Senate kills bill to make Bible official Tennessee book

The Bible will not become the official book of Tennessee this year.

Bolstered by opposition from Republican leadership, the Senate voted 22-9 to send the Bible to committee, effectively killing the bill a day after it was adopted by the House.

"This isn't the time or place now in the full Senate floor to delve into that. We really need to look into it in committee," Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville, said about two hours before the vote.

Gov. Bill Haslam and Attorney General Herbert Slatery oppose the bill; Slatery recently announced he thinks the bill violates the state and federal constitutions.

Norris led the effort to kill the bill in the Senate. He asked for the bill to be sent back to the Senate Judiciary Committee to address the Slatery opinion. The Senate agreed, supporting Norris and effectively killing the bill for the year.

"I sure hope it won't pass. I think it'll be a dark day for Tennessee if it does," Norris said Wednesday.

"All I know is that I hear Satan snickering. He loves this kind of mischief. You just dumb the good book down far enough to make it whatever it takes to make it a state symbol, and you're on your way to where he wants you."

Bill sponsor Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, and other supporters argue the bill highlights the economic and historical impact of the Bible in Tennessee. The House passed the bill by a 55-38 vote Wednesday after two hours of debate over the course of two days.

"The Bible has great historical and cultural significance in the state of Tennessee," Southerland said Wednesday, at times getting emotional on the Senate floor.

Norris also planned to offer three amendments to the bill if the Senate didn't send the bill to committee. Two of the amendments would include many other religious texts within the definition of "Bible" in the bill. The third says the state will pursue hiring attorneys to defend any lawsuits filed over the law; the move has an estimated $100,000 fiscal impact and was an attempt to kill the bill.

Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, has been outspoken in his belief that the bill belittles the Bible by placing it next to state symbols. After the vote, Ramsey heralded the decision to send the bill back to committee.

"I am a Christian, but I am also a constitutionalist and a conservative. It would be fiscally irresponsible to put the state in a position to have to spend tax dollars defending a largely symbolic piece of legislation," Ramsey said in a statement.

"We don't need to put the Bible beside salamanders, tulip poplars and 'Rocky Top' in the Tennessee Blue Book to appreciate its importance to our state."

The House and Senate approved the state's $33.8 billion budget Thursday. Bills that deal with making the Bible a state book delay the entire legislative process, Norris said.

"It's an unnecessary distraction, and for some personnel here it's a diversion from work that has to get done," Norris said before the vote.

Referring the bill to committee allows supporters to pick up the campaign against next year. Southerland tried to get Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, to discuss the bill in the committee next week. He said there wasn't time, and the majority of the Senate agreed.

"Some of my co-sponsors had some concerns about ... the constitutional problem on it, but then I picked up three votes that weren't co-sponsors. So we'll see next year," Southerland said Thursday afternoon.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.