Utah Republicans joined concerned parents as they rallied at Utah’s Capitol on Wednesday to protest a school district’s decision to remove the Bible from middle and elementary school libraries.
The district announced the ban after a committee ruled that it did not qualify as obscene or pornographic under the sensitive materials law.
High school students could still access the Bible from school libraries, while middle and elementary students would not have the Bible available to them at their school.
“Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible,” the parent’s complaint, dated December 11, said. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible (under state law) has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
Karlee Vincent, a Davis County mother of three kids, supports her children having access to the Bible and said districts could weigh banning certain titles with controversial material, but not religious texts like the Bible.
“We love the Bible. We love God. And we need God in our nation,” Vincent said.Utah Legislature passed a law requiring school districts to create new pathways for residents to challenge “sensitive materials” and used a statute-based definition of pornography to define them.
Many parents are divided about allowing the Bible to be available at schools for children to read.
Some argue that removing the Bible illustrates arbitrary and political double standards and the issues inherent to removing books that have certain content.
“If folks are outraged about the Bible being banned, they should be outraged about all the books that are being censored,” Kasey Meehan, who directs the Freedom to Read program at the writers’ organization PEN America, said last week.
Other Republican-led states have expanded residents’ ability to challenge books and curricula in schools and libraries.
Utah Parents United President Nichole Mason said she worried the Bible ban in Utah distracted from conversations about obscene materials that currently remain in school libraries.
Defending Utah’s sensitive materials law, Mason noted that the committee determined the Bible didn’t qualify as pornographic under state statute. She doubled down on her stance that Utah should give parents more say in what’s in their kids’ schools.
“God Bless America that we can challenge any book out there!” Mason said.
Many parents and people of faith at Wednesday’s protest said they had heard little of book-banning efforts until news about the Bible’s removal broke last week.
They defended the Bible’s role as a foundational text, saying it shouldn’t be compared to other books that parents have challenged. They said the committee’s decision affirmed long-simmering distrust against public schools and those who make decisions governing them.
“I hope it will be part of our schools, not only to give information to our minds but character to our hearts—and the greatest character of all is Jesus Christ,” Tad Callister, the former Sunday School General President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said of the Bible and Book of Mormon as an audience applauded.
