The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which describes itself as a nontheistic nonprofit, is giving Leon County School District an ultimatum: Ban the Bible or stop banning books altogether.
In an email sent to school board members on July 14, the Freedom from Religion Foundation piled onto a recent successful effort by the local chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty to pull five books found in Leon County high schools.
The next school board meeting will be 2 p.m. July 24 to discuss the first official book challenge hearing of “I am Billie Jean King” by Brad Meltzer.
“We are disturbed that the district has chosen to start removing books from school libraries based on content taken out of context at the request of extremist groups like Moms for Liberty,” foundation Staff Attorney Christopher Line said in the published email to the district.
Freedom from Religion says the Bible should be banned based on the same reasoning Moms for Liberty presented in their request; “sexually explicit content.”
“We write to request that the District either ban the bible based on the criterion of ‘sexually explicit content’ it has used to ban these books, or cease banning books and return the banned books to school shelves,” Line wrote in the email.
Except that’s against the Constitution of the United States of America and a violation of peoples basic human rights. People have every right to practice their religious beliefs here, and I say that as a liberal progressive. Being offensive is not an excuse to destroy peoples fundamental rights, and it’s a deadly slope to go down.
People most certainly have a right to practice whatever religion they want. However, as a “liberal progressive” you might want to brush up on the establishment clause of the first amendment. Especially if this is a public school.
Having the Bible in a public school doesn’t violate the establishment clause. Not allowing any other religious text would, however.
But pretty much all of these book bans working their way through schools absolutely DO infringe freedom of expression. As is the goal.
I see no problem with using these badly-written bans to hoist these people by their own petards until they stop spreading their evil into schools in the name of a religion. Because the Bible contains all the necessary themes to get it “legitimately” banned under any of these laws, proving clearly how overly broad and arbitrary the laws are.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
What did I miss here? If a Bible Ban were to even happen the SCOTUS would never allow it under any condition in any State, no matter how liberal the SCOTUS were at any given time as it is a direct attack on protected liberties and against all we believe in as a country
This is not a general ban on the bible.
People will still be completely able to read, carry and distribute the bible outside of schools. People will still be free to read the bible and pass it around in school, provided they bring their own copy.
This is just a ban on the school library keeping and lending copies of the bible.
(Though a general ban on the bible would certainly do the States some good.)
They don’t have the right to force their religion onto others, which is what the case is about.
But it’s okay to ban books about Black people? Liberal progressive my ass
No, it’s not okay to ban books about Black People and I never said it was at any point in the post I made.
Also like 80% of Black Americans are Christian you know
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/02/07/5-facts-about-the-religious-lives-of-african-americans/
“Religion, particularly Christianity, has played an outsize role in African American history. While most Africans brought to the New World to be slaves were not Christians when they arrived, many of them and their descendants embraced Christianity, finding comfort in the Biblical message of spiritual equality and deliverance. In post-Civil War America, a burgeoning black church played a key role strengthening African American communities and in providing key support to the civil rights movement.”
What does Black people being religious have to do with this? Did you read the original post?
Because 80% of Black people are Christians in this country because Christianity helped black people overcome the oppression from White Supremacy. Christianity was a driving factor in keeping Black Unity after the Civil War and during the Civil Rights movements. Nearly all Civil Rights movements in America started in Churches. Christianity was a positive thing for Black people and still is, it’s kept more Black families together and has made Black people wealthier over time.
So what does Black people being religious have to do with this? It has everything to do with banning the Bible when 80% of Black people in America are Christians.
And so, as a result, they’re cool with banning talk about slavery is okay? Tf are you even saying?
No, they’re not ok with it, black people are not ok with banning any of those books and neither am I, not once have I ever said anything at anytime about banning anything, I don’t want any book to be banned, and that includes the Bible
This is the worst take on this topic I have ever seen.
Glad to see you contribute nothing of value to the discussion except your reddit shitpost
Glad your fascist views in sheep’s clothing are thoroughly hated like they should be.
I’m the fascist because I don’t want you to attack peoples religious beliefs? Excuse me but what?
You came in a bit hot for civil discourse, don’t you think? I don’t think you are a fascist, but I am no longer willing to tolerate intolerance. These people have every right to practice their religion, but they do not have the right to weild it as a weapon of persecution behind the shield of the law.
I came in with my belief that no book should ever be banned in America and at no point did anyone commenting on my posts even read what I wrote. When you make a 2 paragraph post in honesty and instead all you get in return is 12 year olds with childish insults it’s just sad and demeaning.
This is precisely why I left reddit in the first place, there was no discussion happening there, just people karma farming and circlejerks, no real discussions, just “yes men” all agreeing with each other and that’s not politics, that’s not “civil discourse” and it’s not democratic in any way. Democracy is not a one-way street, and even Biden said that he would be working with Republicans a few months ago. Democracy can not exist in a one party system.
I sympathize with your sentiment, and I wish they would live and let live… but they won’t. My reason for saying it’s a bad take is that they give zero f’s about your good faith principles; if we want a brighter future, rolling over and legitimizing these fools is not the way to go about it.
Removing books from school libraries is absolutely constitutional when that removal is done based on the content or (lack of) educational value. The courts have ruled on this repeatedly.
Everyone has a right to practice their religion, and the government cannot abridge that. However, the government does not need to facilitate that. If kids want to read a filthy book like the Christian Bible, they can bring their own copy from home and read it when it’s not disruptive to the educational process.
My view is that no book bans would be better. However, iif they are insisting that books should be banned for “sexual content” (even though most times the sexual content is minimal if it’s even there), then the Bible should absolutely be banned. If there’s one standard for the Bible and another one for LGBTQ books, then it’s not a just rule.
You don’t even have to click the link and read the article to see that their goal is not to ban the book, but to end book bans.
These badly-written bans being used to further Christian conservative religious and political agendas in public schools by banning legitimate topics are the problem. Get rid of the bad laws and fix the problem. Keep them around and they’ll be used against you.
It’s a deadly slope and groups like Moms for Liberty have already taken us down it. This case has two possible outcomes: 1, Ban the Bible, or 2. Return the previously, unjustly banned books. In chess this called a Knight’s Fork, and the group who posed it will win either way.
This is not a violation of their constitutional rights though… This is just a ban on copies of certain books from being in the school library. They want the bible included in that.
This is not saying a student who owns their own private copy of say, the bible, cannot bring their own copy to school and read it. Is only banning the library from carrying a copy.
No one’s constitutional rights are being violated.
And it’s been almost 20 years since I was in a US public school, but as I understood it back then, the public schools could not carry copies of the bible even if they wanted too.
It can simply be allowed in libraries that have readers that the content is more appropriate for like universities. It is sexually inappropriate for anyone younger.
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That’s the most uneducated thing I’ve ever read.