Is this the year? Bill aims to make Bible a State book of Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Is this the year?

Another resolution to make the Bible an official State book of Tennessee is moving forward in the Tennessee legislature.

House Joint Resolution 0752 is sponsored by Rep. Jerry Sexton.

Legislators have tried before, with a similar bill being vetoed in 2016 by former Gov. Bill Haslam, and another failing in the Senate in 2020.

“Once again I would like to introduce the Bible as the State book. We voted on this last year, and there was some problems in the Senate. So we had to bring it back again this year,” Sexton said.

Sexton says this year’s bill is the same, except for language including the Aitken Bible.

“So we put that language in there to do nothing more than to show the history of the Bible in America,” Sexton said.

Some legislators against the bill made their case on Monday.

“The church is a living organism. There’s not another institution on Earth that can meet the standards of the Lord Jesus’s church,” said Rep. Johnny Shaw, of Bolivar. “To make the Bible a State book is really, I am trying to find the right word, is false professions for us to say that we live according to the Bible. The Bible is for every individual to read, but is nobody’s book but God’s.”

The vote to adopt the bill during Monday’s House Floor Session was 59 aye to 22 nay.

Want to see which way your representative voted? Click here.

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