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Is the Bible Too Holy to Be Tennessee’s State Book?

By Adam Shapiro

…deracy resulted in a Bible shortage. But the history of the Bible’s use in Tennessee goes much further back—and not simply as a religious text. The Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) has a large collection of family Bibles. Many family bibles were large, expensive and impressively produced tomes, quite unlike the quality of typical trade books published in the nineteenth century. They were marketed as heirlooms, and many of these family b…

No Bible-as-State-Book for Tennessee as Legislators Suffer “Symbol Fatigue”

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…as simply meant as a recognition of the importance the Bible has played in Tennessee’s history. But why does Tennessee—or any state, for that matter—need to have a state book, wild animal, beverage, wonder dog, etc.? Interesting story, that. Apparently, you begin to see modern state flags and designated state flowers around the time of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. States wanted their own flags to f…

Pricey Tickets, Cranky Citizens, and Priests Behind Bars as Philadelphia Prepares For Papal Visit

By Anthea Butler

…to continue to shrink into the insularity and disorganization that caused the Philadelphia Archdiocese to decline so precipitously? It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, faithful Catholics and others who want to see the Pope may be losing heart. 10,000 tickets for the Pope’s Speech at Independence Mall sold out in two minutes on Tuesday, with 394k people trying their best to get a few. Tickets are already being scalped at $100 and up on craigslist. I…

The Right Wing Slant on Religious Freedom is a Slippery Slope

By Frederick Clarkson

…irginia legislation from 2012. In fact, parts of the Virginia bill and the Tennessee bills are identical while the Project Blitz model’s language is somewhat different but the same in intent. The Project Blitz playbook includes, however, links to the extant state legislation on which they based their model bill—including Virginia’s. So it’s possible that Tennessee got the Virginia language via Project Blitz. There may be similar stories elsewhere…

Anti-Science Bill Passes Tennessee House

By Lauri Lebo

…an organization that promotes intelligent design. The Senate version is scheduled for the Senate Education Committee on April 20. In March, the Sensuous Curmudgeon predicted that of the record number of creationist bills that have been introduced in states across the country, the Tennessee bill would be the one to become law. So far, he’s half right….

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…, not the fourth century … You’re not free to practice your religion in my airline seat.’ ‘This is male entitlement .. the height of male arrogance.’ One comment referred to this as a ‘back of the bus’ issue; as in, women being asked to move in such circumstances was tantamount to assigning them a lesser status as citizens and lower dignity as human beings. Other readers proposed that airlines set aside special seating for men requiring such accom…

The Key to Understanding the Federalist Society Isn’t Originalism — It’s This 800-Year Old Tradition

By Peter Schwartz

…notions of “human dignity” and “human flourishing,” Catholic natural law—an 800-year-old tradition dating back to Thomas Aquinas—is a lens that offers utter clarity to conservative Catholic jurists, activists, policymakers, and scholars as they observe, describe, and engage the world. The power and sharpness of this lens allow them to confidently snap every human movement—every human desire and motive and act—into its divinely appointed and proper…

Tennessee Anti-Evolution Update

By Lauri Lebo

…ills that have been introduced this year in states across the country, the Tennessee legislation does not specifically mention creationist or intelligent design. Rather, it says that the teachers must be helped “to find effective ways to present the science curriculum as it addresses scientific controversies.” It also says that teachers may not be prohibited from “helping students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the…

Atheist Nazis? The Pope’s Cheap Atonement

By Susannah Heschel

Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…

What in the Name of the Crusades are Tennessee Evangelicals Doing in Kurdish Iraq?

By Bill Berkowitz

…orces behind the religious right—Mike Reynolds* got wind of the Nashville, Tennessee-based America 21, a nonprofit political action committee that hopes to bring America to God by encouraging “moral leadership from our churches” to be heard “in the halls of Congress and across this nation.” According to Reynolds, an investigative reporter whose work on the religious right has been featured in Rolling Stone, US News & World Report, and 60 Minutes,…