Bible banned in Davis school libraries. Book of Mormon next?

[JAHS]

After Bible, Book of Mormon now challenged in Davis School District

 Days after the Bible was removed from many Davis School District libraries, a challenge has been made to ban the Book of Mormon from school shelves.

The district confirmed a request was made Friday by an individual who wants the book removed due to violent content. A committee will now review the religious text to decide whether it will also be taken out of school libraries in the district.

"The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel," reads the introduction to the book on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website.

The request to remove the Book of Mormon comes a day after the Davis School District announced officials had removed the King James Version of the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries. The Bible is allowed to remain in the district's high schools.

The same committee that will review the Book of Mormon found the Bible "does not contain sensitive material as defined by Utah Code," according to a district spokesperson, but contains "vulgarity and violence" that caused concerns over age appropriateness.

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The Book of Mormon also contains violence (arms and heads getting cut of). So I guess that could be next to go.

[sunstoned]

Book banning has no place in a democracy.  It never ends well.  It's the hallmark of fascism. Lately it seems that is where the alt-right wants to take us, and for me that is terrifying.

Edited June 3, 2023 by sunstoned

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, sunstoned said:

Book banning has no place in a democracy.  It never ends well.  It's the hallmark of fascism. Lately it seems that is where the alt-right wants to take us, and for me, that is terrifying.

It's really frightening.

[teddyaware]

31 minutes ago, sunstoned said:

Book banning has no place in a democracy.  It never ends well.  It's the hallmark of fascism. Lately it seems that is where the alt-right wants to take us, and for me that is terrifying.

Talk about a knee jerk, Pavlovian response! While the  book banning described in the article is undoubtedly being carried out in response to pressure from a left wing progressive,’ you appear to immediately disregard this inconvenient fact and then start complaining about traditional American parents who are being unfairly characterized as ‘book burners’ because they don’t want their young children exposed to the woke oriented pornography that’s currently popping up in books in school libraries all around the country. 

[blackstrap]

I am of 2 minds on this. I am against book banning in general,  but I am in favor of age appropriate categories in libraries. 

[JAHS]

48 minutes ago, bluebell said:

It's really frightening.

Don't almost everyone in Davis county have a Bible and a Book of Mormon in their homes? What kid would actually check out a Bible from the library?

[bluebell]

2 minutes ago, JAHS said:

Don't almost everyone in Davis county have a Bible and a Book of Mormon in their homes? What kid would actually check out a Bible from the library?

If I had to guess, this is probably an attempt by a liberal to feed conservatives a taste of their own medicine. 

[bluebell]

6 minutes ago, blackstrap said:

I am of 2 minds on this. I am against book banning in general,  but I am in favor of age appropriate categories in libraries. 

Agreed. 

[pogi]

1 hour ago, sunstoned said:

Book banning has no place in a democracy.  It never ends well.  It's the hallmark of fascism. Lately it seems that is where the alt-right wants to take us, and for me that is terrifying.

There is a difference between banning books because you disagree with the message and insuring that only age appropriate materials are available and accessible.   I don’t want 50 shades of grey available at my kids schools for example.  I approve of having general standards or a rating system based guidelines around violence, sex, vulgarity, and other adult content.  The Bible would be rated R, or worse.  I totally understand how/why the Bible would violate such standards.  There are more age appropriate versions of the Bible that they can supply.  I guarantee more elementary kids would be interested in and read a child version.  King James in an elementary…seriously?  These kids are barely learning to read.

Edited June 3, 2023 by pogi

[pogi]

19 minutes ago, blackstrap said:

I am of 2 minds on this. I am against book banning in general,  but I am in favor of age appropriate categories in libraries. 

Beat me to it.

[Tacenda]

20 minutes ago, bluebell said:

If I had to guess, this is probably an attempt by a liberal to feed conservatives a taste of their own medicine. 

Yes, and I'm probably terrible for loving it or thinking it's hilarious!!  And do think most people in Davis County have Bibles, BoM's, or triple combos in their homes, my own town, lol.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Tacenda

[pogi]

33 minutes ago, bluebell said:

If I had to guess, this is probably an attempt by a liberal to feed conservatives a taste of their own medicine. 

Pretty much:

https://apple.news/AJ1tE1P1uSlqKCrcT5vhqjw

Edited June 3, 2023 by pogi

[Meadowchik]

2 hours ago, pogi said:

Pretty much:

https://apple.news/AJ1tE1P1uSlqKCrcT5vhqjw

Very appropriate response. 

[The Nehor]

5 hours ago, teddyaware said:

Talk about a knee jerk, Pavlovian response! While the  book banning described in the article is undoubtedly being carried out in response to pressure from a left wing progressive,’ you appear to immediately disregard this inconvenient fact and then start complaining about traditional American parents who are being unfairly characterized as ‘book burners’ because they don’t want their young children exposed to the woke oriented pornography that’s currently popping up in books in school libraries all around the country. 

You do realize this is in response to the banning of incredibly innocuous books. The idea that schools were filled with pornography is an outright lie. When the stupid laws created by right-wingers are turned on the Bible which has much more erotic, incestuous, and pornographic content than the books they are eagerly banning they have only themselves to blame.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Edited June 3, 2023 by The Nehor

[Tacenda]

This:

 

[sunstoned]

10 hours ago, teddyaware said:

Talk about a knee jerk, Pavlovian response! While the  book banning described in the article is undoubtedly being carried out in response to pressure from a left wing progressive,’ you appear to immediately disregard this inconvenient fact and then start complaining about traditional American parents who are being unfairly characterized as ‘book burners’ because they don’t want their young children exposed to the woke oriented pornography that’s currently popping up in books in school libraries all around the country. 

If you don't like a book don't read it.  Problem solved. 

[Rain]

6 hours ago, The Nehor said:

You do realize this is in response to the banning of incredibly innocuous books. The idea that schools were filled with pornography is an outright lie. When the stupid laws created by right-wingers are turned on the Bible which has much more erotic, incestuous, and pornographic content than the books they are eagerly banning they have only themselves to blame.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Is there a lot of book banning happening in Utah right now? I'm only aware of it happening at the moment in Florida, but fully admit I don't know much about what is happening in Utah.

If there is not it seems an odd way to respond to what is happening in Florida. It's putting a target on Utah for being "non christian" more than showing that book banning is not good.  

Now if a lot is being done in Utah a better response would be to try to ban the BoM or both at once. 

[MiserereNobis]

I've taught in the honors/AP English program for 15 years now (sometimes AP English Language, sometimes honors sophomores). We've had required summer reading that included Greek mythology and passages from the Bible. Here's an excerpt from my instruction page for this summer for honors sophomores:

Quote

The stories from the Bible are among the most alluded to in western literature. A lack of knowledge of these stories will severely hamper your understanding and ability to analyze. Accordingly, the AP English program has decided to require excerpts from the Bible for summer reading. Please understand that this has nothing to do with religion; these readings are for literary purposes only so that you do not miss important references. Just as our requirement to read mythology has nothing to do with the Greek or Roman religions, likewise our requirement to read the Bible has nothing to do with the Jewish and Christian religions. Focus on the stories – feel free to skim over parts that do not have relevance to the narration.

We ask that you use the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible as the language of this translation is most commonly used for allusions and is also highly poetic. Copies of the Bible are readily available both in print and online. There will be a test the second week of the fall semester.

Old Testament: Exodus 1-21, 32-34. Genesis 6-9, 11

New Testament: Matthew (all)

A few years back, maybe 8 or 10, a parent complained to the school district about it. It was a Jewish family that objected to the New Testament readings. The superintendent met with our team and told us that we could not require reading the Bible. The most vocal defender of the requirement was a teacher who was a hard-core atheist. We pulled the Bible but still required Greek mythology. The superintendent was fired the next year, so we quietly brought the Bible back and haven't heard of any complaints since, though I imagine some families have thought it inappropriate.

I have noticed over the years a declining number of students who are proficient with Biblical stories. I imagine it's due to the increased secularization of our society. More kids, however, know Greek mythology than when I first started teaching because of the Percy Jackson book series, ha.

What I put in the instruction sheet is absolutely true. A lack of familiarity with Greek and Biblical stories severely impacts the ability to analyze classic canonical literature.

Now, do LDS authors slip in Book of Mormon allusions? I read some Orson Scott Card when I was younger -- I wonder if I missed things?

[pogi]

7 hours ago, Meadowchik said:

Very appropriate response. 

I think it is pretty great too.  

I will say though, that in general I do side with any good faith attempt to make only age appropriate materials available for kids.  

[LoudmouthMormon]

It's a pretty hard discussion to have publicly.  At it's most reasonable, there are quite a bit of genuine issues with schools (mostly high, many middle, some elementary) stocking books graphically depicting sexual acts, giving advice on how to install hook up apps, and sensitive things like how to transition while hiding it from your parents.  These seem like reasonable things to be quite concerned about being in school libraries.

Then politics gets involved, and suddenly folks are fighting over 'don't say gay' and trying to eradicate the rainbow people and all that.  Shouts of "Ok, let's ban the bible too ya bunch of hypocrites" is all anyone can hear.  The legitimately concerned folks are in a pickle, because they can't actually post or recite the objectionable content without violating forum rules or even cultural norms.  I've seen videos of school board meetings where outraged parents are reciting passages from a book found in the school library, getting their microphones cut off because the stuff they are reading is obscene and disgracing the respectability of the board meeting. 

If we could get the mods here to suspend the "don't post evil horrible sexually explicit pedophilic disgusting things" rule for this thread, I could post some exerpts from stuff being found in schools, and then folks could post the worst of the worst found in scripture, and people could compare and contrast and make up their minds.  But without that, all I have is my claims I can't substantiate, my less-than-convincing claims I can post without violating rules, and my stunning physique.

Edited June 3, 2023 by LoudmouthMormon

[MiserereNobis]

Our school district was recently served an Inspection of Public Records request asking for all lesson plans from all teachers for the last 5 years. That is an insane amount of information. The local citizen, through a lawyer, wants to see if anyone is teaching critical race theory (or at least what they think it is, and probably not what it really is) and/or ethnic studies. The district told us not to worry about it for now as their lawyers work through it. There is no law here, like in Florida, about what can or cannot be taught in this area. Some teacher friends expressed discomfort, wondering if they'd be targeting for teaching books like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian or Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood.

Our school library has the complete works of Hunter S. Thompson 😁

[pogi]

Book of Mormon is already on the chopping block:

https://apnews.com/article/fc025c8ccf30e955aaf0b0ee1899608a

[bluebell]

34 minutes ago, Rain said:

Is there a lot of book banning happening in Utah right now? I'm only aware of it happening at the moment in Florida, but fully admit I don't know much about what is happening in Utah.

If there is not it seems an odd way to respond to what is happening in Florida. It's putting a target on Utah for being "non christian" more than showing that book banning is not good.  

Now if a lot is being done in Utah a better response would be to try to ban the BoM or both at once. 

It’s mostly just a few parents that are getting all the books banned. Like, three parents.

https://kutv.com/news/crisis-in-the-classroom/small-group-of-parents-utilizing-new-law-to-ban-books-in-utah-school-libraries

[pogi]

40 minutes ago, MiserereNobis said:

Some teacher friends expressed discomfort, wondering if they'd be targeting for teaching books like The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

That one has already been removed from Utah schools 

[Amulek]

12 hours ago, JAHS said:

The request to remove the Book of Mormon comes a day after the Davis School District announced officials had removed the King James Version of the Bible from elementary and middle school libraries. The Bible is allowed to remain in the district's high schools.

In terms of age appropriateness, I certainly think middle school crosses the threshold. I remember reading Tolkien at that age and I was able to process the 'violence' without much difficulty. 

Personally, I wouldn't ban the Bible or Book of Mormon from elementary schools either. I don't really see the point.