Florida Atheist Petitions to Ban the Bible in Miami-Dade and Broward Schools

[mia]

Since July of 2021, more than 200 books have been banned in various school districts across Florida, the state with the third-highest number of school book banning incidents in the U.S. This comes as the Florida legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis have passed House Bill 1467, which allows members of the public to challenge and ban books available in school classrooms and libraries, and a swath of "anti-woke" legislation purportedly aimed at empowering parents to protect their children's impressionable minds.

With that in mind, local political stunt activist Chaz Stevens of Deerfield Beach has taken it upon himself to add another book to the lengthy list: the Bible. This week, in letters sent to superintendents in eight school districts in Florida — including Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) and Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) — Stevens, an avowed atheist, petitions the districts to ban the Christian Bible from classrooms and libraries, citing its inclusion of inappropriate topics.

"If they're gonna ban books, then the whole library should be in play. My hope — and it's a longshot — is that they will apply their own standards to themselves and ban the Bible," Stevens tells New Times.

Free-speech and literary-expression advocates have been sounding the alarm about what they see as a bureaucratic, authoritarian attack on education in Florida, particularly after recent news that the state rejected 54 math textbooks from the curriculum for allegedly containing prohibited topics such as "Critical Race Theory." When the state went so far as banning math books, Stevens says, he was inspired to use the same bureaucracy to strike back against the conservative wave with an operation he calls "Eff Off Jesus."

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/broward-man-petitions-to-ban-christian-bible-from-eight-florida-school-districts-14335777?fbclid=IwAR38tSgE7HpKqjXWya-n4UCvUeL3bizTzBt2JEf-2ZjLxQUQT0tKPiuc2h8

[samnsara]

1. call the Freedom From Religion Foundation

[BigmanPigman]

7. I am a proud member.

Ron Reagan and I aren't afraid of burning in Hell.

[lindysalsagal]

12. Me too!

[Conjuay]

11. hey, thanks!

Never heard of them -(I do live under a large and spacious rock)

Local Chapter is really close by.

I'm going to check FFRF out!

[wishstar]

2. There's a lot of disturbing content inappropriate for children in the Bible for sure

[Deuxcents]

3. The worst..but..

They take out of context what they want so they control the message. The Bible is full of murder, infidelity, cheating, wars, and other of the sins we’re supposed to avoid.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Talk about bravery

That's really going for it

[MontanaMama]

5. Fucking A. Ban the Bible.

I would pitch a fit if that ended up in my kiddo’s school.

[Magoo48]

6. Yup, plenty of incest, slavery, violence there to make folks uncomfortable.

[dchill]

8. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

[Escurumbele]

9. They need to ban the bible from hotels as well...imagine a child reading all those horrible stories

before going to bed, it can scar them for life.

[Escurumbele]

10. By the way, they should also petition banning any book written by a republican, they are sure to be

full of lies.

[IronLionZion]

13. This Christian agrees

although I'm not religious. There's terrible stuff in the Bible.