Anticipating a possible constitutional violation, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have designated the bible as the official book of the state of Tennessee.
As a conservative Republican Party member himself, the governor is also religious, but he made a politically calculated decision. He carefully worded his statement, explaining why he vetoed the bible bill.
The governor was quoted in the Washington Post as saying:
“If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance. If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”
Governor Haslam has carefully worded his statement in a letter addressed to the speaker of the statehouse, explaining why he vetoed the bill. The state legislators still have the option to overturn the veto against the “Bible bill” by a simple majority vote.
Some GOP legislators have been busy lately trying to make the U.S. a theocratic country. This is not surprising in that many Republicans actually have more in common with the ideology of the Taliban and ISIS. The only big difference is the deity they are worshiping.
The persistence of the Tennessee legislators is absurd considering that the bill had been defeated during last year’s state Senate session. Liberal America covered the passage of the controversial bill last year, and also the passage of another bill that allowed mental health professionals to deny services to “sinners.”
Instead of addressing pressing social problems and issues, the state legislators seem to be more obsessed on pushing for their right-wing religious agenda. They are trying to destroy the fundamental principle of the separation of church and state.
Either these Republican legislators are too idiotic to understand the constitution of the United States, or they are more concerned about imposing their narrow-minded beliefs than actually serving their constituents.
If this bill becomes a law, its constitutionality will surely be questioned. You do not need to be an expert on constitutional law or a justice of the Supreme Court to realize that the bill is unconstitutional.
