Don't Judge Me By My Lover

A large part of what condemns a book to stigmatization is the audience who's reading it. A perfect example would be Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. For American readers The Da Vinci Code is blasphemous and heretical. However, what many Americans fail to realize is that American Christianity is far removed from Christianity in its original form. Many texts have been watered down, sugar coated, filtered, altered, and in many cases completely left out of the bible altogether to suit American and western European ideals.

In a country like Ethiopia, The Da Vinci Code is merely reiterating beliefs that are thousands of years old. These are theologies that have been part of Ethiopia's doctrine since Christianity's inception. In Ethiopia, the views expressed by The Da Vinci Code represent the complete opposite of blasphemy and heresy. Either way, Banning a book for "inappropriate" religious convictions is ironic and moronic. We are not only promised freedom of speech by our constitution, but we are also promised freedom of religion.

I believe there are a few extreme cases where the government should be allowed to ban books. For example if a serial killer decides to publish a how to manual on how to rape and mutilate a victim, or if a terrorist decides to publish a how to manual for blowing up skyscrapers. Other than that, banning books is censorship, it's unconstitutional, and it's wrong.

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=15226&t=Ethiopia+celebrates+2000+years+of+Church