Be careful what you wish for.
On May 22, a Utah school district, Davis, “the state’s second biggest public system with nearly 74,000 pre-K-to-12th grade students,” decided to remove the Bible from all its elementary and middle school libraries “following a complaint from a parent upset by book bans.”
Last year, 2022, saw a sharp rise in book-banning requests at libraries, so much so that it was labeled a “movement” by The Salt Lake Tribune. Indeed, the American Library Association reported a record number of 1,200 challenges to more than 2,500 books. Multiple news outlets reported that the movement is spearheaded “by conservative parent groups across the nation” with an apparent focus on “content related to race, sex and gender in particular.”
Utah Rep. Ken Ivory’s response to this growing movement was to sponsor HB374, a bill heavily supported by Utah Parents United and that went into effect midway through last year. Its purpose is “to prohibit materials under the state’s definition of pornography.” The state’s definition of pornography can be found in the Utah Code, Sections 76-10-1235, 76-10-1201, 76-10-1203, and 76-10-1227, and asserts what many deem to be a far-reaching interpretation. For instance, Section 76-10-1203 states in part, “Any material or performance is pornographic if … the average person, applying contemporary community standards, finds that, taken as a whole, it appeals to prurient interest in sex.”
The Bible in Bureaucracy
And at least one parent in the Davis district has made his or her disapproval of this bill acerbically conspicuous: “Get this PORN out of our schools!” the anonymous naysayer wrote in a formal complaint against the Bible. “If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.” A self-admitted tongue-in-cheek protest against censorship, the parent’s request came in retaliation to the bans of such books as George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy (both found to be in violation of Section 76-10-1227), took specific jabs at both the school district and Utah Parents United, and additionally included an eight-page attachment of “sex-ridden” Scriptures.
A review committee, which included a district teacher, a district school librarian, and at least four district parents, subsequently took up the request, reviewing the King James Version. The committee’s decision “determined that the book does not contain sensitive material as defined in Utah Code” but that “based on age appropriateness due to vulgarity or violence,” the Bible would be available only to libraries in high schools. In other words, the committee found that the Word of God, while not pornographic, was vulgar and violent and, therefore, not appropriate for anyone younger than a teenager.
Ironically, “only seven or eight libraries in the district’s elementary and junior high schools even” carried the offending tome and none included the Bible in their curriculums. Yet the controversy is not over. Davis then received a formal appeal to reinstate the Bible. The next step, an illustration of bureaucracy at its finest, is a review of that request by “an appeals committee consisting of three members of the Davis School District Board of Education,” after which the appeal will go “to the full Board of Education” for a “final decision.”
Meanwhile, on June 7, more than 100 protestors gathered at Utah’s state capitol in defense of the Bible. And the animosity rages on …
The Great Commission
Shouldn’t the Word of God be regarded with the utmost reverence and not merely as a pawn in the collateral damage of activism? Absolutely. But Bible students know full well that it won’t be, especially as we move ever closer to the end of the world. “In the last days[,] … men will be … blasphemers, … despisers of good, … lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1–4). “They will not endure sound doctrine, but … will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (4:3, 4).
In light of this prophetic knowledge, the apostle Paul counseled, “Do the work of an evangelist” (v. 5). What does that mean? Sometimes in our zeal for Christ, we lose sight of what it means to be a Christian. If the Bible does end up being reinstated in those schools, some may think the battle won.
But what picture are people getting of those who advocate for the Word of God? Will critics be any more convinced to love God if they are beaten over the head with Scripture, or will they perceive, through those who profess to believe in Him, a God who resorts to coercion to get His way? Will the opposing side see the Bible as that most precious of treasures, the living key to a transformed, abundant, everlasting life (John 5:39; 17:17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17), or will the Word of God ever have a putrefying stench in their nostrils, even more than it already does?
What do you think the children are learning from this behavior? Is this the way to lead more souls to the Savior?
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” Jesus said (Mark 16:15). “[Teach] them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). To fulfill this great commission, learn how to present the Bible with patience, humility, and, above all, love—the way Jesus did—in our free presentation “Following the Master: Discipleship in Action.” [13]
That’s the work of an evangelist. It’s not about winning but about winning souls to the heavenly kingdom.