Finally, a book the Statesman finds inappropriate

The issue of sexually-explicit books being made available to children in Idaho has been brewing for years. Despite evidence of graphic and even obscene materials have been found in the teen and even children’s sections of public schools and libraries, the narrative presented by legacy media outlets has been instead about radical far right extremists who want to ban books.

This narrative was on full display in 2022, when the Idaho Statesman reported (archive link) on the controversy facing the Meridian library board:

What concerns me is that this small, really vocal but small, group of kind of authoritarians really wants to decide what everybody in Meridian can read,” said Megan Larsen, the board chair of the Meridian Library District. “And that’s just unacceptable.

Consider how the idea of “Banned Books Week” has been used to bolster that narrative, despite the obvious fact that the presence of these “banned books” front and center in bookstores and public libraries means they have not, in fact, been banned.

In early 2023, Anna Miller and Sam Dorman exposed some of the materials being circulated through local public schools and libraries. They followed that up with a look at how one West Ada librarian was deliberately stocking her shelves with books like Gender Queer and Oh Joy, Sex Toy. The same librarian, Gena Marker, had been positively profiled (archive link) in the Idaho Statesman in 2022, portrayed as a brave freedom fighter standing up to censorship.

Despite the fact that books such as those exposed by Miller and Dorman remained available in bookstores everywhere, not to mention online sources like Amazon, the Statesman reporters nevertheless decried the “censorship” and “book banning” that was apparently taking place. I found it ironic, then, that the Statesman’s editorial board recently condemned (archive link) a petition circulated by the Idaho Family Policy Center to bring the Bible back to public schools:

But no one is being excluded from access to the Bible.

Are there no bookstores? Are there no churches? Are there no libraries?

The government isn’t arresting people who possess the Bible or go to the church of their choosing. There is no exclusion of access. Any student who wants to read the Bible can find a copy in the library for no charge. As usual, the Idaho Family Policy Center has things backwards.

Funny how that works. When we’re talking about grossly obscene books with graphic imagery and sexually explicit scenes, we’re told that children need to have access to these materials. When it’s the Bible, which beyond its religious significance is one of the most important books in the history and development of Western Civilization, then we’re told it should not be allowed.

The vacuum left by the withdrawal of Christianity from the public square has not created a rationalist paradise, but has instead allowed the flourishing of what once were considered deviant ideas. What would be the reaction if you went to an average person living in 1850, 1920, or even 1960, and told him or her that in 2024, not only would the Bible be barred from public school classrooms, but books teaching sexual techniques, abortion, transgenderism, and even materials that encourage children to talk to strangers about sex online would be promoted.

Insanity.

Of course, the Statesman editorial board took the opportunity to play the role of cringe 2000s-era online atheist by quoting explicit passages from Ezekiel as well as Israelite laws that seem odd to us today. The members of the board only betray their own ignorance, not only about Christian beliefs, but about the role of the Bible in the history of our nation. Up until the 1960s, schoolchildren routinely read the Bible, and we didn’t have the mental health issues, addiction to medications, and school shootings that plague our society today.

I’m not saying that reading the Bible in school will by itself cure those maladies, rather I suggest that the Statesman editorial board should show a little bit of curiosity about what is causing these modern problems. If you say that children as young as kindergarten should be exposed to graphic and explicit sexual imagery, but can’t handle a prophet of God comparing the people of Israel to an unfaithful prostitute, then I’m not sure what to tell you.

Whether or not the Bible should be brought back to public school classrooms is beside the point. It’s just incredible what the Statesman editorial board finds offensive and inappropriate for children.

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