The Bible is vulgar and violent. And for this reason it is not suitable for elementary and middle school children and must be prohibited. The decision of a Utah school district is jaw-dropping and confirms how the cultural battle underway in the United States, ridden by conservatives and others, spares no one, not even the sacred text.
If in Florida the governor candidate for the White House Ron DeSantis has banned dozens of math texts because they are considered ‘political’ and in California some parents have come to blows over reading a book to celebrate Pride Month, the Davis school district , Utah, north of Salt Lake City, went further by pointing his finger at the Bible. The decision to remove her from elementary and middle grades was taken after protests from a parent that with its examples of incest, prostitution and rape, the Bible would not be suitable for very young children.
“You will have no doubt that – under state law – the text has no serious values for minors because it is pornographic by our definition,” the angry parent wrote in his complaint, dated Dec. 11. identity spread. His complaint resulted in an in-depth examination by a commission of parents and teachers, at the end of which the Bible was banned for elementary and middle school.
Instead, it remains available in district high school libraries, as it does not meet the state’s definition of pornographic or indecent. The same commission was recently called to evaluate the admissibility in schools of the ‘Book of Mormon’, one of the sacred texts of Mormonism, the dominant religion in Utah. The examination is underway and is based on another complaint, which calls for a ban due to too many references to violence in various forms, such as battles, beheadings and kidnappings. The case of Utah is part of the ongoing trend in which parents ask to have a greater say in the scholastic education imparted by the schools.
It is above all a push coming from conservatives against the ‘wake’ culture with which schools are, in their opinion, indoctrinating children, exposing them to violence and sex for no reason. Even if the phenomenon of book bans is more widespread in conservative states – in addition to Florida, there are also Texas, Missouri and South Carolina – there is no shortage of bans in democratic ones either. In several liberal states, some texts perceived as racially offensive have been removed from libraries. The ongoing clash will probably have repercussions in the electoral campaign for 2024, to which the candidates face with different visions of America and consequently of education moved by often opposing ideas of freedom and justice.
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