A reading “vulgar and violent”not suitable for elementary and middle school children, to which it goes severely forbidden: to be accused is the sacred text of the Bible. The news – which is stirring much hype – comes from Davis School Districtin the US state of Utah: the educational institution north of Salt Lake City, that matters 72.000 students, decided to ban the sacred text in elementary and middle classes because it is full of “vulgarity and violence not suitable for younger students”. According to reports from the newspaper Salt Lake Tribunethe provision would have resulted from the complaint of the parent of one of the pupils, who protested declaring that the King James Bible (i.e. the translation of the sacred text into English most used by Protestant Christians) “does not contain serious values for minors, because it is pornographic according to our new definition”, referring to the 2022 book ban law.
In fact, last year the Republican administration of the Utah had approved a law banning “pornographic or indecent” books from schools, as they were not suitable for the sensitivity of the very young. Most of the banned books so far have been on topics such as l‘sexual orientation and identity, and the “crusade” against texts deemed offensive has not spared other American states such as Texas, Florida, Missouri e South Carolina.
This time, after the angry parent complaint – whose identity has not been disclosed – it was the turn of the Bible: following a thorough examination by a committee of parents and teachers, the district school of Davis decided to support the parent’s thesis, considering the sacred text full of examples of incest, prostitution and rape, not suitable for children. Hence the prohibition (even if the offending verses have not been identified): the Bible however, it will remain available in the institute’s high school libraries. The same commission that banned the sacred text was recently called to evaluate the admissibility in schools also of the Book of Mormonone of the sacred texts of the mormonismdominant religion in the Utah. The examination is currently underway and is based on another complaint, which calls for a ban on the work due to too many references to the violence, in various forms (here under accusation battles, beheadings and kidnappings).
