Utah School District Has BANNED THE BIBLE From Elementary and Middle Schools for “Vulgarity and Violence”
The Bible is too vulgar for your children to read.
That’s according to a Utah school district that just BANNED the Holy Bible from its elementary and middle school libraries, due to one parent’s complaint of its so-called vulgarity and violence.
It’s an offensive accusation, and, more to the point, it’s blatantly unconstitutional. Nonetheless, here we are.
As reported by the New York Post:
At Davis School District, located north of Salt Lake City, the collection of Christian scripture has been shelved for students until they enter high school.
The district has removed the Bible from their elementary and middle school libraries after receiving a petition to ban the holy book due to its descriptions of sex and violence.
The Bible ban is not the first of its kind — Utah schools previously began removing other books from libraries after a 2022 state law required schools to consider parents’ input on age-appropriate books.
The parent’s complaint against the Bible reportedly referred to it as a “sex-ridden” book. These outrageous attacks on the Bible and faith are part of a larger effort to confuse and indoctrinate our kids. We recently reported how the White House released its updated guidance on religious freedom in school, and it conveniently omitted some crucial protections, making it more likely that Christian kids will be singled out and discriminated against.
The ACLJ has been taking on school districts for BANNING Bibles, taking away Christian paraphernalia and jewelry (like a cross necklace), and trying to silence our kids from sharing their faith, and we’re winning.
This development in Utah is yet another unconstitutional example of the radical Left’s attack on our children’s faith. The Bible deserves a spot on school library shelves along with other important texts, religious or otherwise.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” By banning Bibles in elementary and middle schools, the Davis School District in Utah has violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. “The Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, extends these limits on governmental power to state and local governments, including school districts, their officials, and employees.” Roberts v. Madigan, 702 F. Supp. 1505, 1511 (D. Colo. 1989).
“If a governmental policy interferes with the person’s freedom to exercise his faith, the government agency must show that its interest in enforcing the policy is sufficiently compelling to override the person’s religious rights and that the policy represents the least restrictive way of fulfilling the government’s interest.” Id. (citing Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 407 (1962)); Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist., 142 S. Ct. 2407, 2421-22 (2022).
In this age of enlightenment, it is inconceivable that the Bible should be excluded from a school library. The Bible is regarded by many to be a major work of literature, history, ethics, theology, and philosophy. It has a legitimate, if not necessary, place in the American public school library. In this central location, it is available for voluntary perusal and study by young students possessing inquisitive minds. Youth is the time for students to explore great works of history and literature. To deprive a public school library’s collection of the Bible would, in the language of Justice Robert Jackson, render the educational process “eccentric” and incomplete.
Roberts, 702 F. Supp. at 1513 (citing McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 235 (1949)). In Roberts, the court ordered that the Bible be returned to the school library even though the principal had ordered its removal “to promote religious neutrality according to the mandates of the Establishment Clause.” Id. at 1509.
Faith is part of the bedrock of our nation, and the Bible is the foundation of that faith. School districts have no authority to impede students from bringing their Bibles to school. It is a direct violation of their religious liberties, as protected by the Constitution. Our legal team is looking into the Utah case and determining what, if any, legal recourse we might need to take to defend Christian students’ rights to read the Bible in school – if they so choose. That is a decision to be made between kids and their parents, not Leftist bureaucrats or angry atheists with an ax to grind.
If you are directly impacted by the unconstitutional decision of this school district to remove the Bible or by any school making a similarly outrageous edict, please contact us at ACLJ.org/HELP. We are following this situation closely and are ready to take legal action.