Citing “vulgarity and violence,” a school district in the US state of Utah has banned the Bible from its elementary and secondary schools.
The action was taken in response to a parent’s complaint that the King James Bible included inappropriate content for kids.
In 2022, the Republican-controlled government of Utah approved a law prohibiting “pornographic or indecent” textbooks.
So far, the majority of the books that have been banned deal with issues like sexual orientation and identity.
The banning of the Bible comes amid a larger effort by US conservatives in states to ban teachings on controversial topics such as LGBT rights and racial identity; this according to a story published by BBC. Bans on certain books deemed offensive are also in place in Texas, Florida, Missouri and South Carolina. Some liberal states have also banned books in some schools and libraries, citing perceived racially offensive content.
Following a complaint filed in December 2022, the Davis School District, located north of Salt Lake City, announced the ruling about Utah this week. The seven or eight copies of the Bible that were on the shelves, according to officials, have already been taken down. They note that the book was never covered in class.
Which passages contained “vulgarity or violence” or the committee’s reasons were not specified.
The parent who protested, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, claimed that the King James Bible “has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition” in reference to the 2022 book-ban rule.
The Utah state lawmaker who wrote the 2022 law had previously dismissed the Bible removal request as a “mockery”, but changed course this week after calling it a “challenging read” for younger children.
“Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught, and best understood, in the home, and around the hearth, as a family,” Ken Ivory wrote on Facebook.
The district’s ruling determined that the Bible’s content does not violate the 2022 law, but does include “vulgarity or violence not suitable for younger students”. The book will remain in place in local high schools.
The district is not the first in the US to remove the Bible from its shelves.
A Texas school district last year pulled the Bible from library shelves after complaints from members of the public opposed to conservatives’ efforts to ban some books.
Last month, students in Kansas requested to have the Bible removed from their school library.
