A school district in Texas has backed away from its threat to ban the Bible.
It was an official in Canyon Independent School District in Canyon who told parents he had ordered librarians to remove the Bible because of a new state law called the “Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Education Resources” law.
That now has been reversed, according to a report from columnist Todd Starnes.
He noted how the district “felt the wrath of every church-going citizen in the Panhandle after they compared the Holy Bible to pornography and banned God’s Word from school libraries.”
School Supt. Darryl Flusche had claimed the Bible was subject to a law “aimed at removing sexually explicit material from school libraries – especially materials that ‘describe or portray sexual conduct…in a patently offensive way.'”
He had insisted to parents, “This standard for library content prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content as described above. Therefore, HB 900 doesn’t allow numerous books, including the full text of the Bible, to be available in the school library.”
Parent Regina Kiehne told the board at a recent meeting, “In a day when we are needing security guards and bulletproof windows and doors, I think having the Word of God available to our children cannot only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world.
“It seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books.”
Jared Patterson, a Republican lawmaker who worked on the law, suggested the fault was not with the Bible, but with the education bureaucrat.
“The superintendent’s position here was indefensible and appeared to be a result of open hostility toward folks who want sexually explicit content removed from public schools. HB 900 clearly protects the Bible and all religious texts,” he said.
Further, he warned the school that its censorship may have violated the law.
“The Bible is the most important and most read book in history, and removing it does a grave injustice to the students in your care,” he said in a letter. “Let me be very clear: the Bible and other religious texts are protected under HB 900. Any assertion to the contrary is either rooted in ignorance of state law or an open hostility to the will of the people.”
Starnes explained the result: “That letter left the superintendent and school board members sweating like sinners in church. And after that ‘Come to Jesus’ board meeting — they reinstated the Bible.”
