The Dangers of Book Banning The practice of challenging or banning books has long been a strategy used to label reading materials as offensive on moral, religious, or political, grounds. Books are being banned for containing offensive materials. It is argued that people can become influenced by detrimental ideas. The First Amendment expresses that citizens have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The pros of being against book banning is the First Amendment, parental control, and true facts and occurrences. The cons of being against book banning is that the works contain offensive and racist material, parents cannot control what their children learn at school, and the true facts and events that promote bad influence. People should not support book banning because the First Amendment supports the freedom of speech and the press. In the past the Roman Catholic Church began the practice of book banning. The author provides information that reads, “In the sixteenth century the Roman Catholic Church began keeping a list of prohibited books. The aim of the list was to prevent people from reading that would expose them to ideas that would expose them to ideas that contradicted, misrepresented, or criticized the church’s edicts or interpretations of the Bible” (Aliprandini). In the …show more content…
The author expresses, “A books ideas may be disliked, the book may be perceived to ridicule certain individuals or to ignore others; or the book may be judged to be dangerous or offensive” (Miller). Everyone has different emotions about certain books. For instance, anyone cannot remove anything from dislike, others may enjoy it. People should be respected and be able to read a book they enjoy without being banned. Banning books is a way of controlling people. If the United States allows books to be written in any way, people are still able to write dangerous and offensive