Band Book: The Vulgar and Violent Bible

Davis County School District has pulled the Bible off library shelves in all elementary and junior high schools. But before we call the school district woke or anti-Christian, we should probably get honest about three things: this is the unintended consequence of 2022 Utah legislation, the Bible is violent and sexually graphic, and we can always expect government schools to be the divisive battleground between divisive adults seeking their preferred system of divisive indoctrination.   

In 2022, Utah passed HB374 to remove pornographic material from public schools. That's an admirable effort, but it never stood a chance in a society of people who prefer entertainment loaded with sexual content, crude innuendo, and violence. Without delay, an unnamed person filed a complaint against the Christian and Jewish Bible as a backhanded attack against parents hoping to protect child-like innocence for a little longer. Opponents press deeper and deeper into the sexual revolution to groom children and normalize sexuality as identity and worship. The claim is in the appeals process, but it will be an ongoing battle over God's Word until armageddon. 

Indeed, we need to concede that the Bible contains graphic material. Those who read it know this. An entire town desires to rape two male visitors. Unable to do so, they instead violently rape and kill an innocent woman, leading God to obliterate the town to dust. (Genesis 18-19) God calls those turning away from his instruction and chasing after idols of their making whores who lust after their false gods, like lovers who lust for donkey genitalia. (Ezekiel 23) Sinners sacrifice babies, the faithful pray that babies might be dashed against the rocks, a dead body is cut up and sent to different regions of the nation, and eyes are gouged out. A king murders the husband of the woman he forced an affair upon. There's incest, racism, injustice, and all sorts of wickedness. The judgment of many sinners is unfairly laid upon the perfect Son of God, and he's crucified. Anyone who has read the Bible knows this paragraph could go on and on. But we learn God's Truth within the framework of this wicked world. Through the Bible, we gain the necessary tools to make sense of violence and vulgarity, sexuality and sin, murder and madness. These challenging matters in the Bible are the backdrop for a biblical worldview, correct critical thinking, wisdom, and a knowledge of God. If we scrub out these things, we are left with a fairy-tale god who is no god at all. If we scrub out God but keep the rest, we are left with wickedness for entertainment's sake and a deserved judgment when we see God face-to-face.  

We should not be surprised by Davis County School District. It's a government school. Baucham said, "We cannot continue to send our children to Ceasar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans." This statement cuts both ways. Don't be surprised if they return home more worldly than their parents, or conversely, with stronger morals. A public school is the best effort of a community to outsource the learning process to fit the community's needs as a whole. It's factory learning, but in a divided culture, people fight for the factory product of their desires. Nobody gets what they want. That's the factory product -- divided, angry youth who hate each other, just like the school their parents advocated for.   

Ultimately, the Bible will be in the school libraries, or it won't. That doesn't matter much if it's not being read, especially at home. Daily. Christians should advocate that the Bible be read in church, in Bible studies, individually, and in student groups. It's been pulled from many of those places too, which are the most accessible places Christians could reintroduce it. If we won't bother for the Bible in those places, there's no reason to get worked up that the Bible won't be collecting dust in public school libraries. I hope we will be a community shaped by the Bible, but it's the Bible that taught me not to be surprised by the world in rejection of God.