# Why are Christian Bookstores Allowed to Ban Books? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 5, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271 "2021-03-05T15:24:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/342 "2021-03-07T03:40:11Z")
And then people who have actually read the Bible would show up en masse and say that there’s no record of Jesus ever having said anything like this, although John 21:25 could possibly cover it, but probably not. > **[Bible Gateway passage: John 21:25 - New International Version](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2021%3A25&version=NIV)** > > Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/343 "2021-03-07T03:59:11Z")
Help me a bit here. What does a “banned” book mean vs “we don’t sell that book”? If a privately owned “Muslim” book store doesn’t sell the “New Testament” is that a ‘banning’ or ‘we don’t sell that book’? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/344 "2021-03-07T05:10:39Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > What does a “banned” book mean vs “we don’t sell that book”? If a privately owned “Muslim” book store doesn’t sell the “New Testament” is that a ‘banning’ or ‘we don’t sell that book’? You will have to ask, for instance, DemonTree whose now-closed GD thread “Amazon quietly banning books” is called out in the OP of this thread. Or octopus who has also been throwing around the word “ban” more for rhetorical value than for any rationally consistent meaning. Most of the other posters in this thread have been making exactly the same sort of points that your post is making: namely, that a private entity deciding not to sell a particular item is not the same thing as “banning” that item. You can go to, e.g., the Abebooks website right now and find [dozens of copies of these discontinued Dr. Seuss books for sale](https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=seuss&tn=think%20saw%20mulberry%20street&sortby=17&cm_sp=plpafe-_-all-_-link), and there is no prohibition whatsoever against purchasing or owning as many copies of them as you please. So yeah, I think sensible people are already pretty much all in agreement that we should not loosely use the term “banned” to mean merely “not sold by a particular retailer” or “no longer republished by the people who hold the publishing rights to it”. Unfortunately, there are some fairly non-sensible people in the discussion who don’t get that point. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/345 "2021-03-07T06:21:49Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Of course Amazon does. It just has to be the WOKE! that do the pressuring. That’s it. PLONK ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/346 "2021-03-07T06:49:27Z")
The folks who’ve had a stroke are the fools who adhere to the morally bankrupt ideology of wokeness where math, telling time, and writing in complete sentences is a sign of racist, white supremacy. In what messed up, bizarro world has 1+1 = 2 become hate speech? Progressives are more worried about Mr, Potato Head then they are about genocide in China. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/347 "2021-03-07T06:56:05Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > {…} Progressives are more worried about Mr, Potato Head then they are about genocide in China. Really? It’s ‘’‘Progressives’‘’ that turned that non-story into yet another anti-trans moral panic? Shit in your hand, watch conservative ‘’‘news’‘’ for stories about genocide in China, and watch conservative ‘’‘news’‘’ for stories about latest ‘’‘culture war’‘’ outrage and see which fills up first. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/348 "2021-03-07T07:16:11Z")
Fun fact: When confronted with difficult questions octopuses run away and pretend the question wasn’t asked. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/349 "2021-03-07T07:23:28Z")
Yes. I just don’t see any in the lyrics you posted. Care to point them out? ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/350 "2021-03-07T10:42:33Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > ISTM that you missed my point, namely: The argument for letting transgender people play on sports teams of their identified gender is not because we have expanded the definitions of the words “man” and “woman” to include transgender people. I’ve seen many people right on these boards argue that trans women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports because they _are_ women. And that is their whole argument. So don’t tell me it isn’t true. > [@Kimstu](#): > > Similarly, it’s quite obvious that the reason for using your preferred terminology is to deny transgender women’s inclusion in the term “women”. In both cases, that denial is an insult to the people being referred to. Wrong. The point of using this terminology with regard to sports is that sporting ability depends on bodies and not on identity. Having separate categories of sport based on gender identity makes about as much sense as having them for people with different hair colours. There’s no way to justify it. > [@Kimstu](#): > > You are apparently mixing me up with some other poster(s) (unless you’re being deliberately dishonest in your rhetoric, which of course you wouldn’t be, right?). While I am indeed fine with referring to people who have cervixes (including myself) as “people with cervixes”, I have never endorsed calling people who menstruate “bleeders”, and I don’t think I’ve ever used or referred to the term “birthing parent”. So be a little more careful in your accuracy with the remarks you’re ascribing to me, please. I could have sworn you endorsed this style of terminology of referring to people by their body parts and biological functions in the JKR thread. (Funnily enough, the group of people so referred are almost always the same as the ones who are commonly denigrated for their biology by being told they are hysterical or just PMSing, and that menstruation is disgusting and taboo, and the same who see their careers suffer after having children.) But I’m glad to know you don’t endorse ‘bleeders’. How about ‘people who bleed’? ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/351 "2021-03-07T10:45:48Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > My bad too, I responded in post #328 before seeing this post. I will defer to your request as OP and refrain from continuing to discuss DemonTree’s asshole opinions about trans women in this thread. Should have read the rest of the thread before replying. My bad also. Consider the subject closed. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/352 "2021-03-07T11:17:17Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > Help me a bit here. What does a “banned” book mean vs “we don’t sell that book”? If a privately owned “Muslim” book store doesn’t sell the “New Testament” is that a ‘banning’ or ‘we don’t sell that book’? It means that as well as stopping sale of the book themselves, Amazon also banned 3rd party sellers on the site from selling it. I hope that if I said eBay banned some item, you’d understand what I meant and that it isn’t the same as a general ban. Obviously I should have been more clear in my OP. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/353 "2021-03-07T11:34:57Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Oh shit, I misunderstood. Good thing I could be arsed to read the rest! Don’t know what you’re complaining about. I read _your_ posts. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/354 "2021-03-07T16:17:26Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > I promise not to hit you with my car. I understand the fucking idiot right-wingers are trying to make that legal now. That’s gonna come back and bite them in the ass too. “We meant that only WE could run YOU down with our cars! No fair!” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/355 "2021-03-07T16:22:53Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Fun fact: When confronted with difficult questions octopuses run away and pretend the question wasn’t asked. He claims not to be trolling. OK then, that would make him the stupidest idjit that I’ve come across. My money is on “Stupid dumbass troll.” - Business makes decision to re-brand product to keep up with the times - Conservative media goes apeshit and demands private company does what they want - When this idiocy is pointed out (conservatives wanting government control over private business, conservatives demanding private company be “cancelled” - then our resident idiotic troll tries to spin this as: “Oh, Oh, you progressives are more worried about Mr. Potato Head than about genocide in China” A three year old can see the blatant idiocy here. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/356 "2021-03-07T16:38:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And then people who have actually read the Bible You mean atheists? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/357 "2021-03-07T16:42:19Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > I’ve seen many people right on these boards argue that trans women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports because they _are_ women. And that is their whole argument. So don’t tell me it isn’t true. No you haven’t, and no it’s not. That may be what you reduce their argument to in your simple black and white mindset, but that is not the argument that is actually given. It’s hard to tell if you are a liar or just stupid, or if it’s a combination of both, but it is evident that you are useless as a poster when it comes to subjects to which you have such a knee jerk hateful response. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/358 "2021-03-07T16:58:03Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The folks who’ve had a stroke are the fools who adhere to the morally bankrupt ideology of wokeness where math, telling time, and writing in complete sentences is a sign of racist, white supremacy. > > In what messed up, bizarro world has 1+1 = 2 become hate speech? Progressives are more worried about Mr, Potato Head then they are about genocide in China. Holy shit. I always knew your mainspring was wound way too tight, but this proves it snapped entirely. A nice relaxing stint in incoherent babbling rehab seems to be in order. octopus: intrinsically biased since 2015 Exapno\_Mapcase: Getting paid to write in complete sentences since 1975 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/359 "2021-03-07T17:10:56Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Probably they put it back up after the article was written. I don’t know if there’s a way to check? Well, other posters pointed at why your article was not reliable or past due thanks to changes made, bottom line: one should then change one’s opinion or at least drop that article or source as reliable. Otherwise then you are no different from right wing or from unedited and copy paste sources that do not do corrections \*\*, because those corrections will undermine the biased message they want to promote. . . . . \*\* In the era of the internet, the excuse that no corrections are possible is poppycock, it is double deceptive when a source willfully ignores that corrections and clarifications were made and are available for decades now like what deniers ignore in their articles regarding [the climate gate manufactured controversy.](https://www.factcheck.org/2009/12/climategate/) ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/360 "2021-03-07T18:16:45Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > No you haven’t, and no it’s not. Yes I have, and yes it is. Are you going to acknowledge that you were wrong earlier and I _was_ responding to someone who claimed government regulation of business = socialism? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/361 "2021-03-07T18:23:09Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Yes I have, and yes it is. Are you going to acknowledge that you were wrong earlier and I _was_ responding to someone who claimed government regulation of business = socialism? You are a pathetic lying sack of shit. I never fucking said regulation is socialism you moron. I said that FORCING STORES TO SELL SOMETHING is socialism. That isn’t regulation, that’s not even close. That is dictating what a store does to the point that the government is running it. This is your problem. You make up bullshit nobody ever said, absolutely lie about it, then smugly and ineptly attempt to refute it. You are a despicable human being and you should be ashamed of yourself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271.md?page=19)