The bill designating the “Holy Bible” as Tennessee’s official state book may be dead until next year (previous post HERE), but former state Sen. David Fowler, now leading the Christian conservative group Family Action Council of Tennessee, makes clear in a post on the FACT blog that it is not forgotten.
An excerpt:
Regarding the constitutional debate, we need to begin with the acknowledgement there is nothing unconstitutional about having a state book. And as Rep. Matthew Hill said, if we’re going to have a state book, what other book could we name that has had the kind of historical, practical, and economic impact as that of the Bible? There is none.
But if the constitutional point is that no religious text can even be entered into the debate, then I submit that we are not being neutral on the issue of religion. Rather, we are advancing secularism at the expense of religion.
…The sooner we wake up to the myth of neutrality the better. Neutrality is the mantra of those who would use it until such time as they suppress the reigning orthodoxy of the views with which they disagree. When those people succeed, they abandon neutrality in order to maintain control of the new orthodoxy. If you don’t believe me, go ask the florists, bakers, and T-shirt makers who have run into the “neutrality” of those who advocate for same-sex “marriage” and homosexuality as a civil right.
… I would submit that the failure of many Christians to understand that history and their uninformed acquiescence to those who misrepresent that historical meaning have led to the suppression of religious liberty in the public square that today they lament. So, to me, just having the public debate over that history was worth the effort.
… But let me be even more clear about why the debate was important. Karl Marx once said, “A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.” Mr. Marx was merely reflecting what God knew was true about us. It is why He constantly urged His people to set up memorials; they needed to remember who they were.
Whether one was “right” or “wrong” before God in supporting or opposing the “Bible bill” I’ll leave for others to debate, but I am fully persuaded of this: there are many who would have us remove from our public life and the public square any recognition of our religious heritage. And perhaps they do so for the very reason given by Mr. Marx – it makes it easier for them to persuade us to do things that, in a different generation, knowing who we were, we would not do.
I’m not accusing anyone who opposed this bill as sharing such intentions, but I do hope that Christians, in their understandable desire not to demean the Bible by placing it alongside other reminders of who we are found in our official state poems and songs, do not unwittingly join them in their effort.