This holy book tops the list of most challenged books at libraries

One of the more unpleasent tasks for the American Library Association (ALA) is to field complaints from parents about the books sitting in their children’s school library shelves. Some they probably see coming.”Fifty Shades of Grey”? OK, sure. “I Am Jazz,” the transgender children’s book by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings? They were probably anticipating that one. But the sixth most complained about book might surprise you: The Bible.

It’s the first time the Bible has landed on the ALA’s top 10 list of most challenged books. The most typical complaints are that having the Bible in school libraries pushes a specific religious viewpoint, and also does not maintain the seperation of church and state.

As The Huffington Post reports, the Office of Intellectual Freedom’s guidelines state that the Bible does not violate the seperation of church and state as long as the library doesn’t endorse or promote its views.

The most often complained about book of 2015 is John Green’s “Looking For Alaska,” citing explicit language and sex. Green responded to the news in a YouTube video saying, “Text is nothing without context, and what usually happens with ‘Looking For Alaska’ is that a parent shows one particular page of the novel to an administrator and then the book gets banned without having anyone who objects to it reading more than that one particular page.”

See the full top 10 list below:

1. “Looking for Alaska,” John Green

2. “Fifty Shades of Grey,” EL James

3. “I Am Jazz,” Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

4. “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” Susan Kuklin

5. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Mark Haddon

6. The Bible

7. “Fun Home,” Alison Bechdel

8. “Habibi,” Craig Thompson

9. “Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan,” Jeanette Winter

10. “Two Boys Kissing,” David Levithan

Follow Emily on Twitter: @EmLaurence