# 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:** 6
**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 5, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/101 "2021-03-05T20:22:40Z")
Yes, we now live in a world where a Dr. Seuss book is contraband. All the disingenuous people who ridicule that sort of prediction as a slippery slope fallacy were right. There was no slippery slope there was a cliff. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/102 "2021-03-05T20:22:42Z")
Saying Christian bookstores “ban” books is ridiculous. Of course their not going to carry books that piss off the kind of people who shop at these types of stores. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/103 "2021-03-05T20:24:16Z")
You really are going off the rails here. It’s like a car wreck, where I simply can’t **not** look. But it is carnage, regardless. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/104 "2021-03-05T20:27:30Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > I’d rather have bad arguments than your desired reality where those who don’t conform are silenced… Well, at least you know you have bad arguments. I didn’t think you were that self-aware. Your mind reading still needs work, though. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/105 "2021-03-05T20:30:38Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > In the UK in order to get planning permission to build new housing, developers must guarantee that some proportion of the dwellings they build will meet conditions to be considered ‘affordable housing’, even if they would prefer to build nothing but executive homes. In other words, they compel companies to provide goods or services they do not wish to offer - and this is the more moderate position. The socialist position is that the local government should build low cost housing and rent it cheaply to the those in need, and it’s what I support. So I guess according to @Atamasama I’m _worse_ than a hardcore USSR socialist, lol. The same thing happens in the US. Because shelter is a pretty basic need for humans. Are you honestly trying to equate that with Amazon selling a book? Seriously? ---
**Author:** ![Latimera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/latimera/32/497_2.png) [@Latimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latimera)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/106 "2021-03-05T20:31:24Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Yes, we now live in a world where a Dr. Seuss book is contraband. Jesus Christ! Get a grip! The publisher decided not to publish certain Dr. Seuss books. They are not “contraband.” Do you even understand what contraband means? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/107 "2021-03-05T20:33:23Z")
It was banned by the people who fought against the Sandinistas. Keep up. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/108 "2021-03-05T20:37:30Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Saying Christian bookstores “ban” books is ridiculous. Of course their not going to carry books that piss off the kind of people who shop at these types of stores. Well, yeah. That’s the point. Replace “Christian bookstores” with “Amazon,” and you have the counterargument to @DemonTree’s post that this thread is mocking. Or try replacing “Christian bookstores” with “Dr. Seuss’s estate” and “shop at these types of stores” with “reads their books” to refute @octopus. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/109 "2021-03-05T20:42:29Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > You really are going off the rails here. It’s like a car wreck, where I simply can’t **not** look. > > But it is carnage, regardless. Octopus hasn’t been within sight of the rails in years. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/110 "2021-03-05T20:45:53Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#): > > And companies are rejecting the toxicity as being non-profitable (at least), and potentially anti-profitable (due to backlash). Let’s not also discount that companies are also made up of people, a lot of whom also probably dislike these toxic viewpoints personally. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/111 "2021-03-05T20:47:30Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Maybe even do like ten seconds of due diligence on your link to make sure it’s accurate. It _would_ be a first… ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/112 "2021-03-05T20:48:59Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The same thing happens in the US. Because shelter is a pretty basic need for humans. Are you honestly trying to equate that with Amazon selling a book? Seriously? I’m saying it isn’t extreme socialism or crossing some kind of line to say the government can regulate what companies do, including compelling them to provide some kind of service they wouldn’t otherwise. And I do think free exchange of ideas is pretty damn important for a democratic society. Whether it’s a reasonable demand in this particular case is a different question. Probably it isn’t. But it’s not strange or unreasonable; it’s one possible response if the problems escalate. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/113 "2021-03-05T20:49:02Z")
You folks are foolishly naive if you think you can control the monstrous ideology that is exploiting wokeness. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/114 "2021-03-05T20:49:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I took it easy on you in GD and **ECG** took it easy on you in the ATMB thread and yet you insist on playing the victim card. Are you going to keep on making that mistake? ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/115 "2021-03-05T20:50:16Z")
It’s probably better to have that discussion of strategy in snarkland. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/116 "2021-03-05T20:51:54Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Those same people cheer dominant corporations banning Dr. Seuss. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/117 "2021-03-05T20:52:38Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > People melted because a single baker wouldn’t make a cake. I think this one is particularly worthy of a moment’s attention. The baker _wouldn’t sell the same cake that he sold to everybody else_ to a couple, simply because the couple was same-sex. Which people said was the functional equivalent of “forcing a Jewish delicatessen to sell pork chops.” Except it wasn’t, and those people are idiots. Nobody banned Dr. Seuss’s books, and nobody was trying to get Masterpiece Bakery to do anything except abide by the laws it agreed to abide by when it [wait for it] opened its doors to the public. Amazon didn’t refuse to sell this COVID book to a customer _because that customer was Asian._ Their move/glitch/business decision (was temporary, and reversed) simply took a pork chop off the menu. In **the very strictest sense,** I do understand your concern: will we all feel this way when the book yanked from the platform of the 800# gorilla of booksellers is written by Barack Obama ? Maybe. And if an LGBTQ baker refuses to sell a stock wedding cake to a straight couple, will I pitch a bitch ? Probably. But this ain’t that. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/118 "2021-03-05T20:53:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Well, yeah. That’s the point. Replace “Christian bookstores” with “Amazon,” and you have the counterargument to @DemonTree’s post that this thread is mocking. Christian bookstores don’t have quite the overwhelming international dominance of Amazon. _Your_ government has far too much control of the internet for comfort. Especially given the notable… erraticness of US voters. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/119 "2021-03-05T20:56:12Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > It’s probably better to have that discussion of strategy in snarkland. I’m commenting on **What\_Exit’s** own post. Although I see Miller made a subsequent mode note. Also - stop trying to make BoardWar happen, Gretchen. ---
**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 5, 2021, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271/120 "2021-03-05T20:56:58Z")
One of the many reasons that that is not really comparable is because people actually do need a place to live. They don’t need Amazon to distribute their books. Another reason that that is not really comparable is that the govt, as part of that deal, usually subsidizes that affordable housing, ensuring that the developer makes a profit off of it. And I would agree that it would be more efficient for the govt to simply take care of housing directly, but it is actually those on the right that oppose that most strongly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-christian-bookstores-allowed-to-ban-books/937271.md?page=7)