Utah recently passed a law that requires schools to consider parent input when deciding what books to keep in the libraries of public schools. That was meant to keep out the horrific pornography included in some school libraries that is ostensibly meant to teach tolerance for the LGBTQ+ sexual identities.
That law is the “Sensitive Materials in Schools” law. it was enacted in May and prohibits books that contain “explicit sexual arousal, stimulation, masturbation, intercourse, sodomy or fondling.”
But, of course, now the law is being turned on Christians. Davis School District, which is located north of Salt Lake City, Utah, just removed the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries because a parent complained about the descriptions of sex and violence in it. The Book of Mormon, the sacred text of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is also reportedly on the chopping block.
Fox News Digital reports that in the petition requesting the Bible be removed from libraries, “the anonymous parent seems to mock Utah Parents United,” a Christian group that spearheaded the efforts to remove inappropriate literature from public schools. The petition said, “Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible. You’ll no doubt find that the Bible has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
Continuing, the parent listed Bible passages about sex and said, “Get this PORN out of our schools.” It added, “If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”
The Davis School District evidently agreed, and so it went ahead with the petition to ban the Bible. The school district gave no reason for its decision or even which verses factored into its banning of the Bible. However, the review committee apparently determined that the Bible did not meet the definition of what’s pornographic or indecent under the new law, so it remains available in high schools.
The Associated Press reports that situations such as this one are why some states, even red states, have slowed efforts to pass laws removing books deemed inappropriate by some from public schools, or at least raised concerns that those laws could have problematic after-effects. For example, that article quotes an Arkansas lawmaker as saying, “I don’t want people to be able to say, ’I don’t want the Bible in the library.’” Arkansas has a law that prohibits librarians from including “harmful” materials in libraries for minors and provides criminal penalties.
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In a sane and reasonable society, the prohibition on pornography for elementary schoolchildren would be understood as not including the Bible. In this new model America, it’s just another way for crazies to defend pornography and attack the Bible.