Tennessee may become the first state with the Holy Bible as its official book.
The bill sponsored by Senator Steve Southerland to make Bible the official state book passed the state Senate with a 19-8 vote, and now heads to Governor Bill Halsam for approval.
"The Holy Bible is of great historical and cultural significance in the State of Tennessee as record of the history of Tennessee families that predates the modern vital [statistical] records," said Senator Southerland in his floor speech. "It records things like births, marriages, and deaths, and printing the Bible is a multi-million dollar industry in this state, with many top Bible publishers' headquarters in Nashville."
The bill SB1108 received both bipartisan support and opposition. Supporters of the bill invoked Bible's historical significance in the state, while the opponents said that it will place the holy book on same level as trivial things such as tulip poplar, mockingbird, and the channel catfish.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery and Governor Haslam have cited constitutional concerns in opposing the bill.
Slatery had said last year that the bill would infringe upon the statute of separation of government and religion.
"The Bible is the most important book in my life, and I think in the world," Haslam told reporters last week. "But that's very different than being the state's official book."
If 10 working days pass without his signature, the bill will become a law.
Haslam's spokesman David Smith said that the "governor has constitutional questions and personal reservations about this legislation," but he will evaluate the legislation before deciding if he wants to veto it or not.
In Alabama, the KJV Bible is the state's official Bible, but it is not the official book. Similar measures to name Bible as the official state book have failed in other states. In Louisiana, the bill was withdrawn by the sponsor in 2014, and in Mississippi the bill to make the Bible its official book died in February this year.
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU in Tennessee, stated that the bill was a "thinly veiled effort to promote one religion over other religions clearly violates both the United States and Tennessee Constitutions," and urged Haslam to veto the bill.
"The rich and growing demographic diversity and the backlash against the equal marriage decision may be driving some legislators to put a big red stop sign up by filing bills that not only violate constitutional guarantees, but attempt to slow down progress and discriminate against individuals," she said.
Senator Kerry Robert (R-Springfield) stated that his reason to support the bill was that constitution did not intend to keep religion out of government, but to keep government out of religion.
"The attitude of these people was not to keep religion out of government. It was to keep government out of religion," he told the Tennessean, noting that George Washington used Bible in his swearing-in ceremony, and that the country's first Congress had several scholars who wrote the constitution of separation of state and religion, but used religion in several facets of public life.
