Featured Tennessee governor vetoes law christening Bible as official book

Why would the placement of a religious book as the state book be establishing religion?
Why would a first amendment rule against establishing a religion prevent a state from deciding to promote one?

I really don't understand, help me see the equivalency in these.

A good presentation this week on the topic of "Separation of Church and State" has been shared,

 

Actually, this is a terrible presentation. Remember, anyone can make a video and post it to Youtube. The fact that something is in a video or book does not give it any more credibility than an opinion overheard on a city bus. As Christians, we must do the hard work of thinking for ourselves and checking to see if what we are told is true.

That being said, I don't have time to watch the whole thing today - I'm busy getting things ready for church tomorrow - but in the first 2:30 minutes, he has already committed a few fatal errors.

The concept of separation of church and state came from our Baptist forbearers. The metaphor was first coined by Roger Williams (founder of the colony of Rhode Island) when he was advocating for religious liberty as a Baptist. He wrote that God had created a "hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world" in his book, "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience" Williams established separation of church and state from the very foundation of the Rhode Island colony. (Please note that I am including hyperlinks to the documents I am referencing)

Later, when the Danbury Baptist Association was concerned that there would be a proper separation of church and state, they appealed to Thomas Jefferson (the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence) and he wrote back to them assuring them that he was a champion of religious liberty. Like a good communicator wanting to connect with his audience, he used Williams' phrase, writing "wall of separation between church and state." Not only was Jefferson a Founding Father and the principal author of the Declaration, he was also highly influential in the formation of the First Amendment. Jefferson and James Madicon <-(the stupid software changed James M a d i s o n ' s name to an icon) had worked together to formulate and pass the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1786, and the First Amendment (as part of the Bill of Rights) that were formulated in 1789 and ratified in 1791.

Quick conclusions from just 2:30 minutes of this video:

1.) He builds a straw man premise at the very beginning of the video, he claims that "we can't have any reference to religion, or at least Christianity, in our public schools." This is simply false. Here's what the ACLU has to say. Here's what the U.S. Attorney General had to say in 1995. From my experience with these kinds of presentations, I suspect he is going to use this false premise that he has established to try to undermine the historical basis for separation of church and state by show how ridiculous it is. It is ridiculous, and it is also not an honest presentation of separation of church and state.

2.) As a Baptist, you should carefully consider your religious heritage. Baptists have consistently advocated religious liberty and separation of church and state until very recently in the United States when apparently some would be Baptist leaders have forgotten their history - if they knew it at all. For example, George W. Truett, the esteemed pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, delivered a famous sermon from the steps of the U.S. Capitol in 1920. The sermon, entitled Baptists and Religious Liberty, lays out the Baptist position. It is worth your time to read.

3.) He claimed the phrase separation of church and state did not come from

"...some other organic utterance by the founders and framers, maybe it's in the Declaration or some other public document? No, it's not found in any of the organic utterances of those who framed the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence."

Let's think about his statement carefully.

• He is correct that the phrase does not appear in the Declaration of Independence.
• He is correct that the exact phrase does not appear in The Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom.
• He is completely wrong that the phrase does not appear in the "organic utterances" of those who framed the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, since Jefferson famously used the phrase.
• It is possible he is defining "organic utterances" in unusual way, but the effect is deceptive if he is doing so.

4.) He quoted from Everson v. Board of Education and insinuated that Justice Black introduced Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists out of the blue. It had actually been cited before, in Reynolds v. United States (1878). Moreover, the Justices deciding the Reynolds case in 1878, and the Justices deciding Everson in 1947 were students of history and law, and knew what they were talking about. That doesn't mean that we should simply agree with them, but that we should at least pay attention to their arguments instead of cherry-picking quotes and condemning their work based on the quote choices those who oppose them make. That's just common sense.

Based on these things, I urge you therefore to actually read the texts of the documents I have cited and then take that knowledge back to the video. When the smiling video man makes a claim or cites a document, go look up the source document - not commentary on it - and read it for yourself before you pay attention to the opinions of others. Otherwise you will be intellectually held captive to other people instead of what might be true.

 

Oh I agree. The Governor apparently has a high view of the Bible and sees it as endorsement of religion, while others apparently see it as a religious totem or a cultural badge.