The Catholic Church Has a Long History of Book Banning


About the time of the printing press, Popes started publishing long lists of banned books. For hundreds of years, including the present, this practice has continued. Of course, various branches of Protestantism has done this as well. Has this history, along with bans of movies and economic boycotts of "sinful" businesses accomplished anything? The short answer is no. 

That is the long answer as well. Book stores and public libraries today have tables displaying "Banned Books" making them even more tempting to readers. A Catholic author explains why banning books is foolish.

Banning media coverage is similar. A few years ago in Iowa where I now live, the pig and corn dominated legislature passed a law against anyone becoming an employee of a farm and then photographing on their phone what went on. In particular, farmers did not what videos of walking through a barn of chickens picking up dead ones. Now, certainly it is dishonest to take a job at a chicken farm for only the purpose of taking scandalous pictures, but the law went far beyond the intended goal. The court case and years of publicity repeated the existing pictures of removing dead chickens. Farmers lost instead of gained in their public relations effort. 

There was a strange phenomenon at play when I was a mayor. It was always a challenge to find money to keep the bus system going. Few people ride the bus. There was, and remains I suppose, a segement of the public who thinks that when they buy gasoline for their cars they pay all the expenses for streets and roads. Thus, they complain at subsidizing buses. The truth is paying taxes on gasoline does not cover all the expenses of streets and roads. Property and sales taxes subsidize automobile use. The surprise about bus ridership is that when the system was short on money, or, buses were breaking down on the streets, ridership went up. That is, unfavorable publicity can help instead of hinder marketing. 

Those on-going efforts to block anti Christian books or other publicity have always failed and will in the future. To prohibit teachers from saying the words "transsexual" or "gay" does not reduce that population. Burning books does not either. 

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