From time to time there have always been calls to censor the Bible and remove it from school libraries. At the beginning of June a school district in Utah removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools for containing “vulgarity and violence not suitable for younger students.” But before Christians can cry foul of the state, we had better take the log out of our own eyes.

Without doubt, the Bible is full of vulgarity and violence and graphic sexual detail. If it were made into a film it would surely be X-rated. Long before the Utah school district ever got around to it, Christian publishing houses have been voluntarily censoring and sanitizing the Bible in children’s versions. Children’s Bibles leave the worst stories out, like Genesis 34 when Simeon’s and Levi’s sister was raped and they responded by killing all the men in town and taking their property, wives, and children. Children’s Bibles downplay judgment, like the fact that the story of Noah and the Flood is quite disturbingly about mass death. Children’s Bibles glorify dishonorable characters when the artwork paints a neat picture, like narcissistic and vengeful Samson who used his power only when it suited him rather than saving his people as God intended for him to do.

God’s approach to parenting is not a large-scale version of silencing opposing views. God commands parents to teach this Bible—including all its bits, in age-appropriate ways—to their children and make it part of daily life. You have—in your house—the ultimate revelation of the supreme Being in existence, who wants every person in the world to read it and worship him. And because we have homes filled with Bibles, it really makes no difference to the church if the school district leaves it out of the libraries.

Start with the clean bits for the very young children, but don’t remain at that level. God’s plan is not for us to try and preserve childhood innocence for as long as possible. Innocence doesn’t prepare them for life in this world. Unfortunately, many Christian adults themselves have never gotten beyond those sanitized board-book Bibles and therefore find it difficult to navigate the complexities of adult life in light of God’s word.

The Bible is not the problem; it is the answer, if we take it seriously. There we find answers for dealing with the vulgar and violent parts of life in God-pleasing ways. We believe the entire Bible—every word—is God’s gift and blessing to us.