Christian-based nonprofit threatens to remove Fort Worth ISD trustees over "pornographic" books
FORT WORTH – The content of 90 books is not sitting well with members of a nonprofit founded out of Fort Worth's Mercy Culture Church. They call the literature inappropriate and pornographic.
"And in many of these cases, these books have texts in them that are sexually explicit and in detail," Josh Moore said. "It describes what actions are happening in the book. And it's very, very bad."
A former New Hampshire lawmaker, Moore is with "For Liberty & Justice." The nonprofit was launched in 2021. He said the images in the books were bad, too.
Another group led the charge when the Fort Worth Independent School District removed the books to determine if they met the district's standards.
FWISD said master librarians have checked the books to see if the pieces are age-appropriate for the shelves of school libraries. The district said some of those titles were back at schools in April, but the process is still ongoing.
A junior at Paschal High School was among the first to speak out to the board during their June meeting Tuesday night.
"Today, I'm here to address the issue of pornographic books being brought back to our schools this fall," she said. "I want to start off by saying that these books have no place in our school libraries."
The high schooler said having the books available in elementary and middle schools was "sickening."
Titles on their list of objectionable books range from "A Court of Frost and Starlight" by Sarah Maas to "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and "Jesus Land: A Memoir" by Julia Scheeres.
Not everyone was against banning the books. One man told the group,"that's your religion."
"I hear the uproar, the uproar that these are pornographic. There's the definition of pornography is not just that gay people exist and trans people exist. And they deserve to exist in peace and not be oppressed and demonized," he said.
The comments were not an agenda item, so board members listened to a slew of two-minute speeches, including "For Liberty & Justice" members threatening to remove them from office.
"But whatever you do, if this ever happens again, I need you to hear my words. All eight of you are gone," the member said.