Warning: the following article contains details that may disturb readers with an IQ below 60, and college students; but I repeat myself

cain slays abel

When Even the Bible Needs a Trigger Warning, Academia Has Lost Its Mind

Chris Queen, PJMedia:

At the UK’s University of Sheffield, a literature class syllabus warned of “graphic bodily injury and sexual violence” in the gospels as well as in the Genesis account of Cain and Abel.

….

The Bible is full of violent and sexually charged stories, and the point of them is to show how fallen humanity is and how all of us need the redemption that Jesus provided through his death, burial, and resurrection.

Noah’s drunken nudity after the flood showed how even the examples of faith can debase themselves. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah followed their basest desires. The book of Judges is full of stories of what resulted when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” I dare you to read Ezekiel 23 for a graphic metaphor for Israel’s unfaithfulness toward the Lord.

…. ““The university has defended its actions, calling the warning a ‘standard academic tool’ and insisting it is simply ‘preparing students who might find such [graphic] details difficult,’” reports Harbinger’s Daily. “Though many academic institutions have God-honoring roots, universities have come under intense scrutiny for vigorously pushing students toward an anti-Biblical worldview.”

Critics are calling out the University of Sheffield, and rightly so.”

“Applying trigger warnings to salvation narratives that have shaped our civilisation is not only misguided, but absurd,” said Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern. “To suggest that the crucifixion story involves ‘sexual violence’ is not just inaccurate, it’s a profound misreading of the text. The account of Jesus’s death is not a tale of trauma, it is the ultimate expression of love, sacrifice, and redemption, central to the Christian faith.”

"Neither the Gospels nor Genesis give explicit accounts of Abel's murder or Jesus' crucifixion, and what the 'sexual violence' label refers to is mystifying," said Angus Saul, the Christian Institute's Head of Communications.

In a lengthy post on X, Jim Chimirie writes:

This is not care. It is cowardice institutionalised. And it reveals a deeper truth: we are not protecting young people from the Bible – we are protecting them from the demands it places upon them. 

We are told this is about "sensitivity" and "student safety." But the Gospel does not exist to spare our feelings. It exists to confront human brutality and to show that love is stronger than death. If students cannot cope with Christ on the cross, then they cannot cope with the civilisation the cross built. When the foundational story of redemption is treated as dangerous, everything built upon it becomes unsafe by default. 

This attempt to sanitise Scripture is not misjudged; it is calculated. The Bible does not flatter the human ego – it exposes it. It does not affirm every impulse – it judges them. It forces us to face the darkest truths: murder, betrayal, lust, cowardice, cruelty. But it refuses to leave us there. The brutality of the crucifixion is not an act of trauma – it is the moment evil is broken. Violence is not celebrated, but defeated. To hide that is to hide hope itself.

Queen: “This university deemed the same stories that shaped Western civilization, inspired the abolition of slavery, and built hospitals and universities as potentially harmful. That says more about the modern reader than it does about the ancient text — and the truth that text contains.

“When a university slaps a warning label on God’s Word, it tells us more about the culture than about Scripture. If students can’t handle the cross, they can’t handle the civilization it built.”