Ban the Bible? A Story of Free Speech
*Mature topics discussed*
Freedom of speech is a hotly debated topic in this country, especially in recent years. The subject of removing books from public school libraries has garnered much attention in the news. In the last school year alone, 1648 unique titles were banned, addressing issues such as racism or merely containing characters that are persons of color or are LGBTQ. In Utah, over 50 books have been banned already, with Utah Parents United (UPU), a conservative parent group, leading the charge. One frustrated Utah parent opted not to contest the local law regarding “pornographic or indecent books” (Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227) but instead filed a request to have the Bible reviewed for indecent content. This challenge was submitted on December 11, 2022, and contained a list of passages thought to be offensive and needing review. They write in their request, “I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient. Now we can all ban books, and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book! Ceding our children’s education, First Amendment rights, and library access to a white supremacist hate group like Utah Parents United seems like a wonderful idea for a school district literally under investigation for being racist.
“I noticed there’s a gap, though. Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible. Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide. 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. Get this PORN out of our schools! If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.”
Parents can be so extreme sometimes for their “angels.” For clarification, I’m talking about UPU, not the parent wanting to remove the Bible. There’s no way that someone actually wants the Bible removed from schools. I believe that this is more of a statement calling out the state of Utah’s suppression of free expression more than anything. Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227 and all other laws regarding banning books is a blatant subversion of the first amendment. It may not be preventing authors from writing their works, but stopping the dissemination of this knowledge into public schools, a very important source of information for children, is problematic.
Banning books isn’t even an effective way to “protect” children from being exposed to these sensitive topics. It’s not the 1970s anymore. We have a little something called the “internet.” If a kid is curious about a topic, they’ll just google it. The only thing it does is prevent low-income students, who may not have internet access at home or can’t afford a computer, from having this resource, which is oftentimes the only one they have. These kids are at the will of schools, and whatever beliefs the school teaches, that’s what they’ll get. There’s no opportunity for them to form their own opinions in a place that’s main purpose is to prepare people for the real world where free thinking is a basic requirement.
The parents putting forth these requests are suppressing the free flow of ideas and speech and pushing a curriculum centered around their ideals. If it’s books not suitable for children that we are going after, why not ban books mentioning violence or containing guns, tobacco, or alcohol? It’s not the truth they want schools to teach; it’s their truth. The suppression of information is the beginning of despotism. Think of Nazi Germany. The entire history of the world was rewritten, and the truth was obscured to justify the legitimacy of the regime. In a country where democracy is almost religiously celebrated, more often than not by conservatives, legislation removing “offensive” books from school libraries shows a weakness in the cornerstone of our republic. It does not deserve our support.
