A Utah parent is calling for the Bible to be removed from a public school for its alleged pornographic content in reaction to the state's ban on sexually explicit books in school libraries.
"Get this PORN out of our schools," the parent wrote in a December complaint that was first reported last week by the Salt Lake Tribune. "If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk."
The request came after Utah passed HB374 last May, which prohibited children's access to obscene books in schools.
Referring to the Bible as "one of the most sex-ridden books around," the parent alleged its content violates Utah state code and requested its removal from Davis High School in Kaysville, which is about 15 miles north of Salt Lake City.
The parent, whose personal information was redacted from a copy of the complaint to safeguard their privacy, also submitted an eight-page list of more than 130 biblical passages that are allegedly offensive.
"Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide," the parent wrote. "You'll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has 'no serious values for minors' because it's pornographic by our new definition."
Verses in the list included graphic accounts of sexual immorality and prohibitions in the Old Testament regarding certain sexual practices, as well as words of Jesus referencing fornication and adultery.
The parent also blasted Utah Parents United — a group that has spearheaded efforts to remove sexually explicit books from school libraries — as a "white supremacist hate group."
Utah Parents United in turn slammed the parent's request as a "political stunt."
"It is clear from the petition that challenging the Bible was a political stunt," the group said in a Facebook post. "It has nothing to do with content in schools."
Republican state Rep. Ken Ivory, who sponsored the legislation to pull sexually inappropriate books from Utah schools, described the complaint about the Bible as "antics that drain school resources," according to the Tribune.
Davis School District spokesperson Christopher Williams said the complaint about the Bible is one of 81 requests the district has fielded since the new law was passed, according to The Christian Post.
"At this point, it is also one of many that is in the process of being reviewed by a Sensitive Material Review Committee," Williams told the Tribune.
"There was a purpose to the bill and this kind of stuff, it’s very unfortunate," Ivory said. "There are any number of studies that directly link sexualization and hyper-sexualization with sexual exploitation and abuse. Certainly, those are things we don’t want in schools."
Ivory noted that whoever filed the complaint "really had to go through their Bible study" to assemble their comprehensive list of controversial passages, adding, "I hope they paid attention to other parts of the Bible, though."
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