Despite far more pressing problems, Tennessee Senate and House committees have been working to make the Bible the official book of Tennessee — adding the Bible with catfish (the state fish) as a symbol of the state. Of course, cat fish are not matters of faith (beyond the hope and prayer of every fisherman). The House sponsor, Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, added “talking points” to bill. Sexton was only elected in 2015 but is wasting no time in trying to rollback on the separation of church and state.
The bill was approved by the Senate State and Local Government Committee by a 7-0-2 vote. Only two abstained. Not a single opposing vote. The House State Government Committee approved the bill (HBO615) by a voice vote about an hour later.
Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown insists that it must be constitutional because “It doesn’t in any way, shape, form or fashion say that anyone has to read this book. It doesn’t mean anyone has to believe in the tenets of this book.”
Legislators could argue that they are associating the state with the generally accepted elements of the Bible such as the values expressed in the book. However, rabbis and clerics of other religious are objecting. The book also ascribes to one view of the Almighty. Moreover, the official designation will require some state action by employees in listing and featuring the book. It would raise an interesting and potentially expensive court case for the state. If the legislators tried to erect a monument to the Bible, there would be a credible challenge. What is the difference between a monument on the grounds and this designation?
Putting aside the question of the separation of powers, the claim of constitutionality does not make this the right thing to do. There are many citizens in Tennessee who follow other faiths or no faith. This is the majority forcing all citizens to associate with the religious book of one faith. If one truly believe in free exercise of religion, it should come with a respect for the faiths of others. The concept of tolerance and pluralism runs deeply in our values as a nation.
The fact that not a single member had the courage to oppose this bill on principle is a deeply sad reflection on our current politics. Imagine who people would feel is a bill passed making the Koran the official book or the Torah. It is not enough to say that you might be able to get away with dong something wrong — I learned that as a kid from the Bible.
Source: The Tennessean
@Ingannie
You silly person. . .I bet you believe all the speeches, don’t you??? I bet you believed “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan!” and “This will be the most transparent administration ever!” etc.
I bet you even believe that the Democratic Party leadership really wants more middle class and wealthy blacks and hispanics, and more poor women to get married and bring up their kids in two parent homes, too, don’t you??? And that it is only the mean old Republicans who stand in their way.
And you still haven’t answered the above question, now have you???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Ted Cruz is more your speed Squeeky.
Squeeky, you don’t speak for Hillary Clinton. You have a twisted view of many things, you’ve twisted Hillary into something she’s not. You seem to be living in some alternate Hillary reality.
http://youtu.be/MudnsExyV78
Hillary Clinton’s historic LGBT human rights speech.
@Ingannie
Still making repetitious comments, and avoiding answering the question. I assure you that if Chesea had brought home little Bobby, the bi-sexual boy, she would respond just like posited you would. Plus, she would add,
“Chelsea, there is a difference between what I say in public, and real life. Now, get rid of that little pervert before I tell your daddy!”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h_xkN-2nthk/UeowVsiQmrI/AAAAAAAAlnI/D8hY-4MXHpw/s640/hillary+clinton+-+gay+rights+are+human+rights+-+the+world+of+hillary+clinton.png
@Ingannie
Hmmm. I don’t think you answered the question. You made two responses, and called me some names, but you didn’t answer the question.
Not surprised.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
http://greginhollywood.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/579004_10152308943063840_589038051_n-400×400.jpg
http://1wdojq181if3tdg01yomaof86.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/hillary-gay-people.jpg
Squeeky, you won’t fit in at any Hillary Campaign Headquarters., not even in Texas. Face it, you are a bigot, no Democrat would want to be associated with you.
@Ingannie
You need to grow up and get out in the real world. I know you are 60ish years old, but I am beginning to think that mentally and emotionally you are still stuck at whatever age it was that you rebelled against the church. Geeesh, Annie, people strike all kinds of poses in public. Lots of Germans raised their fist and said, “Heil Hitler!” in Germany, but do you really think they meant it??? I’km betting by 1941, most of them wished he would just croak. But, it was the thing to do to knock rock the boat.
And lest you think that an extreme example, how many liberals do you know who are all civil-rightsy in public, and then live in white enclaves and send their kids to private schools???
How many white liberals raised heck about Trayvon, but would poop their pants if little Susie brought home some black kid in a hoodie???
What are you going to do if one day one of your grand daughters brings home little Bobby, the bi-sexual boyfriend??? And he wants her to have anal sex??? And she wants to, to show how much she really loves him??? And, plus, Granny Annie, you always said that men who have sex with other men are just like everybody else??? And that we shouldn’t discriminate!
Are you going to just sit there with a dumb look on your face, or are you going to start in about HIV, and “Don’t you dare let that little SOB do that to you, you’ll get AIDS and die!!!” I am betting you add a new verse to Leader of the “Pack”:
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Happypappies
There is the word and there is the meaning behind the word. For me, the word is mankind before all. I am a glass half full sort so perhaps that can be equated to faith. For me mankind created Christ and his god, not the other way around. The stories are illustrations of rational and common sense regarding love, society, respect and all the other stuff the world needs to exist and evolve.
The great advancement of Christianity is that it is the one religion that has been attached to Western Civilization as it evolved to where we are today. Regardless of nooks and crannies of advanced aspects in other religions and peoples, the West is the most advanced society in the world. That it remains a tool or a device to help in understanding is its value. It’s strength is that it too has evolved from the merciless sword to the private relationship between an individual, its group, and their beliefs.
From my perspective, Tennessee is moving backwards. I doubt that Christianity by itself would have evolved to where it is today had it not been for the secular direction of its world. Compare and contrast Islam with Christianity and you might see my point. Islam today is not much different than Christianity seven hundred years ago, it ranged from intellectual delight to slaughter.
What remains a fact is that some one who believes in the tenets of a religion cannot understand why another who doesn’t, doesn’t. They understand to accept it, if they are strong enough. Tennessee does not appear to have that strength.
Issac
Okay but – I will show below how Man did not create God
Tennessee is definitely moving backwards as they are a Fundamentalist Evangelical Bible Banging State and are using the 4 Cardinal Man Made Virtues to Polarize Religion into a Swamp thing that started out as Aristotelian and morphed into some kind of obsessive compulsive nightmare
Yes, being all about moralism we have taken and confused sin with intemperate behavior, injustice, imprudence and cowardice.
Sin is missing the mark and a forgetting of where your place with God is.
Faith, Hope and Love are the gifts of grace that most Christians are supposed to “aspire” to.
God is a name that ancient man used for the creative source of the Universe. It was Paradoxical in that before there was any known anything, there was the creative force. At the time of creation there was a “Big Bang and the Order became Chaos and then became orderly again and began to expand. As things evolve, they have to break down and devolve thus you have chaos then order again. So it is a never ending cycle. Our own bodies are a miracle as they should not even hold together and the chromosomes they are made of are what hold them together in the 4th arrow of time so to speak biologically through more entropy. It is the Thermodynamic Law.
So, all of the things the Ancients described in Isaiah in particular and
Genesis 1:2 ESV
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/intel/08/02/08_hillarygaypride_lg.jpg
Oooooooo, looky here!
http://www.hillaryis44.org/2008/06/29/voting-for-barack-obama-part-vii/
Gosh Squeeky, these PUMA ladies sure seem to disagree with you about gay people and their rights. Hillary marched in a Gay Pride Parade, did you know that? I didn’t.
I sure hope no hapless gay Hillary volunteer accidentally hugs you, if Hillary wins. IMO, the Hillary campaign would be better off without homophobes in it.
Perhaps you should tell people that as you go door to door Squeeky, lol. I bet when it got back to campaign headquarters you ‘d be out on your a$$, lol.
@Ingannie
Just because you work for other people on something, doers not mean that you have to believe all the official platform stuff. Do you think Hillary really gives a hoot about a bunch of Sodomites??? But, if you are a professional, you do not openly dispute your “employer” because, especially if you are not one of the protected classes, they can fire you just like that!
Do you really think most people find the image of two gay twerps french kissing each other anything but gross and disgusting??? That is why there is sooo much effort spent by the Gaystapo to intimidate people, because there is such a natural tendency to go “yeccch!” at such a sight. And also why sooo much of the reality of gay life is kept hidden. For example, most people don’t even know that 20% of men who have sex with men are HIV positive. And think “bug chasing” is about pest control. And God only knows how few ordinary people know anything about “slamming.”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Yes indeed Squeeky, you’ll have to put “Squeeky” on sabbatical when you are campaigning for Hiilary. I bet even in Texas your comments about gay people would get you promptly dismissed from being a Hillary campaign volunteer. You would give the Hillary campaign a bad reputation if they knew what you really thought and it became public.
@Ingannie
Hmmm. I always thought it meant Party Unity My A$$. I have to keep Squeeky under wraps when I get involved in politics. But, FWIW, there are a whole lot of Texans, Democrats and Republicans, who don’t want anything to do with a bunch of gay nonsense. They may not say anything about it in public, but privately they have no sympathy for those gay knuckleheads, or their idiotic causes.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Do bakers refuse to sell wedding cakes to couples who get married by a Justice of the Peace in the Courthouse? That wedding has no religious overtones. It’s the Theocratical nuts who are stamping everything with a religious overtone. Like this Republican State government in Tennessee.