Fla. law made school book bans easier. So one man challenged the Bible.
The man petitioning to ban the Bible says it is just as sexually explicit and violent as other books facing challenges
By Hannah Natanson
Today at 11:47 a.m. EDT
It was Florida’s move to reject 54 math textbooks for “prohibited subjects” that made up Chaz Stevens’s mind: It was time to go after the Bible.
Stevens, a 57-year-old tech wizard with a history of pulling wacky political stunts, had already been tracking the progress of a new state law that makes it easier for parents and county residents to challenge books in schools. The provision, which comes amid an unprecedented nationwide spike in challenges to books — particularly those by and about LGBTQ and Black people — was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in late March. It takes effect July 1. But Stevens decided he could not wait a moment longer.
As of Wednesday, he has filed near-identical petitions with 63 Florida school districts asking to ban the Bible. He has also filed a second petition with one district, Broward County Public Schools, requesting the removal of the Oxford English Dictionary.
His three-page petition critiques the Bible for its depictions of bestiality and cannibalism, its “eye-popping passages of babies being smashed against the rocks” in Psalms 137 and its “strong pro-slavery position,” citing Ephesians 6:5-7.
“As the Bible casually references ... such topics as murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and fornication — or as I like to think, Date Night Friday Night — do we really want to teach our youth about drunken orgies?” the petition asks.
Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their libraries
Stevens’s subsequent complaint against the dictionary calls it “a weighty tome over 1,000 years old, containing more than 600,000 words; all very troubling if we’re trying to keep our youth from learning about race, gender, sex, and such.”
Although Stevens’s petitions are tongue-in-cheek, legal experts said his actions highlight flaws and constitutional concerns surrounding Florida’s new law and others like it — and could lead to serious litigation down the line.
Erica Goldberg, a University of Dayton Law School professor who studies First Amendment rights, said Stevens’s petitions could showcase that the new law may cause school boards to engage in “viewpoint discrimination,” or removing information because of dislike of the ideas it contains, which is impermissible per the Supreme Court.
She noted that the Bible is replete with episodes of violence and sexual abuse, including the rape of Dinah in Genesis, which leads her brothers Levi and Simeon to kill every man in the city of Shechem to avenge her honor; the incestuous rape of King David’s daughter Tamar by her half brother Amnon; and the brutal dismemberment of a concubine in Judges. She said the Bible is at least as sexually explicit as some of the books parents are labeling inappropriate, raising the question: Why can the Bible stay in the library when those books have to go?
“This stunt is going to illuminate," she added. “Many of our First Amendment rights get meted out by edge cases or by people looking to make statements.”
(more) https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/04/28/bible-book-ban-florida/