Senate and House committees overwhelmingly approved measures Tuesday that would designate the Bible as the official book of Tennessee, despite reservations raised by religious leaders and some lawmakers.
The Senate State and Local Government Committee approved the measure by a 7-0-2 vote; no lawmakers voted against the bill, but two abstained. The House State Government Committee approved the bill by a voice vote about an hour later.
The House version includes added language in the form of an amendment. The amendment adds “talking points” in support of the bill, said House sponsor, Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station.
This was the short House bill in February, but I couldn’t find a more recent version. Note that they fail to designate which translation of the Bible will be the Official one:
Naturally, the bill’s sponsor and its proponents (surprise–they’re mostly Republicans!) argue that this has nothing to do with establishing a state religion, even though the sponsors are both ministers. It’s all about history! As the [Chattanooga] Time Free-Press reports:
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, a freshman lawmaker who had been an ordained minister for 25 years before going into business. Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, who became an ordained minister in 1981, is the Senate sponsor.
Both said when presenting the bill earlier today that their focus is not on religion but on the historic role the Bible has played in Tennessee history in terms of inspiration and the economy. Nashville is home to several religious publishers that have printed millions of Bibles.
More dissimulation, reported in USA Today:
“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,” said GOP Rep. William Lamberth of Cottontown.
If that’s the case, why are they promoting it as the Official Book?
Among the bill’s few opponents are Ron Ramsey, the Speaker of the Tennessee Senate, but even his opposition is disingenuous, resting not on the unconstitutionality of such a move, but on the fact that it demeans the Bible:
Ramsey told reporters shortly after the measure passed in the Senate State and Local Government Committee — with seven members voting aye and two abstaining — that he believes doing doing so “belittles the most holy book ever written.”
“It shouldn’t be,” Ramsey said. “I’m just adamantly opposed to that. The Bible is my official book. It is. It shouldn’t be put in the Blue Book with Rocky Top, cave salamanders and the tulip poplar” tree.
The Blue Book is the official state Book. By various past actions of state lawmakers have designated Rocky Top, a bluegrass murder ballad about moonshining, one of the state’s officials songs and the Tennessee Cave Salamander, the state’s official amphibian. The tulip popular is the state tree.
About a year ago I reported that Louisiana was trying to do the same thing, but the bill was withdrawn shortly thereafter. And this year Mississippi legislators have introduced no fewer than four bills to make the Bible the State Book, but all have died in committee.
It will be interesting to see whether Tennessee’s governor will sign this bill (further action awaits an opinion from the state attorney general on the bill’s legality), and, if so, whether there will be a constitutional challenge against it. Presumably that action would have to be brought by some people with “standing”: Tennessee secularist or religious people who oppose the infusion of religion into politics. As far as I know, no other state has designated the Bible as the official state book.
Is there any state in the U.S. with an official book? Browsing the US State Symbol page, I found that indeed there is, and it’s the state I’m sitting in right now. Massachusetts has an official State Children’s Book, and a fine book it is:
This fine secular book (1941), about a brood of ducklings raised in the pond on the Boston Common, was a favorite of my childhood. It’s an excellent choice, and its fame is commemorated by a bronze statue on the Common of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings: Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack. It’s appropriate because it promotes kindness to animals.
As for Official Adult Books, those would be contentious, though I suppose few would object to the collected works of Shakespeare.
and I put forth the Honorable Rep. Sexton to be Tennessee’s official state moron.
all in favor…
Per Dumblaws.com under TN law:
Ministers are to be dedicated to God and therefore are not eligible to hold a seat in either House of the Legislature.
Aye!
OK, OK, I left already….so I don’t have standing. I’m sure someone will sue though, it’s in the nature of these things.
Amazing synchronicity. I just left a 2nd-hand store which had a copy of “Make Way for Ducklings”. It will go into my grandson’s collection!
O amazing, indeed ! JUST EXACTLY for what earlier THIS VERY morning I had been searching online: a wee grandkiddo’s book.
For a certain precious one then, I have straightaway ordered sent to him Mr McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings! Thank you, Professor !
Blue
awwww I loved “Make Way for Ducklings” when I was little too 🙂
Will the legislature provide guidance about which of the bible(s) are the correct text?
There is always The Brick Bible, The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible or The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
Lets not forget the God is Disappointed in You bible.
Given our host’s interests I’d have to suggest the LOLCat bible:
Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
A good way to divide-and-conquer fundies of different backgrounds (if only intellectually) is to have them check versions of the bible. Works better than just talking about contradictions, or the like.
Tennessee legislators could start this list of famous TN authors and their prize-winning books. It wouldn’t really be that hard pick a book about the state or author from the state to symbolically represent the state.
Hmmm…it now occurs to me that Jerry might have been making a double entendre with the word “Adult.” If so, cheers, sorry I missed it. 🙂
Given that the famous Scopes trial happened in Tennessee, Darwin’s Origin seems to have a more direct historical connection to the state than the bible, so it should be the Official State Book. Ya’ll, that’s some good irony right there.
Could someone kindly explain to a bewildered Brit what the actual effect of having all these State things is? What difference to the average Tennessean does it make to have,say, the Cave Salamander as State amphibian? Come to that, what does it do for the Cave Salamander?
The unicorn is the national something or other of Scotland.
Make that the national animal of Scotland.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/scottish-fact-of-the-week-scotland-s-official-animal-the-unicorn-1-2564399
Britain also has the unicorn on their coat of arms.
Steve P.: its largely a symbolic gesture with no practical effect. Which, incidentally, is why I think Jerry is wrong about the likely outcome of any court challenge to it: IMO a plaintiff complaining about religious endorsement would lose their case because most states make loads and loads of these sorts of empty gestures and they never amount to anything.
Thanks Eric.
Yes, we do indeed have a unicorn (and of course a lion) on the coat of arms; but these go back to medieval symbols, which in turn (IIRC) stem from emblems used to identify knights etc in battle.
But why the Scots should have taken it into their heads to adopt a national animal, especially a fictional one, is deeply mysterious. Perhaps we would all be better off if the Nats had won the referendum after all… (runs away)
Many of our symbolic ‘state thing’ symbols have a very similar sense to them: they are attempts by the state to identify themselves as unique governing units with their own history etc… The British nobility may beat us out for historical snobbery, but I doubt that even in the british noble lineages that you’ll find some political unit more self-conscience of its heritage and more constantly bringing it up as the US state of Texas.
Some such symbols also arise simply because legislators like to be responsive to their constituents. If some school kid sends in a letter asking the state legislature to recognize a state owl breed, they might do it just because (a) it costs them and the state practically nothing, and (b) it demonstrates how petitioning the government and a representative democratic system can work.
New Mexico has an official State Question. It is, “Red or green?”
If you visit us, you would be even more bewildered. But, to us, the Question has great significance, for it is asked each time a diner orders New Mexican food in a restaurant. We have to choose the color of chile sauce with which our food will be served (not to be confused with chili, that odious concoction served in other states). L
I really miss the food in New Mexico.
In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that I am a heretic. I love both red and green! Sometimes even on the same plate.
Red and green on the same plate is locally known as “Christmas”. It is not uncommon to order it that way.
When New Mexicans are gone for awhile, we tend to have withdrawal symptoms. L
I left in 1980, and still miss the food.
For example, a good New Mexican style sopapilla. Yum! Better than funnel cakes. The few times I’ve tried sopapillas elsewhere in the US they have been tortilla chips with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on them.
I did once find a place in Colorado Springs that made tamales about as good as any I’d grown to love from New Mexico. But, that’s about it.
New Mexican cuisine has got to be simultaneously one of the greatest and most underappreciated cuisines of the world.
Of course it shares similarities with other cuisines of the Southwest, but it’s its own distinct “thing.” And…it’s certainly the best such regional cuisine in the States.
Damned good food. I mean, really, truly fantastic.
b&
Yet again I find myself in the “None of the above” category.
If there is an official State amphibian, then mothers all over that state can say “No, you can’t take that home because it belongs in the wild and it’s the official State amphibian.” Case closed.
Whatever works.
Yes, not a single legislator has objected to the proposal on the grounds that it violates the 1st amendment. The only objections have been that it demeans the bible.
But it would take a brave pol to make that objection here.
I live near Nashville. Yesterday, at an orthodontist’s office where my wife was getting braces, we were informed that the dentist would now pray with us. Not even a request, just a simple statement as if this were normal, and for the majority here, it would be. After my initial shock, we politely declined, and they didn’t push it.
Where are the Christians who obey Matthew 6:6 rigorously?
They don’t exist. L
You don’t see them because they obey Matthew 6:6 rigorously.
😀
That’s scary. You now have a dentist working on your teeth who 1.) knows you don’t pray and 2.) is invested in the idea that patients who DO pray do better than those who don’t. Every time you wince, scream, complain, or have a bad outcome, their faith will be subtly strengthened.
Professionals who do this have no idea how it looks to nonbelievers.
Somehow, as soon as the person said, I live near Nashville, I knew it was going to be bad. My policy is, as soon as any medical doctor starts praying, I start leaving.
Don’t pray in my face and I won’t think in your church …
Sheesh. I’m a coward and going to the dentist means I have to crank up my nerves to the snapping point. If the bastard thinks he needs to pray before hacking into me, I’m outta there like a ferret on steroids.
I recently had a minor procedure performed at Mass General in Boston. This involved several interviews with staff members. Three of them said “I will pray for you.” I made some sort of polite reply, but if they had actually said “I will now pray with you.” –I am not sure how polite I could have remained. Sheesh, indeed.
I certainly wish this had come up before the braces were installed and the deposit in the bank. A little hard to back out now.
If they had pushed it, I would have asked why divine intervention was necessary for the procedure to be successful.
Heinlein’s “If This Goes On” presaged all of this Christian Theocramancy.
Made up word.
That looks like a perfectly cromulent word.
Nehemiah Scudder. Right on the money (that applies to you and Heinlein).
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent-it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.
The most preposterous notion that H. Sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all of history.
Good stuff. Though I think “least productive industry in all of history” is a bit biased. It has been pretty productive at amassing wealth and power for some at the expense of the large majority of the population for many millenia.
That something is of “historical” value is always the excuse of those trying to do something religious, know it’s unconstitutional, so need another reason instead. What exactly did the Bible provide to Tennessee historically? An excuse for slavery? An excuse for the death penalty? An excuse for the victimization of LGBT people? An excuse for the suppression of women? Perhaps these are all things the people’s representatives are proud of and want to commemorate.
To make a book (rather a compilation of books) that displays so much stupidy and cruelty an official state book is very silly.
I wonder what would happen if an organization like Atheist Alliance or American Atheist put up billboards urging the adoption of the Bible as official State book — on the argument that doing so demeans its sacred character and knocks it down to size, turning it into an “ordinary” book.
Doesn’t matter if this makes any sense. I’m just interested in whether or not an unexpected positive response from atheists (accompanied by plenty of sneer and gloat) would provoke an immediate kneejerk negative reaction from the Christians, thus forcing them to hastily withdraw the bill due to “unforeseen consequences.”
Unleash the power of the Godless Seal of Approval and make the puppets dance, dance…
It would be a delight to see more public endorsements from secular Americans for bibles as state and national books. The effect would be the opposite of what religious people would want. It makes it the gesture meaningless.
It would be like the state adopting some random NFL team to be the state mascot. What’s that supposed to mean?
I vote that we make the Northern Elephant Seal the official Godless Seal of Approval.
All it needs is for Obama to approve. That would put an immediate stop to it.
The main thing proven by this state book action is that the Legislature of Tennessee has absolutely nothing to do. Something all the voters of Tennessee should be extremely proud of, I’m sure. Your money is being well wasted.
A collection of bronze age myths does seem to be an appropriate symbol for the elected representatives in that great state.
I still say if southern states need to have a work if Xtian fiction as their state book, it should be Left Behind. The story is consistent (I have heard, I ain’t reading it!) with their peculiar beliefs, and the title is consistent with their primary policy objective.
If the bible can be the Official State Book, why not make the Southern Baptist Convention the Offical State Group or whatever the equivalent would be. This is flatout unconstitutional.
But if it’s allowed, then nobody can stop the socialist, muslim, Kenyan anti-christ in the White House from making the Quran the nation’s Official State Book. Checkmate Tennessee!
If this bill is past it may just be the proudest moment in Tennessee history since Andrew Jackson just missed impeachment and may have been the worst president other than Buchanan or worst vice president other than Dick Cheney.
Do you mean Andrew Johnson? Jackson was never VP.
My beloved state of origin, Tennessee, has much to recommend it as a great place to live. I was active in Freethought groups in East Tennessee when I lived there and was attending East Tennessee State University. As much as I love Big Orange Country, it suffers from a chronic case of overt displays of fundamentalist Christian religiosity. I have friends and family members who I know would support this bill with no questions asked. When it comes to conservative Christianity in the local culture, they believe that there is no conflict between their supernatural worldview and the actions of our secular government. They don’t accept that there is a wall of separation between religion and the state except when it comes to putting any constraints on what they and their churches can do to proselytize. In my current location, outside New Orleans, we are also overrun by religious zealots who spread the crazy like kudzu in Louisiana. We will continue to see these faith-based assaults on our Constitution and I don’t have any confidence that our current right-wing Catholic dominated Supreme Court will defend our liberties. Go Vols!
What’s next ? Let’s see….
Jesus, the Official State Saviour
White, the Official State Race
Tea, the Official State Party Drink
Guns, the Offical State Murder Weapon
Sebbmup and Co-Cola, the Official State Soft Drinks.
Co-Cola is Georgia and sebbmup being the un-cola is a commie plot. I believe Sun Drop is the soft drink of choice in Tennessee.
Jack Daniel’s is the official drink here. They have gotten it written into law that no other whiskey can label itself as a Tennessee whiskey, so in a very real sense they are the official state drink.
Chlamydia, the Official State Disease…
you could have fun with this
R-Bean Station
I know one is never supposed to judge a book by its cover, but that cover says, “I’m a fundamentalists conservative” pretty loudly.
The fact that Bible is an Official State Book plainly means that the US Constitution isn’t.
It’s nice to know that Tennessee doesn’t have any real problems for the legislature to deal with. I suppose it could cause a bit of a row if by some discordant vote, the Bible became the state book and someone like Shiva became the state deity.
A bit off tangent, but the Bible does figure prominently in my am post called ‘Terms and Conditions’
http://pictoraltheology.blogspot.com/2015/04/terms-and-conditions.html
Oh my, that’s a good one!
I guess those “ifs” in John 15.6, 7 and 10 kind of blow the “unconditional” idea all to hell (see what I did there?).
Not trying to be contrarian, but I don’t have a problem with this. If states can have official things, and a book can be one such official thing, why should the Bible be singled out as unacceptable? After all, many great works of literature include expressions of superstition that some people believe and others reject, including Shakespeare. Of course, after it’s official, someone should point out that the new State Book explicitly endorses the murder and rape of children.
Real stories like this make writing satire difficult.
Maybe I’ll just go with “San Francisco to make the Necronomicon its official book.”
Last night I saw the least compelling clickbait ad ever: “12 Hottest Ponytail Styles for 2015.”
I had the same reaction seeing that ad as I did reading this post: well, they’re running out of ideas! If this is what you’ve come to in the race to the bottom of appealing to the rubes, congratulations: you made it! Officially scraping the bottom of that barrel.
But it’s really more like a tube of toothpaste in that there’s always a little bit more you can squeeze out. I expect I will continue to be surprised and appalled by both forms of “viral (virulent?) marketing.”
Who’s translation? We broke away from England a couple centuries ago surely that don’t mean King James 🙂
I propose the official Tennessee state surname be “Williams.”
The state doesn’t deserve the honor.
Cf. that post with the picture of IJ labeled “I’m changing my name to Oregon Jones”.
If not “Williams,” then how about “Tuxedo?”
Since I’ve been reading WEIT, it seems clear that the South is becoming more and more bat-shit-crazy as those states struggle to keep religion relevant and in the forefront. Every week some Southern legislature is foisting Christianity upon their citizens. A sad state of affairs…pun intended.
I think many religious conservatives would actually object to Shakespeare as the Official Adult Books on the grounds that he wasn’t an American – and then turn a blind eye to the authors of their beloved book.
From what I can remember, “Chet Atkins: Me and My Guitars” is infinitely more entertaining and insightful than any “sacred” text.
Also lovely
Also lovely books by Robert McCloskey: Blueberries for Sal and Time of Wonder. Sorry I accidentally touched post comment before I was finished.
Those were childhood favorites for me, along with “Make Way for Ducklings.” Also worth reading are the Homer Price books.
Well into my postdoctoral years, my parents would send postcards of the swan boats in the Public Garden, whenever they traveled to Boston for a conference (they’re in different fields, but Boston is a popular conference location). Always on the back of the postcard was a message for me referring to “Make Way for Ducklings” and my early childhood years when we lived in Boston. The swan boats and the Public Garden also feature in another childhood favorite, E.B. White’s “The Trumpet of the Swan.”
“Official Adult Books” ?
I’m sure any decent Adult Bookstore could suggest a list… 😉
(I Britain I think it would have to be Lady Chatterly’s Lover, given the legendary part it played in defeating censorship…)
“The tulip popular . . . .”
Apparently so.