The Louisiana State House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs?has passed legislation that would make the Holy Bible the official state book of Louisiana. with a vote of 8-5 on Thursday, the legislation will now head to the full House of Representatives for consideration.
This is dumb-assery on a lot of different levels, but hey…Louisiana can do whatever the heck it wants. What concerns sane Louisiana supporters of the U.S. Constitution and that whole crazy “separation of church and state thing” mentioned in the 1st Amendment is that the debate that ensued and will continue over this decision is honestly the least of Louisiana’s problems. From Nola.com and Times-Picayune journalist JR Ball:
This just in: Every major problem facing the great state of Louisiana has been solved.
Poverty? Eradicated.
Public schools? What’s “common” about our “core” curriculum today is that every public, private and charter school from Avondale to Zwolle is on a fast track to A-plus status.
Higher education? Funding, schmunding, we’re cranking out Rhodes Scholars and digital gamers like nobody’s business.
Heath care? Who needs doctors, hospitals and Medicaid when one lives in Utopia?
The widening income gap? Forgetaboutit, every man (and woman) is now officially a king (or queen).
Our crumbling highways and surface streets? Not a problem, commuter death marches across pot-holed stained roads — lined by litter, billboards and more billboards disguised as bus benches — are things of the past.
St. George? St. who?
What’s shocking is that the Bobby Jindal administration hasn’t issued a press release and booked appearances on “Hannity” and “Morning Joe” to declare the “Louisiana miracle” promised a decade ago has officially come to pass.
Ball and others believe that (sarcasm) there can really be no pressing and urgent issues in Louisiana if state legislators have nothing more important to do than to debate whether or not the Bible should be declared the state book of Louisiana. You can, after all, close your eyes and throw a stone and find a dozen (or a thousand) articles citing the statistics about the stark poverty and true emergencies in Louisiana.
But wait…there’s more:
Then consider our elected leaders have the time and chutzpah to also wrestling [sic] with these great issues of our time: whether something called the American Paint horse is the official horse of the Pelican State; declaring some “grand” city to be the sweet dough pie capital of the world — yes, the world; and a feisty debate on our official fig tree.
The state book debate became really ridiculous. Lengthy discussions were held as to which version of the Bible should be taken as the official version of Louisiana. Should it be the King James version, the American Standard Version (ASV), the Common English Bible (CEB), or another one? Pressing and urgent concerns. From Nola.com writer Jill O’Donoghue:
Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, originally filed?a bill?to declare a specific copy of the Bible, found in the Louisiana State Museum system, the official state book. But by the time he presented the proposal to the committee, he changed language? in his legislation to make the generic King James version of the Bible, a text used worldwide, the official state book.??
Carmody said his intention was not to mingle religion with government functions. “This is not about establishing an official religion,” he said.?
Still, Legislators became concerned that the proposal wasn’t broad enough and did not reflect the breadth of Bibles used by religious communities. In particular, some lawmakers worried that singling out the King James version of the Bible would not properly reflect the culture of Louisiana. The Catholic Church, for example, does not use the King James text.
“Let’s make this more inclusive of other Christian faiths, more than just the ones that use the King James version,” said Rep. Stephen Ortego, D-Carencro. (Nola.com)
I personally recommend the Baby’s?Hug-A-Bible. I don’t question the intelligence of the citizens of the great state of Louisiana, but it’s likely that their reading comprehension levels are higher than those of their elected officials.
This video shows some opinions by young people who are clearly more level-headed than the adults running the state. This is great, sane generation of Louisiana. Now register to vote and get these dangerous idiots out of your government.
