The Tennessee Legislature just passed a bill to make the Bible its official state book. The state Senate voted in favor of the measure on Monday in a vote of 19-8. Now the bill is headed to the office of Republican governor, Bill Haslam. It’s possible he will veto is, as his stance is currently unclear. In 2015 he said the bill was not “very respectful” of the Bible. If he does not take action within 10 days, excluding Sundays, it will become law automatically since the speakers of the House and Senate already signed off.
“The governor doesn’t think it’s very respectful of what the Bible is,” the governor’s spokesman David Smith told The Tennessean.
Attorney General for Tennessee Herbert Slatery also released a statement last year saying that naming the Bible as official state book would violate the First and Third Amendments of the Constitution by giving preference to one religious institution.
Legislators argued that the bill gives deference to the importance of the holy book.