A Texas school district felt the wrath of every church-going citizen in the Panhandle after they compared the Holy Bible to pornography and banned God’s Word from school libraries.
Canyon Independent School District Supt. Darryl Flusche told parents in an email that he had ordered librarians to remove the Good Book in compliance with a new state law called the “Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources” act.
The law is aimed at removing sexually explicit material from school libraries – especially materials that “describe or portray sexual conduct…in a patently offensive way.”
“This standard for library content prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content as described above,” the superintendent wrote in a letter to parents. “Therefore, HB 900 doesn’t allow numerous books, including the full text of the Bible, to be available in the school library.”
Parents and preachers showed up at a recent school board meeting to voice their extreme displeasure.
“In a day when we are needing security guards and bulletproof windows and doors, I think having the Word of God available to our children cannot only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world,” parent Regina Kiehne told the school board. “It seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books.”
State Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican co-author of the bill, blasted the superintendent’s decision to yank the Bible from the book shelves.
“The superintendent’s position here was indefensible and appeared to be a result of open hostility toward folks who want sexually explicit content removed from public schools. HB 900 clearly protects the Bible and all religious texts,” he wrote on X.
Sweating Like Sinners in Church
Patterson then fired off a letter to the school superintendent warning that his actions may have violated the law.
“The Bible is the most important and most read book in history, and removing it does a grave injustice to the students in your care,” the lawmaker wrote. “Let me be very clear: the Bible and other religious texts are protected under HB 900. Any assertion to the contrary is either rooted in ignorance of state law or an open hostility to the will of the people.”
That letter left the superintendent and school board members sweating like sinners in church. And after that “Come to Jesus” board meeting — they reinstated the Bible.
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“After receiving clarification from Representative (Jared) Patterson regarding library content, we reevaluated the guidelines and are pleased to have the Bible available in each of our Canyon ISD libraries,” the district said in a statement to television station KVII.
Needless to say, banning the Bible in Texas was one of the biggest boneheaded decisions made in the Lone Star State. It ranks right up there with letting men become Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders or saying brisket really isn’t barbecue.
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