Canyon Independent School District parents received an email from Superintendent Darryl Flusche saying he had ordered the Holy Bible be removed from school libraries. He explained the decision was in compliance with a new state law called the "Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources" Act (House Bill 900) – which is aimed at getting sexually explicit material out of school libraries.
The superintendent argued that the bill does not allow the full text of the Bible to be allowed in school, according to conservative commentator Todd Starnes.
Preachers and parents came to a recent school board meeting and made it known they were unhappy about the Bible being banned in schools. State Representative Jared Patterson even warned Superintendent Flusche that his actions may have violated the law.
The district later sent out a statement saying in part that after clarification from Patterson, the Bible will be available in all Canyon ISD libraries.
Retaliation from the Left?
Arthur Schaper, field director for MassResistance, described the law in an interview with AFN as "a perverse attempt by the regressive Left" which, ironically, wants to "protect pornography, perversion, obscene books."
Schaper does acknowledge the Bible contains "explicit" passages dealing with violence and intimacy – such as in the Song of Solomon and the Book of Ezekiel.
"But we're talking about the Bible, which is the fundamental cornerstone of Western civilization," he emphasizes. "It not only has redeeming social value, especially for people of faith; it is an essentially redeeming document because it talks about redemption, it talks about Christ, talks about the gospel."
Mary Elizabeth Castle of Texas Values tells AFN the proposed ban comes as no surprise when there are leftist members in the Texas House.
"[They're] trying to claim that the Bible is just as bad as some of the horrific, pornographic books that they're trying to promote," she shares. "[But] this is basically retaliation because they actually don't want to comply with the law that says you can't put pornographic, inappropriate books in the school library."
Castle says Patterson’s bill banning sexually explicit books from school libraries did not include the Bible. "The Bible is protected under the First Amendment – and even Texas law allows for the Bible to be taught in public schools. It wouldn't necessarily violate HB 900 to ban the Bible, but that definitely was not the intent of that bill."
Schaper talked further about efforts to bring obscene materials into school libraries.
"You've got to get to a place where there's a general common sense culture restored in schools and libraries," he argues. "You don't disseminate patently obscene pornography, and then codify it or justify it under the guise of so-called 'LGBT promotion' or 'liberation'."
