Culture War in America
‘One of the sexiest books ever’: Utah schools are banning the Bible
In several US states, the discussion about books has flared up – now also about the most widely read book in the world, the Bible
© Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP/DPA
The culture war between conservatives and liberals is entering a new round. So far, thousands of books dealing with sexuality or racism have been banned from US schools. A complaint against the Scriptures had also been received as a protest.
A school district in the US state of Utah has banned the Bible from elementary and middle schools because of “objectionable and violent content”. The district of Davis County north of Salt Lake City thus accepted a corresponding complaint that had been filed in protest against book bans. Several US media reported that the Bible will be removed from schools in Davis County with immediate effect.
With a large majority in both chambers of Congress in the western state, conservative Republicans passed legislation in 2022 that would make it possible to ban books and films with “pornographic and indecent content” from school libraries or classrooms.
The complaint, received in December, was published anonymously by the school district and is published, among other things, on the website of the newspaper “The Salt Lake Tribune”. The new law is “malicious,” it says. “Now we can ban all books and not even have to read them,” the letter continues.
Bible contains inappropriate content, according to complaint
“One of the sexiest books of all time” is missing from the list of previously banned books: the Bible. Finally, it contains inappropriate content such as “incest, masturbation, sexual acts with animals, prostitution, genital mutilation, oral sex, dildos, rape and even infanticide”.
The committee charged with reviewing the Bible came to the conclusion that the Scriptures did not violate the law, it said. Nevertheless, the decision was made to restrict access to high school-age students. According to the school authorities, seven or eight schools in the district were affected, the newspaper reported. A challenge to the decision will be discussed shortly.
Utah is not the only US state in which certain topics should no longer have a place in school lessons in the future. In the United States, a culture war between liberals and conservatives over bans on books in schools has been raging for years, and it has recently become increasingly radical. Critics like the controversial conservative organizations Parents United or Moms for Liberty are often concerned with books that deal with sexuality or racism.
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Majority of the books complaints go back to only eleven authors
An analysis by the “Washington Post” of 1,065 complaints received from 37 states showed that the titles cited most frequently advocated more tolerance. The majority of the complaints examined came from only eleven authors. Opponents of the new bans believe that a retrogressive image of society has been propagated.
In Florida, the governor and Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, wants to ban schools about sexual orientation and gender identity for all ages. This class is already prohibited from kindergarten to third grade. The ban stems from a law passed last year that opponents have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”