Several schools in a Utah school district have banned the Bible after a student’s father called the religious book pornographic because of its sexual and violent content.
This guardian abused a controversial state law that allows schools to withdraw textbooks deemed inappropriate for students, the newspaper said The Salt Lake Grandstandquoted by Efe.
According to this father, the Bible contains passages about incest, rape and prostitution and is essentially pornographic, according to a state law passed in 2022 that has mainly been used by conservative groups to censor books about racial topics or about the LGBTQI community. (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex).
The Bible has been withdrawn from elementary or middle school students, while high schools are allowed to keep it.
In a post on the social network Facebook, the Republican congressman promoting this bill found the book “difficult to read” for younger students, adding that “traditionally, in the United States, the Bible is best taught at home and around the fireplace and understood. , as a family”.
According to the Tribune, the parent who filed the complaint did so out of frustration over books being removed from schools over complaints, a trend highlighted since April by groups advocating freedom of expression in the country.
In late May, a Miami school restricted access to a poem by African-American Amanda Gorman read at President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration because it was inappropriate for younger children.
In a context of culture wars between Republicans and Democrats, which divide the country, some conservative states are trying to control reading, for example by throwing out books they accuse of promoting homosexuality, progressive ideologies, or being too shocking.
Classics such as Toni Morrison’s novels or Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” have been targeted by school authorities.
Source: DN
