Christian Lawmaker Is On A ‘search And Destroy’ School Books Mission

TEXAS … again! Gormless Republican Lawmaker Matt Krause, above, who is involved with an outfit called Christians Engaged, clearly has far too much time on his hands.

He’s drawn up a list of 850 books he wants removed from public schools because they might:

Make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.

Krause is now being asked by the Freedom From Religion Foundation why he hasn’t included the Bible in his “search and destroy” list. In a letter sent to the zealot, the FFRF wrote:

Perhaps you should investigate books that you will find in almost every school library. One book advocates for rape victims to marry their rapists. Another tells the story of a prostitute who “lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses,” she “longed for the lewdnessof your youth, when …[her] bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.”

In another a future husband purchases a wife by killing 200 of her fathers’ enemies, mutilating their corpses, and bringing back their foreskins as a dowry. Finally, one sordid and preposterous story that defames incest victims recounts the exploits of two daughters who, having just witnessed a genocide and the murder of their mother by a pyromaniacal god, supposedly get their father drunk and seduce him in order to bear his children.

These and many more unpalatable and sexually explicit stories are found in various books of the Bible.

The letter also points out:

FFRF advocates, above all, for freedom of thought. We believe that there is no true freedom of thought, conscience, or even religion, unless our government and its public schools are free from religion. We are deeply familiar with the haunting history of censorship – from the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, to the Comstock laws, to the Nazi book burnings, the attacks on authors such as Charles Darwin and Salman Rushdie, and the murders of Bangladeshi bloggers
such as Avijit Roy.

The Bible also condemns homosexuals to death and declares them an abomination. Where is your concern for the “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” that LGBTQ students might experience having such a book in their library? Where is your compassion for children of color who might read of “the Curse of Ham” and feel marginalized? Where is the empathy for non-Christians who, the Bible says, should be burned and tortured for eternity, for girls who are repeatedly told that women are “unclean” and must be in subjection?

FFRF says on its website that Krause seems to be familiar with the contents of the Bible, since he frequently touts his position on the board of Christians Engaged and that group’s fidelity to the Bible. In fact, he has written that “there’s no better textbook” for “instilling” morality than the Bible.

FFRF said it was reminded of Heinrich Heine’s famous observation, “Where they burn books, they will end in burning human beings.”

History never looks kindly on book censors and burners.

The organisation has published a brochure, An X-Rated Book: Sex & Obscenity In the Bible, which exposes nearly 150 bible verses displaying a “pornographic view of sex and women, lewdness, depravity and sexual violence often ordered or countenanced by the biblical deity.”

It’s reported here that Krause sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency and superintendents of school districts around the state, asking each official to confirm whether their schools possess any books on his list, along with a detailed accounting of where they are and how much money was spent on them.

The lawmaker did not explain what the next steps might be, but his request mentioned several recent pushes to remove books from libraries and classrooms if they center on issues from transgender identity to critical race theory. He gave the officials until Novembder 12 to reply.

Books on Krause’s list include titles such as The Great American Whatever, a young adult novel by Tim Federle, and “Pink is a Girl Color” … and other silly things people say, a children’s picture book by Stacy and Erik Drageset.

Non-fiction books are also on the list, from How Prevalent Is Racism in Society?, by Peggy J. Parks, to the Amnesty International title We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures.

Krause’s demand is a “disturbing and political overreach into the classroom” — and it might be illegal, said Ovidia Molina, above, President of the Texas State Teachers Association.

Nothing in state law … gives a legislator the authority to conduct this type of witch hunt. This is an obvious attack on diversity and an attempt to score political points at the expense of our children’s education.

Some of the books on Krause’s list explain puberty and reproduction. Others discuss pregnancy and abortion, either from a textbook standpoint or through fiction. At least 11 of the books focus on the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, whose main characters include a doctor who performs abortions, is also on the list.

Many of the books discuss race. The list includes An African American and Latinx History of the United States, a well-reviewed title by University of Florida historian Paul Ortiz that seeks to add nuance and accuracy to long-accepted histories of America.

Krause made his removal request through the Texas House’s General Investigating Committee, which he chairs.

But the Democratic vice chair of the panel said Krause’s mission was a waste of taxpayers’ money and educators’ time. State Representative Victoria Neave says it’s an attempt to obscure facts and exploit a wedge issue for political gain and is an attempt to “whitewash our history.”