Utah school district bans the Bible

From the AP:

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Republican lawmakers rallied with more than one hundred Bible-toting parents and children at Utah's Capitol on Wednesday to protest a school district's decision to remove the Bible from middle and elementary school libraries in the wake of a GOP-backed “sensitive materials” law passed two years ago.

Concerned parents and children holding signs that read “The Bible is the original textbook” and “Remove porn, not the Bible,” said they were outraged after the Davis School District announced that a review committee concluded the Bible was too “violent or vulgar” for young children. The committee ruled that it did not qualify as obscene or pornographic under the sensitive materials law, but used its own discretion to remove it from libraries below the high school level.

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I am insulted by the rabid right's attack on books, librarians and school boards over what I regard as pettiness for little minds. If this helps bring this campaign into focus I am all for it. :clap:

Jephthah burning his daughter alive to celebrate a military victory
Adultery and murder of the cuckold husband
Pounding a tent stake through a guy's brain
Genocidal killing for religious reasons
Killing the first born of an entire nation
Death by various ugly methods as punishment for relatively minor offenses

Not an exhaustive list and not even up to the New Testament whose main focus is death by horrific torture for a guy who hung out with tax collectors, prostitutes and lepers.

Yeah, just based on the subject matter, not really appropriate for the younger set. I remember my own nightmares as a child from some of these stories.

How old was your daughter before you aloud her to view this "book of violence"?

We're Catholic, Dave. Catholics don't read the Bible!

I was being facetious before but only somewhat. If you are a Christian, you come at the Bible with a point of view but just reading it as literature, it has some pretty adult themes. I suspect that was the point being made by the folks who brought the original complaint. People rail about LGBTQ indoctrination while being taught to worship a God that commands the destruction of His own creation? Or all of a nation because they might contaminate His chosen people with a different religion?

And I was being somewhat serious about not reading the Bible. Growing up Catholic, we were discouraged by the Church in doing that. The Church realized that many of the things I mentioned take interpretation to get "the lesson". Such as Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Issac. The point is obedience being rewarded, not killing a child. The Church never really trusted lay Catholics to catch that drift and so discouraged private Bible reading, preferring to relegate that to the priests on Sunday. Safer, in their view.

So in answer to your question, I never read the Bible to my children. I never had the Bible read to me as a child. Neither did my parents or theirs. Just not a Catholic thing. I did have nightmares about the Murder of the Holy Innocents and the various punishments visited on Egypt by Moses, though.

I took "aloud" as meaning "reading to" in your post. If you are asking if I ever forbid them from reading the Bible, I've never forbidden them from reading anything. I've cautioned them about stuff, perhaps, and asked them to come to me with questions but I've never made them ask my permission to read anything they wanted. They usually made good choices. "Bored of the Rings" was questionable but entertaining...

I figured this topic would turn up here. It fits.

A large percentage of my LDS Brethren still practice what is called Family Home Evening. The point of it is to have the family spend time together - whether it's playing games or scripture study. I support this effort and respect the LDS values displayed.

What I think is occurring is our Legislature often struggles with issues at a city or county level. Though local governments do not want state intervention - it regularly happens.

"Mormons will account for nearly 90 percent of the state Legislature this session, giving members of the faith outsized influenced in a state that is becoming slightly more religiously diverse."
- AP

And, once again, I don't have a problem with the above. In addition, our legislative leaders meet with LDS officials to share political information and stances prior to each session. This year, The Church advocated voters support politicians with, "integrity" - which was seen as a repudiation of #45 and his supporters.

Hunter

While I was introduced to the Bible much earlier than you Kevin I did question many of the "stories", especially but not exclusively in the Old Testament, but I don't recall ever being kept awake at night by them. It is all within the context of a different time.

Utah, I was not pointing an accusing finger at the LDS or Utah----this, in one form or another, is going on all over the country and some very (IMHO) significant works have come under attack by these "do-gooders". Amanda Gorman's book even came under fire in Florida----BY ONE PARENT WHO NEVER READ THE BOOK. Now access is age restricted.

I wish these do-gooders would spend as much time parenting their own children as they spend trying to parent others :redmad: Frankly, there is nothing in our High School library that I would not want my children to read---to the contrary I wish they had showed more interest in those books than they did with hiding Playboy and Hustler under their mattresses. :sorry:

Back to Utah---I can't help but wonder if this move by the School Board was not meant as a protest to this wave of do-gooders.

I'd also like to put in a vote for understanding where all this comes from.

We are in a time of great upheaval in social norms. Stuff being written for children today is all over the map. Some good, some bad, some age-appropriate, some not. I can understand a parent wanting to be the one that is the primary influence for their children because so many of these issues involve morality in the view of various religions and like it or not, religion is very important to a lot of people. So hackles are up. And there is pushback and counter pushback. The settled social norms are being unsettled.

In this environment, it is natural for people on all sides of an issue to be upset and think dire thoughts about the other team. I think that lots of people really despise each other these days and these issues are just a way to focus that on each other.

Basically, my point of view is that if someone is old enough to ask the question, they are old enough to hear the answer and what's in the library is a lot safer for them than all the other places they can get info.

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Originally Posted by Kevin

...if someone is old enough to ask the question, they are old enough to hear the answer...

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I like it. :cool:

Are we it? I ask that rhetorically - as this thread is comprised of what I would call our Liberal Contingent.

Hunter

I have no skin in this game, but I don't like censorship in libraries. As I understand it, this was all brought about by the complaint of one parent. Our f'ed up society now allows one parent to make the rules for an entire school district. Maybe they should give that "one" parent a free vacation to a hotel in Russia.

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Originally Posted by Mike

Maybe they should give that "one" parent a free vacation to a hotel in Russia.

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I understand there's a vacancy opening soon on the 12th floor...:shock:...Ben

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Originally Posted by Mike

I have no skin in this game, but I don't like censorship in libraries. As I understand it, this was all brought about by the complaint of one parent. Our f'ed up society now allows one parent to make the rules for an entire school district. Maybe they should give that "one" parent a free vacation to a hotel in Russia.

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That pretty well sums it up Mike :clap:

In our school district it was a group of about 15 parents that got "the list" from their rabid right internet sources---and in our case only a few would say that they had read "passages" in the targeted books---none claimed to have read any of the books in total.

The school board appointed a group of parents, administrators and librarians to review the targeted books. None were removed :clap: