The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FRFF) is planning to distribute, in public schools in Florida, copies of a pamphlet that features an illustration of a cartoon Bible sexually assaulting a young woman. The purple-colored pamphlet, titled, “An X-Rated Book: Sex and Obscenity in the Bible,” features the contentious illustration – a cartoon Bible with limbs and a drooling face, sexually assaulting a woman who tries to flee, on its front cover.

According to the news release uploaded on the organization’s website, FFRF plans to distribute this pamphlet along with several other brochures and books in 11 public schools across Orange County in Florida on January 16, 2015, which happens to be National Religious Freedom Day.

Each year, on this day, Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) allow different religious groups  to set up stalls with pre-approved literature, including copies of the Bible, so that students can acquire them if they so wish to. While members of these religious groups are allowed to be stationed around their stalls and restock as and when needed, they are not allowed to interact with students, according to the school district’s guidelines.

Andrew Seidel, legal counsel for FFRF, argued that the pamphlet that FFRF wants to distribute is a lot less lewd compared to the Bible itself.

“I think if you look at the content of that brochure and what is actually in the Bible, and some of the things that are in the Bible in terms of sex and compare that to the cover [of the pamphlet], the cover is pretty tame compared to anything that is in the Bible. … I think the bottom line is, you can’t consider any of our materials obscene when compared to the Bible,” Seidel said.

The text inside the pamphlet cites dozens of snippets from the Bible that FFRF believes are “obscene,” including those passages that describe nudity, sex and circumcision.

Seidel said the cover of the pamphlet is likely to offend Christians but that is a fair trade-off, considering how atheists feel when Bibles are circulated in public schools.

“I think we recognize that it might upset some people, but the Bible upsets many, many non-believers, especially when it’s being pushed in the public schools,” Seidel said. “So really, all it’s doing is placing believers and people who are in the majority in the position that we in the minority have been in for a very long time, and are in every time the government espouses one religion over another. That’s what we feel like all the time.”

FFRF was allowed to distribute their x-rated pamphlet after they won a lawsuit against OCPS last year. According to court records, FFRF opposed the school district’s decision to allow World Changers of Florida, a Christian group, to hand out copies of the Bible at 11 public schools on Freedom of Religion Day. In response, the secular organization announced on January 29, 2013, that they too, would circulate packages of atheist literature, including this x-rated pamphlet, in the same public schools in May. In keeping with the school district’s rules, David Williamson from FFRF submitted to OCPS a list of all the reading material the secular group had planned to hand out. After reviewing the proposal however, the school district rejected almost half of FFRF’s suggestions.

In a letter, OCPS Superintendent Barbara Jenkins explained, “An X-Rated Book: This brochure may not be distributed. … This brochure will cause substantial disruption and is age inappropriate. There is a picture on the cover of a Bible book given human features sticking its hand up the dress of a woman.”

Jenkins also claimed that the pamphlet carried instructions for students on how to become members of FFRF and said the school district could not allow reading materials to contain solicitations.

On June 13, 2013, the secular group filed a lawsuit against OCPS, alleging the school district had discriminated against it and violated its First as well as Fourteenth Amendment rights. FFRF and the school district then went on to sign an agreement.

A Motion to Dismiss handed down in the Orlando District Court on June 3, 2014, states, “On or about January 3, 2014, Defendant unconditionally agreed to allow Plaintiffs to distribute the materials that Defendant had previously prohibited. … Moreover, Defendant represented that it has ‘no intention in the future to prohibit these materials.”

However, in keeping with an earlier Florida court ruling that ordered what religious groups can and cannot distribute at public schools, the court added to the Motion to Dismiss, “Indeed, Defendant may lawfully prohibit outside groups from distributing materials that are not appropriate for distribution in a school setting with the aim of controlling student conduct in the schools. … This includes dissemination of content that is sexually explicit, indecent, lewd, or offensive in such would undermine the school’s basic educational mission.”

Seidel said OCPS maybe the first school district to be targeted by FFRF for allowing the distribution of religious materials and disallowing the distribution of non-religious literature, but it will definitely not be the last.

“We’re focusing on Orange County for the moment, but we will probably be expanding to other school districts that allow this,” he explained.

Photo Credits: OrlandoJobs.com and United Coalition of Reason