Tennessee Legislature to Consider Bill Designating the Bible as the "Official Book" of Tennessee

Tennessee Legislature to Consider Bill Designating the Bible as the

"Official Book" of Tennessee

 

As has been widely reported, there is now pending before the Tennessee legislature bills which, if enacted, would designate the Bible as the "official book" of Tennessee.  HB 0165 and SB 1108. HERE IS A LINK TO HB 0165, and HERE IS A LINK TO SB1108.  There is also a House amendment which adds prefatory language as to why the law is justified; HERE IS A  LINK TO THE AMENDMENT. The bills have already passed both Senate and House Committees.

 

What puzzles me about this effort is how members of the legislature, who are required  to swear to uphold the Tennessee Constitution (see Tennessee Constitution, section 4) can consider a bill of this nature when that same Constitution of Tennessee, at section 3, provides in part:

 

 [T]hat no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.

 

Isn’t designating an overly religious text the “official book” of Tennessee giving the religion(s) which rely upon that text a preference. 

 

Also, since there are several books which may be designated the “Bible,” well, which is it?   The Catholic version or the Protestant version from which several books included in the Catholic Bible were excluded?  The Protestant Bible has 66 books while the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has 81 books.