrong. Of course this is something that was followed by many people years ago but guess what? We are in the year 2012. And not everyone wants religion forced on them.

Rainbow Oreo, Yummy!

I have no problem with Christianity and churches talking about the gospel but when some of these people wants to spread it to everyday things from books to TV shows that is when it crosses the line. We live in a free country called the U.S.A. As long we are not breaking the law we are allowed to do anything. I believe that you people who wants religion forced on everyone also hates seeing this picture of the rainbow Oreo. I know some people wants everything representing homosexuality and being gay banned in Alabama. But what’s wrong with being gay? I thought that God said to treat everyone equally. (James 2:1-13) I do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I also believe that you should not force anything on people. And for the people who wants to ban certain books because it does not contour to their beliefs. You need to get over it. It might not even kill you to pick up the book that you want banned.

To sum it up; no books should be banned over anything. It is evil that someone would suggest to ban a certain book. Do you want a book banned that might encourage someone to learn to read? Of course I would not want to ban something that might encourage someone to learn something. And that also means the “50 Shades of Gray” book should not be banned. And to wrap up this post here are two videos about this book. And yes they are funny!