Utah Republicans Indignant Bible Banned For Same Reasons They Want To Ban Other Books

Maybe they should follow in Illinois's footsteps and ban all the book bans?

Just a few weeks ago, one Utah county banned the King James Bible in elementary schools and middle schools. Was it because the whole school district just turned militant atheist all of a sudden? Not so much! Rather, it was because one parent was pretty disgusted by a recent law banning "certain sensitive instructional materials in public schools" and decided to give the Right a taste of its own censorious medicine by petitioning to ban the King James Bible, citing various passages in the book that could be considered "pornographic or indecent." You know, like the part where that very righteous man offers to let a group of men gang rape his daughters.

After that, another parent went and requested that the Book of Mormon also be banned (in Utah!), also for reasons of rape and violence and, disturbingly, cannibalism — though no determination has been made on that one yet.

At the time, there didn't seem like there was very much response to the ban from conservatives and it actually seemed for a second (to me, anyway) that they were indeed so far up their own asses with this censorship nonsense that they were actually on board with banning the Bible. Hell, even Ken Ivory, the guy who wrote up the bill in the first place, decided he was okay with banning the Bible in those grades because “The KJV Bible is a challenging read for elementary or middle school children on their own. Traditionally, in America, the Bible is best taught, and best understood, in the home, and around the hearth, as a family.”

But that didn't last too long, and now some Utah Republicans are insisting the Bible get a pass on all the rape and violence, for reasons. Because it's different, okay? It's the Bible!

Via Salt Lake Tribune:  

"You should be ashamed,” said Rep. Brady Brammer , R-Pleasant Grove.

“This is offensive,” added Sen. Curt Bramble , R-Provo.

 Rep. Mark Strong , R-Bluffdale, said taking the religious text off shelves of elementary and middle schools in the district was “bogus” and a move toward “accepting the religion of atheism and hedonism.”

Atheism and hedonism are not a religion, but they are already accepted — because the First Amendment.

“There is no other book out there that has the same value as the Bible,” said Rep. Strong, citing the text’s use in the political foundations for America and in inspiring art across the world.

He talked about seeing a statue of David, a character in the scripture that slays a giant, when he visited Italy. He felt awe, “even though he’s not dressed, which could be seen as pornographic by some.”

 And it was! To people much like Rep. Strong here, who got a principal in Tallahassee, Florida, fired over it.

Strong said the Bible has also been the first book from which many people have learned to read.

“The Bible and some of these things are core to us,” he said. “We must stand for these things. … The Bible does have some things that are questionable, but they’re implicit, not explicit. There’s no detail.”

The lawmaker urged the district to look at it as a whole.

Rep. Brammer also questioned how the committee “didn’t find any serious literary value in the Bible?” If that’s the case, he added, “your system is broken. There is no way to get there without a broken system.”

Yes. That's the point. The point is that the system is broken and bad and stupid and should not exist to begin with. The point is that all works should be taken and seen as a whole, rather than being banned for a paragraph that someone didn't like for some reason.

If these Republicans were not, well, Republicans, they could do what we are doing here in Illinois, which is banning the banning of books, period. This week, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that will prevent what is happening in Utah and all over from happening in Illinois.

“I want our children to learn our history, warts and all. Read as much as you can. Read different perspectives. Read challenging ideas. And may one of Illinois' very own pick up a pen to tell their story, so we may find it at our local library right here in our state.”

— Governor JB Pritzker (@Governor JB Pritzker) 1686603398 

Does this new law mean that they are going to be teaching Tropic of Cancer in third grade? Of course not. School libraries will still be age-appropriate — but books will not be banned because they mention racism or gay people or trans people or seahorses , and that's the way it should be.

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