Last month the State of Tennessee chose the Aitken Bible, along with 9 other texts, as official texts of the state. There is another bill on the governor’s desk seeking to proclaim November as “Christian Heritage Month”. Some of the other texts include President George Washington’s “Farewell Address” and “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville. The bill also recognized the 1977 book “Roots” by Alex Haley, which discusses slavery in the United States, and the 2016 book “Coat of Many Colors” by the Tennessee-born country singer Dolly Parton. (Tennessee Names First English-Language Bible Translation in US as Official State Book| National Catholic Register (ncregister.com). The Aitken’s Bible is a version of the King James Bible and is not approved for use by the Catholic Church or, in my opinion, any serious student of Scripture. But that’s not my point.
For much of our nation’s history, we have been struggling over the place of religion in our culture. Creationists want to teach Genesis 2 alongside actual science (that was the Scopes trial in 1925 – also in Tennessee.) People who oppose LGBTQ rights don’t want the word gay used in public schools. Countless conservative Christians bemoan the loss of the Lord’s Prayer (which happened in 1962) at the beginning of the school day being recited with the Pledge of Allegiance. From before we were who we are, we have been a Christian Nationalist nation filled with a lot of non-Christians. And those numbers are growing. The more that restrictive, frightened Christian Nationalists legislate morality, the faster thoughtful, intelligent wonderers run from the faith I love so much. Our Constitution is being broken and I am not hopeful that our troubled Supreme Court will do the right thing. They have their own moral and ethical problems to fix first, I guess.
This is not a political thought – this is one about faith and justice and following the rule of law. The Constitution could not be any clearer – religion cannot be used to keep someone from running for office, and freedom to practice one’s own faith is always guaranteed. I have a feeling that the founders put that first – even ahead of guns – for a very good reason. They had lived in a nation where the church and the state were in bed together, and they did not like it one bit. The more we allow actions like that of the State of Tennessee, the more we become like Iran. The more we allow religion – any religion – to control the laws and rights of Americans, the more we slide into theocracy. There is no middle ground on this issue – we are a nation of many cultures and religions and points of view, and as long as those don’t lead to violence or loss of rights, we can live as a united nation.
Places like Tennessee, Texas, and Florida – and they are not alone – are becoming more like Iran. My thinking is that we should become more like America. In most of the country, we aren’t. That should concern all of us.
Prayer – Forgive us, God, when we use our power and privilege to hurt people instead of helping them. Save us from ourselves. Amen.
Today’s art was created by Michelle Budge, Deseret News.