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World News

Bible and Fifty Shades of Grey on US list of most objected books

by Hannah Tooley

It sits at number six on the American Library Association's list of top ten 'most challenged' books.

Some challenged books:
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green 
- Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
- The Holy Bible

James LaRue, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Association, told the Daily Telegraph: "You have people who feel that if a school library buys a copy of the Bible, it's a violation of church and state.

"And sometimes there's a retaliatory action, where a religious group has objected to a book and a parent might respond by objecting to the Bible."

James LaRue said that the Association does not object to bibles being in libraries, but that it also supports various other religious materials being on offer as well such as the Quran.

Guidelines for the Office for Intellectual Freedom said the Bible "does not violate the separation of church and state as long as the library does not endorse or promote the views included in the Bible."

Mr LaRue continued: "Many of the books deal with issues of diversity.

"And that often leads to challenges."

275 incidents were recorded in 2015, down from 311 the previous year - one of the lowest on record.

Ernie Seibert from United Bible Societies, told Premier's News Hour the Bible needs to be better-understood: "Christians should offer the Bible to people so that people can read and change their minds about it.

"The Bible is really a library, it's more than 60 books and has different styles and different ways to be read."

He went on: "Sometimes it's an issue of interpretation, people can make a fundamental mistake reading the Bible and many people that critique the Bible they use a simplistic way of reading the Bible."

Listen to Premier's Aaron James speak to Ernie Seibert here:

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