[News] The schools in the United States that banned the Bible for "vulgar and violent"

[#Steeven.™]

In the western US state of Utah, some schools had to remove copies of the Bible from their shelves for containing "vulgar and violent" content.

The measure follows a complaint by the father of one of the students that the King James Bible contains inappropriate material for children.

Utah's Republican government passed a law in 2022 banning "pornographic or indecent" books in schools.

Most of the books banned so far deal with sexual education and gender orientation issues.

The Bible ban comes amid a broader agreement among conservatives in various states to ban teachings on topics such as LGBT rights and racial identity.

Utah is not the only case
In Texas, Florida, Missouri, and South Carolina, books have also been banned as offensive.

The Utah decision was made this week by the Davis school district, north of the state capital, following a complaint filed in December 2022.

The school authorities assure that they have already withdrawn the seven copies of the Bible that they had on their shelves. They also clarified that the text was never part of the students' curriculum.

In any case, the committee did not specify which passages contain "vulgarity or violence."

According to the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, the parent who complained said the King James Bible "has no 'serious values for minors' because it is pornographic by our new definition," referring to the 2022 book ban law.

A "mockery"
The Utah state lawmaker who wrote the 2022 law had previously rejected the Bible removal request as a "mockery," but changed his mind this week after calling it "challenging reading" for younger children.

"Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught, and best understood, in the home and around the family fireplace," Utah state representative Ken Ivory wrote on Facebook.

The school district determined that the content of the Bible does not violate the 2022 law, but does include "vulgarity or violence not suitable for younger students." The book will remain in secondary schools.

"I can't think of what's in the Bible that needs to be removed. It's not like there are pictures in it," Bob Johnson, a father of an elementary school student, told CBS News, opposing the removal of the Bible from schools.

Utah is not the first district in the United States to remove the Bible from its shelves. Last month, a group of Kansas students called for the removal of the Bible from their school library.

Texas last year removed the Bible from a school library after complaints from those who opposed conservative efforts to ban some books.

 

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65795686