Tennessee Pushing Legislation to Make Bible the State Book

[TurkeyOnRye]

Yet more blatantly unconstitutional rubbish being pushed through our legislatures. I wonder what kind of tune they'd be singing if someone tried to make On the Origin of Species or the Quran the state book. Jerry Sexton and William Lamberth are the geniuses behind this one.

Tennessee Lawmaker Wants Bible To Be The State Book

 

[Revoltingest]

Constitutional issues aside, I'd be impressed if they made the Bible their state book.

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

Even the Satanic Bible would be less undesirable.

 

[Skwim]

Jerry Sexton is a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, representing District 35.

Biography

Sexton's professional experience includes working as the founder and owner of Sexton Furniture Manufacturing and serving as a minister. He is also president of the Grainger County Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Board of Walter State Community College's Workforce Development.

Sexton's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

Excerpt: "I am an experienced job creator. I support small government and low taxes. I am more pro-life than your pastor, more for the Second Amendment than Davy Crockett, and more for traditional marriage than Adam and Eve."
source​

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Even the Satanic Bible would be less undesirable.

So really your only problem is because it's the Bible, not because it's a religious book? Nice bigotry.

By the way, TSB would be a better fit as California's state book, as a testament of what a great incubator the state is for nutty cults. (And I say that as a native San Franciscan, where LaVey started his cult.)

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Good for them.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Good for them.

Religious texts have no place in guiding state politics. It is an assumption of correctness that cannot be proven more true than any other relgion, it's something that people tend to disagree over a lot more than they agree about it, and because it's something that should not be forced upon non-believers religion has no rightful place guiding the state.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Religious texts have no place in guiding state politics. It is an assumption of correctness that cannot be proven more true than any other relgion, it's something that people tend to disagree over a lot more than they agree about it, and because it's something that should not be forced upon non-believers religion has no rightful place guiding the state.

A state book is like a state bird or a state food. It's just considered to be a symbol. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding of what this means.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

A state book is like a state bird or a state food. It's just considered to be a symbol. I think there's a lot of misunderstanding of what this means.

Birds are not symbols of ideology the way a book is. Birds are cute, rivers are heritage, but books are power. Books are a statement. And the only instanced I can find of a state adopting a state book is Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, all three of which want the Bible as their official state book.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Birds are not symbols of ideology the way a book is. Birds are cute, rivers are heritage, but books are power. Books are a statement. And the only instanced I can find of a state adopting a state book is Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, all three of which want the Bible as their official state book.

State books have no relevance outside of cultural symbolism. This is seriously a non-issue.

 

[psychoslice]

What comes after the state book, the state laws from the book ?.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

State books have no relevance outside of cultural symbolism. This is seriously a non-issue.

The issue is that those states are promoting religion, which is unconstitutional.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

The issue is that those states are promoting religion, which is unconstitutional.

It's not unconstitutional to recognize religion as part of the heritage of the state. The Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment is just saying that you can't establish a national religion, it's not saying that religion has to be banished from the public square.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

What comes after the state book, the state laws from the book ?.

No. It's mostly a cultural thing. It's a symbol.

 

[psychoslice]

I see, that's, no harm in that I suppose.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I see, that's, no harm in that I suppose.

Yeah, it's like having a state bird, a state song, a state flower, etc. It's just a symbol that represents the state. It doesn't have any more weight to it than that.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

No. It's mostly a cultural thing. It's a symbol.

A symbol that does not reflect any geographical or natural symbols of the state and a symbol that does not reflect the cultural leanings and backgrounds of all citizens. And, as a symbol, it represents the ideas behind that symbol, which are religious ideas.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

A symbol that does not reflect any geographical or natural symbols of the state and a symbol that does not reflect the leanings of all citizens. And, as a symbol, it represents the ideas behind that symbol, which are religious ideas.

Who cares? Ohio's state bird is the cardinal, but that doesn't mean every Ohioan has to like the cardinal. This seriously does not matter at all and effects no one's life.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's not unconstitutional to recognize religion as part of the heritage of the state. The Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment is just saying that you can't establish a national religion, it's not saying that religion has to be banished from the public square.

It does a lot more than that. Another thing the first amendment does is is prohibits legislation that "respects the establishment of religion." The Bible as a state book is not just to display it is a cultural symbol, it is also a way for the state to promote Christianity. You don't make something a state symbol unless you want to draw people's attention to it, and want to share the symbol, for what the symbol signifies, and promote it as a part of the states way of life. State symbols are also often learned about in school as a part of the history of that state.
There is simply no way for a state to promote a religious book as a state book without promoting religious ideology.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Honestly, I'd be highly suspicious of any state that wants a state book, unless it's something like Massachussete's states children book, or if Indiana were to do something like making the first Clifford book the state book, since Clifford is such an influential childrens icon and the author was from Indiana.
But the idea of a book with ideas being made a state book is something that must, by necessity, be approached with great caution.