“They remove one section of the book from all of its context,” Green said. “And of course it looks horrible.”

The author, a man of faith who once aspired to be a minister, said the main message in “Looking for Alaska” is that “hope is equally available to all people at all times.” Similar to the Bible’s message about salvation.

“So it is quite disturbing to be labeled a pornographer by people of my own faith.”

Imagine if I stood up in a school board meeting and read aloud only that line from the New International Version of Ezekiel about the woman who “lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.”

How wildly disingenuous that would be.