Bible banned from Texas schools for being sexually explicit

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I have no problem with safeguarding kids from certain materials, but the problem is that we all have different standards about what that standard might be. So banning something for everyone is a bad idea. I mean, these books that get banned in schools are little more than 'Jimmy has two dads'. They're not the picture book, 'Jimmy watches his two dads 69 each other'.

A better way would be to simply have the books in certain sections. Then certain kids could be educated to stay away from certain sections. And their library card could have a block to stop kids with religious parents from checking out those books.

But kids with well balanced parents can read the other books.

Except the outright porn, which should be kept in the teacher's break room.

^That might be the best solution.

Let’s not move the goalposts (yet again). This is about whether the Bible should be in school or not. I’d say no for a few of reasons. Inappropriate sexual content is just one of them.

I watched a Yale course on the Hebrew Scriptures a while back (I highly recommend it) and the professor wouldn’t let her kids read it, either. Not everyone’s going to agree, but in my experience, the more you know the Bible, the less comfortable you are with the notion of sharing it with children, perhaps especially when you have children of your own or are involved in education in some capacity.

When I was in high school, we read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. What a treat.

I read Chaucer in college in Middle English. He’s never as harmful as the Bible. I’d see nothing wrong with reading his work in high school - in a senior class, anyway.

Good stuff! Have you seen the Pasolini movie?

No, it doesn’t look like my cup of tea. I’d rather read Chaucer.

The trouble is, some people think it already has been banned from schools. I've spoken to people who think the Bible has already been banned by the "evil leftists" and they weren't just talking about Texas.

This is basically the religious right trying to blame the left for stuff they didn't do.

I've got no problem with the bible being in any school, it's what the teachers say about it that's more important I think. If they say it's an example of how the ancients used to think, fine. Could also put it in the ancient myths, legends and philosophies section to underscore the point.

As for sexual content, I wouldn't want to sit in judgement about that myself, because I don't understand what harm is supposed to happen to kids if they happen to see that kind of thing, as long as they don't believe some of the sillier ideas it contains about sex, but a lot of people worry about it so maybe there is something going on that I don't know about. All I know is that I saw a few things that the Big People didn't want me to see, but AFAIK it didn't do me any harm, but maybe I'm not typical.

I think suppressing a book would make it more attractive, and kids can be quite clever at getting their hands on stuff that they've been told they shouldn't have.

Are students in Texas schools still allowed to bring their personal Bibles to read on their break time on the school grounds? Maybe read in classroom when class is not in session.

It's not unlike the 'war on Christmas' nonsense. It's a false issue, but it hijacks people's ability to think rationally because they lose their s**t before applying any critical thinking.

Err on the side of keeping religion out of public schools.

Perhaps now teenage Texan's have mom walk in their bedroom, "hey Elvis! I better not catch you reading the bible again!" "Oh mum! I promise I was only reading the new testament! honest".