Separation Is Needed

From Yahoo:
"Tennessee plan to make Bible 'official' book derailed"

The Bible usually unites Republicans in conservative Tennessee, but lately it is proving to be — as an epistle writer put it — more powerful and sharper than a double-edged sword. Legislators here are deeply divided over a proposal to make the holy text an official state book, with some saying it's far too sacred to be trivialized like the state fruit (tomato), the state amphibian (Tennessee cave salamander) and several state songs ("Tennessee Waltz" and "Rocky Top"). Conversely, others believe the Bible is an integral part of the state's history, or don't want to appear to be against it. And then there are a host of constitutional questions to consider. Despite those problems, House lawmakers on Wednesday voted 55-38 in favor of the plan. On Thursday, the proposal was derailed when the Senate voted 22-9 to send it back to a committee that has been closed, effectively killing it for the year. Some legislators may have felt compelled to support the measure or face political repercussions down the road. Tennessee's attorney general, Herbert Slatery, warned in a legal opinion earlier this week that the bill would violate separation of church and state provisions of both the federal and state constitutions. Similar proposals in Mississippi and Louisiana failed for those reasons.

 

^ Making the Bible the official state book would go against the concept of "separation of Church and State" the same way having "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance or "In God We Trust" on our money  does. I consider myself religious but that doesn't mean I want it included in the Federal or state governments. There are many religions around the world and I don't think a country should choose one over another (the way the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc have chosen Protestantism over all other religions and officially discriminate against any non-Protestant by not allowing them to be their monarch/head of state. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-plan-bible-official-book-jeopardy-181442341.html