ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If you're searching for a big proponent of the Bible, a church is probably a great place to start looking.
"Everyone is welcome here and can find sanctuary here," said Pastor Andy Oliver of Allendale United Methodist Church.
But even those who know the “good book” best say there may be some hypocrisy at play when it comes to legislation that's been passed and expanded since the 2022 Parental Rights in Education bill.
Critics of the bill say it has been used to target minority and LGBTQ content.
Now, some Floridians have filed complaints that the Bible is full of inappropriate content.
"We've seen an unprecedented amount to challenges to books…and attempts to ban books by LGBTQ authors, black and brown authors, and it's essential that our children have these books to read where they can see characters and plot lines in stories that represent who they are," Oliver said.
Florida lawmakers say they're now working on legislation that could make it costly for people to file multiple book challenges if you don't have kids in the school system.
"It would actually start to charge fees, significant fees, on people who don't have kids in a school after five frivolous challenges have been found,” Representative Randy Fine said.
If it passes, that legislation says those filing complaints will have to pay $100 per challenge if they have already had five unsuccessful book objections and don’t have a child enrolled at the school.
We reached out to school districts in our area, to find out if they have the Bible in schools. Hernando, Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk county school districts said that they do.
One district said that they didn't move forward with a complaint to remove the Bible because of the "fundamental statutory and constitutional rights of our students."
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference addressing criticism over books being pulled for review over the past few years. He played a slideshow of books that he says anyone would agree are too graphic for public schools.
Multiple books in the slideshow featured detailed illustrations of characters having sex. Another described the use of sex toys.
At that press conference, DeSantis directly referenced complaints regarding the Bible.
"This is all performative and it really has no place in our school system," DeSantis said. “This is fraudulent. But what it is, is it's trying to obscure the reason parents have been concerned.”
Fine says that, just because a book isn't made available to students, it doesn't mean the book is banned in schools. He says much of this comes down to shelf space. However, he disagrees that the Bible could not be seen as appropriate in schools.
“I mean that's crazy. Look, I can't help it if people are stupid,” he said. “I would challenge anyone to find any section of the Bible that you could not read openly in a school board meeting. That is the standard that should be used."
While parents, those filing complaints, district leaders and lawmakers try to decide what stays and what goes, faith leaders are praying for an outcome that's positive for the students caught in the middle.
"I think it's time for this foolishness to stop,” Oliver said. “I think our children and parents are smart enough for themselves to decide what they need to read and take in all the information to learn and that's how they grow."