School Board May Censor Books, Hand Out Bibles

[Kadie]

School Board May Censor Books, Hand Out Bibles

POSTED: 9:48 am EDT October 11, 2004

LA PLATA, Md. -- Margaret Young, vice chairman of the Charles County Board of Education, believes her school system's required reading lists are filled with "profanity and pornography, fornication and adultery."

"I think parents would be appalled if they really read the books their kids were reading that were so filled with profanity and pornography," she told The Washington Post. "I rely on the school system to provide good wholesome reading for my children."

Young supports a recent board recommendation that calls for "removing anything (from reading lists) that provides a neutral or positive view of immorality or foul language."

But some in the southern Maryland county are upset, fearing that some board members are attempting to impose personal religious and moral beliefs on the public schools.

more...
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/education/3799354/detail.html

[aden_nak]

1. Good & wholesome is for Sunday school. Try EDUCATIONAL.

And let me know how that works out.

[The Zanti Regent]

48. Yes the Bible is just SO WHOLESOME

http://www.postfun.com/pfp/NC-17Bible.html

A little bit of Gang Rape from God's Infallible Word:

Judges 19:24-29 "Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel."

and lets add in a couple of other verses for those that suffer from Howard Stern syndrome...

2 Chronicles 10:10 "And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it somewhat lighter for us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins."

Ezekiel 16:26 "Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger."

Ezekiel 23:20 "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of a horse."

[Voice_of_Europe]

56. No wonder so many people read the bible!!

Sex, Crime, Gore, Abuse, Drugs, Mass Murder

Specially the Old Testament

[trogdor]

59. Don't forget bukkake.

[Peanut Gallery]

2. This kind of ignorance makes me want to scream.

First, any kind of literary or art criticism like this is highly subjective. Second, I do not want my tax dollars to subsidize one person's religious morality in a PUBLIC school. Third, we have something called separation of Church and State in this country (last time I checked). Parents are free to send their children to the private school of their choice. They are free to practice the religion of their choice. They are NOT free to cram it down my throat or my child's throat.

[chicagojoe]

12. The separation of church and State...

...shall remain, through ANY means necessary. ANY means.

[Voice_of_Europe]

57. A case from Europe

Multiple countries in Europe are currently trying to ban head scarfs from publich schools, specially teachers should not wear it.

The cool thing.. also nuns uniforms are now disallowed in school.

[MaryH]

25. Kids manage to get around the rules

We did in Salt Lake City. Lots of books were on the banned list. But we searched for them and found them and read them - and then felt really good about ourselves.

[vogonity]

3. The bible is definitely not wholesome

It has lots of fornication and violence.

[Frances]

19. Off the top of my head I remember that

King David looked out his window and saw a woman bathing. David was filled with lust. When David found out that the woman was married, he arranged to have the woman's huband sent into the most dangerous part of a battle. The man was killed and David took the man's beautiful wife.

By the way, King David was very good friends with King Saul's son Jonathan who was probably gay.

Another king in the Bible wanted to show off his wife's beauty to his drunken friends. When the wife refused, the king got rid of the wife. Then the king sent his men out all over the kingdom to find the most beautiful woman in the kingdom for his new wife. That woman was Esther.

There was another king who lusted after his step-daughter. The step-daughter Salome did a strip tease dance (the dance of the seven veils) for the king.

The Bible has more juicy stuff that most novels.

[AirAmFan]

34. Have some Bible Thumpers already taken razor blades to the Good Book?

There MUST be a website somewhere listing chapter and verse for all the naughty bits of the Bible that need to be excised.

[karlrschneider]

36. Here's a fun place:

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
;-)

[tabasco]

49. Great site! Thanks.

The bible is even weirder than I thought.

[pschoeb]

32. favorite is Lot's daughters getting him drunk so they can have sex withhim

nt

[flying_blind]

46. http://www.evilbible.com/

http://www.evilbible.com/

[leetrisck]

4. Oh, but - but - the Bible is filled

with everything she wants to get rid of.

[Unstuck In Time]

5. The bible won't make any list that prohibits fornication and adultery

That thing is filled with all sorts of porno

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. The agenda's being set.

"The board said it would begin discussing the list of moral and religious goals Oct. 12.

"Basically these people are telling you how you should be and, if you're not, you're a bad person," said Leslie Schroeck, a guidance counselor at La Plata High School, who has two young daughters. "If this is what they're going to do, I'll pull my kids out of school and teach them myself."

I'd do exactly what the counselor is talking about...then I'd run for a seat on the board.

[jdj]

52. I had to laugh at Michael Moore's story about getting his principal

fired at the age of 18. He ran for the board, won, and then convinced the rest of the board to get rid of the guy.

Hilarious.

Also, they absolutely CANNOT teach anyform of history if these are the criteria.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

7. Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?!?!?!

I'm sure her list of profanity and pornography includes such trash as "Huck Finn" and "The Grapes of Wrath".

Much better to replace it with a book that discusses such child-friendly topics as crucifixion, torture, and genocide.

[arwalden]

26. Great Subject Line, EHNC!! I Can Just Imagine A Lunatic Fundy...

... standing up at a city council meeting and wailing out those words.

-- Allen

[7th_Sephiroth]

8. don't pornography and morality

differ from person to person, and thus, proove she is out for her own beliefs

[JPace]

9. The Christian taliban are coming.....

scary stuff is happening with the religious right!

[chicagojoe]

10. Fascist behavior !!! MD folks--CRUSH this movement! Use any means needed!

[AndyTiedye]

11. Could We Be in Trouble in Maryland?

Between this sort of thing
and all the new Diebold touch-screen voting machinez there,
we should NOT take Maryland for granted.

There may be enough well-placed Bushbots there to steal it,
even though we are way ahead in the polls in the state.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

42. Registered MD Democrats outnumber rethugs 2:1

However, The majority of registered Dems are in Baltimore City and the
Washington DC suburbs of Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties.

At one time, the candidate who could secure the vote in these three locations was assured of winning the election. This was not the case in the last gubernatorial. We ended up with a rethug in office.

Senator Barbara Mikulski reportedly has a secure lead over her rethug challenger, Pipkin; but his political ads are receiving vast amounts of air time. I believe there is reason for concern; because Barbara has consistently voted her conscience rather than cave in to the onslaught of insults flung by the Congressional brown shirts.

[7th_Sephiroth]

13. what this school board needs is a good

Lee Harvy Oswald impersinator

[MaryH]

14. They can then hollow out the Bible so that

they can hide their guns in them.

[lordwhorfin]

20. As the man said at Shawshank

Salvation lay within.

[oneighty]

15. Ah! La Plata

A few miles from Indian Head Md. the location of the Naval Powder Factory and home of US Navy School Explosive Ordnance Disposal. Charles County, where 'One Armed Bandits' ruled the taverns, silver coins fell freely and gambling was legal. Where everywhere for the taking; wine women and song. And where U.S. Highway 301 housed some of the hottest night clubs and other fun things.

Even then the locals declared themselves to be God Fearing Christians, as they counted the profits.

Long time past. La Plata had good 'Crab Cracks' too.

180

[rocktivity]

16. If she's against school children reading books with

"profanity and pornography, fornication and adultery," why does she want to hand out Bibles?

:headbang:
rocknation

[RoBear]

17. Not to mention

cannabilism, incest, slavery. Not to mention the passage where the guys are hung like horses and come like donkeys. I would think this would be most distressing and disgusting, but their eyes are shut to any criticism. I wouldn't DREAM of putting that book into the hands of a child without an explanation that the behavior in it is not for moral people. Made me an athiest in short order!

[theHandpuppet]

18. The Bible itself is not "Dick and Jane"!

Talk about tales of violence, mass murder, infanticide, rape, fornication, et al -- when's the last time Ms Young really read her own Bible!! Within these texts can be found approval for all manner of heinous crimes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. The ulterior motive is anti-science and anti-contraception

"They point to the book list and a proposal that recommends distributing Bibles in schools, removing science books "biased towards evolution" and teaching sexual education classes focused exclusively on abstinence."

They dress it up as a 'moral' issue, so they can accuse their opponents of being in favour of "profanity and pornography".

[NVMojo]

27. where is this crap coming from and why is there so much of it?

this is frightening.

[choicevoice]

22. It's not just MD, It's happening everywhere

Check out your local school board, city council members, etc. It has been the focus of their religious agenda since the 90's. Their plan was to have members run and get elected at the local level, starting small and moving up. They have a built in religious base of voters and financial backing. So much for separation of church and state.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

23. What books were on the required reading list?

Are they reading Madonna's "Sex" book? It's probably more likely the are reading stuff like "The Color Purple". Stuff that everyone reads in high school. Why does this women assume that the parents probably have not read the books that the kids were reading?

[DrZeeLit]

33. Yes, isn't it interesting...

...that the article gives no examples of what's on the reading list, what ages, what grades, subjects -- in essence, NOTHING. I'm an English teacher and have been through the process of book adoption many times. It's a very tough process. I'm just wondering what titles are creating this brew-ha-ha.... (and a witch hunt at that, halloween must be here)

[Joe_VB]

24. This is a major reason why I vote in every local election.

No matter what its for. Because here in Chesapeake Virginia Pat Robertson and the other rw so-called christians try to sneak thier members onto every ballot. If we dont pay attention this is what happens.

[progressivebydesign]

28. Yikes. The Bible is worse than most books they'd ban!

The Bible, being a fiction book, would be banned in a heartbeat in their little, narrow world, if it was written under another title.

THose people are so fucking scary.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

29. Has that lady read the bible lately? Lot of stuff in that book that...

...could easily place it on a censure list.

[GiovanniC]

30. I Completely Agree With These People -- BAN The Bad Books!

Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.
-- GEN 38:8-9


Judah, seeing her (his disguised daughter-in-law), took her for a prostitute, since her face was veiled. Going up to her on the road, he said, 'Here, let me sleep with you.'

'What will you give me for sleeping with you?' she asked.

'I will send you a kid from the flock,' he said.

'Agreed, if you give me a pledge until you send it,' she replied.

'What pledge shall I give you?' he asked.

'Your seal and cord and the staff you are holding,' she replied.

He gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived by him. Then she got up and left him. Taking off her veil, she resumed wearing her widow's clothes. Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to recover the pledge from the woman. But he did not find her. He enquired from the men of the place, 'Where is the prostitute who was by the roadside at Enaim?'

'There has been no prostitute here,' they answered.

About three months later, Judah was told, 'Your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; furthermore, she is pregnant, as a result of her misconduct.'

'Bring her out,' ordered Judah, 'and let her be burnt alive!'

But as she was being led off, she sent word to her father-in-law. 'It was the owner of these who made me pregnant,' she said. 'Please verify whose seal and cord and staff these are.'

Judah recognized them and said, 'She was right and I was wrong, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.' He had no further intercourse with her.
-- GEN 38:15-26



But before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every part of the city. They called to Lot, and said to him, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may have sex with them.'

Lot went out the door, and shut the door behind him. He said, 'Please, my brothers, do not be evil. Look, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you. You may do whatever you please to them, just do not do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.'

'Stand back!' they said, 'This one came here as a foreigner and appoints himself a judge? Now we will deal with you worse than with them!'
-- GEN 19:4-9



Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.
-- GEN 34:1-2



I mean, seriously... that's just GENESIS! And there's more than just that. Incest, prostitution, violence, everything you can imagine, it's in there.


ON EDIT: I should mention that I'm being sarcastic about banning books, Bible or otherwise.

[yardwork]

31. I started to read the Bible to my children

I'm not Christian, but I thought that it would be a good idea for us all to read the Bible. My husband - who is agnostic - was against the idea.

Well, I didn't get very far, for the reasons listed above. I didn't get past Genesis.

The Bible is for adults, not children.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

37. "The Harlot by the Side of the Road"

A http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345418824/qid=1097519602/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3958040-6481714?v=glance&s=books">great book about the not-so-pleasant passages in the bible. The author got the idea through an experience similar to yours: Was reading it to his children at night and got into parts about incest and rape. Oops.

[SoCalDem]

35. Wow.. I thought this thread would be about Kansas..

There people are like the little engine that could.. They just never quit :(

[MADem]

38. Wanna fuck with these idiots???

http://www.ccboe.com/site/boardofed/boardprofiles.htm

Here's their website. And guess what....there's EMAIL ADDRESSES, tons of 'em.

Get active!:bounce:

[BiggJawn]

39. Smells like Dominionism to me...

The people of La Plata had better wake up and UNFUCK THEMSELVES before they wake up one day and find out they were supposed to grow beards and put the women in Burkhas the night before...

"EVERY knee shall BEND, EVERY head shall BOW!"

Or they'll send you to the camps or the chopping block.

Or maybe the chopping block in the camp...

[jukes]

40. margaret young

is a fornicating pig. may she burn on her own pile of proscripted boox.

[davidinalameda]

41. these people are the storm troopers for the upcoming

religious war

how long before they start the concentration camp for non believers

[crossroads]

43. Jesus, save us from your followers!

:eyes:

[w4rma]

44. Shelter them from reality. You obviously have been, Ms. Young.

And you obviously haven't read the Bible, either, otherwise you wouldn't be proposing this.

[Gman]

45. There's something you don't see every day

"Basically these people are telling you how you should be and, if you're not, you're a bad person," said Leslie Schroeck, a guidance counselor at La Plata High School, who has two young daughters. "If this is what they're going to do, I'll pull my kids out of school and teach them myself."

There's something you don't see every day... someone that would pull their kids out and home school because of conservatism rather than the other way around.

[justjones]

47. Here's a link to their high school '04 summer reading list.....

http://www.ccboe.com/site/studentsparents/2004readinglist/readinglists.htm

Oh my! I see a bunch of books that are going to arouse the children and they all may end up fornicating and sinning....NOT!

Can someone pick out a book that is so awful that it needs to be banned?

[absolutezero]

51. i find it ironic

that Fahrenheit 451 is on that list of books she wants to ban.
stupid fundie :spank:

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

58. That's on the list for a different school.

La Plata students get Animal Farm, as well as that immortal classic, Huck Finn.

There's also something called "Siddhartha", which I've never heard of, but I'm guessing is heavy on Buddhist philosophy. Clearly anathema to gun-toting Jesus-fearers everywhere.

[TrogL]

62. Animal Farm

and practically every other book on the list, by their rights.

They want books about angels.

Can you tell I've been through this before?

[AlFrankenFan]

50. Not to offend x-tians here, but is that woman aware

that more violence has been caused by that book than by something like "Harry Potter"? What about people who bomb abortion clinics, eh? :shrug:

[enki23]

60. what gives you the idea she cares about violence?

she's worried about "profanity and pornography," not violence.

[Dhampir]

53. Are these the same idiots

who want to ban Harry Potter books because of their use of magic?

What a complete bunch of idiots! I hate ultra bible-thumpers!

[MaryH]

54. Don't ever underestimate them!

[Aiptasia]

55. book burning nazis

This is an old arguement. I guess Shakespeare is still considered trash porn in certain circles.

Kids, read everything you can and make up your own minds. God forbid anyone would want you to agree with dissenting opinions.

Oh and fish out a few of those Dixie Chicks CD's out of the flames. They're awesome!

[dave123williams]

61. Somebody should take a copy of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and

...cram it up this guy's ass.

[qwlauren35]

63. It's too bad they didn't list the books...

There are some books that I would consider inappropriate on a high school reading list.

Carrie
The Exorcist
Interview with a Vampire
ANYTHING by Laurell K. Hamilton (I *love* her stuff.)
Most romance novels (you know, the ones in which the heroine falls in love with some guy who has raped her in the beginning of the novel)

Looking back, I remember that we frequently read about war, and that war was one of life's realities. This did not thrill me.

I would have no problem with a course on world religion in which the Bible and Torah were compared, the Koran and the Bhagavad Vita were studied, along with key Buddhist Sutras. In fact, I wouldn't even mind if Mormon, Christian Scientist and Jehovahs Witness writings were studied so that people had an idea of how these groups were founded, similarly, I think it would be valuable to understand the formation of the Nation of Islam. Couldn't hurt to understand the Bah'ai and Shintoist religions either. I think it's valuable to know from an anthropological perspective how different people's beliefs interplay with their cultures, and how different cultures establish a moral standard.

At the end of the class, I think it would be especially valuable to see some commonalities among the cultures in terms of what is right and what is wrong.