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Atheist & Satanic anti-Christian materials banned by Colorado school district

CB Condez

Atheist and Satanist groups were scheduled to make literature available to students in a school district in Colorado on April 1, but two of the reading materials that they submitted for approval were blocked and limited for distribution only in local high schools.

Delta County School District objected to the pamphlet from Freedom From Religion Foundation titled "What Does the Bible Say About Abortion?" The group used Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer's 1504 woodcut "Adam and Eve" as cover, and this was categorized by the school district as a "pornographic picture."

"Albrecht Dürer's famous depiction of Adam and Eve in Paradise can be called many things, but it is not pornography," said Andrew Seidel, FFRF staff attorney. "Dürer completed this engraving in 1504, and it is one of the most technically precise woodcuttings in all of art history. It has been displayed in the world's foremost museums and is a staple of most art history classes. The idea that this picture is somehow pornographic is, to be frank, absurd."

The other pamphlet put in question and limited for distribution in high schol is "An X-Rated Book: Sex and Obscenity in the Bible." It shows a cartoon of a Bible with hands groping under a young girl's skirt.

"It is inappropriate in a school setting; we would not allow any of the high school students to wear or otherwise display such a cartoon," School District Attorney Andrew Clay said, as quoted in the FFRF website. "Why would we allow them to carry it in the building? It may also qualify as hate literature, demeaning women."

The group, however, said that the school officials are interpreting it the wrong way, and that they miss the point entirely.

"The cover image is a feminist cartoon whose message is that the bible itself demeans women," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the group's co-president.

Seidel also said that the pamphlet contains mostly quotes from the Bible, and he argued that if the school district is banning it because it qualifies as hate literature, then the Bible must be banned as well.

"There is absolutely no way for the district to exclude the pamphlet and allow the bible to be distributed," he said.

A compromise was apparently reached, with FFRF having to place a sticker across the cartoon. It reads, "CENSORED by order of Delta County Schools," something that the group thinks would likely pique the interest of students more.

The move by the FFRF, Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers, and The Satanic Temple to make non-Christian materials available to students was prompted by Gideon International's distribution of the Bible in the Colorado school district in December.

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