The Louisiana state Legislature has taken a step toward making the Holy Bible the official state book. In a vote of 8-5, the state House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs agreed to advance the proposal to the full House for debate.
The bill, HB 503, threatens to violate the separation of church and state by honoring a specific copy of the Bible — a nearly 500-year-old printing of the Christian religious text.
“The official state book shall be the Holy Bible, published by Johannes Prevel, (Prevel, Jean, active 1510-1528, printer. & Petit, Jean, fl. 1492-1530.), which is the oldest edition of the Holy Bible in the Louisiana State Museum system,” reads the original version of HB 503. “The use on official documents of the state and with the insignia of the state is hereby authorized.”
The bill would also change the state motto to, “A state, under God, united in purpose and ideals, confident that justice shall prevail for all of those abiding here.”
Those who oppose the bill argue that the endorsement of an article of faith for a specific belief violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on the establishment of religion by the state. Elevating the Holy Bible to “state book,” some argue, disenfranchises those that do not adhere to or accept the Bible, and it violates Thomas Jefferson’s philosophy on church and state that the government should neither encourage nor deny religious identity.
“If the purpose of this bill is to say that Louisiana is not a welcoming place for anybody who doesn’t have these narrow religious views, then it would accomplish that goal,” said Marjorie Esman, executive director of the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union. “There are probably books in the Louisiana State Museum that contain views that don’t reflect our values … So that’s pretext. This is a statement of religious discrimination.”
Technically, the Holy Bible is not a book, but a collection of books, oral histories and correspondence that represents one of the oldest and most complete historical chronologies known to exist. Composed of parts of the Hebrew Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim, and the Christian Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles and Book of Revelation, the Holy Bible is a written history of the region of the Middle East that now makes up Israel, the Occupied Territories, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
However, there is no such thing as “the Bible,” as there are many Bibles — all based on different translations and views on what is canonical. As different denominations prefer different translations, there is no one commonly accepted Bible for the whole of the Christian faith.
Concerns over identifying a specific version of the Bible for recognition led to language singling out the Louisiana State Museum Bible to be removed from the bill.
This bill reflects an emerging trend, according to a recent analysis by the Secular Coalition for America. Despite a plurality of Americans stating that they feel that politicians talk about religion too much and a majority of Americans arguing that churches should not be involved in political matters, Republicans overwhelmingly came up at the bottom of a scale that weighs Congress members’ support for bills that support or endorse the notion of church and state separation. Of the Republican Congressional Caucus for the 113th Congress, only Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan and Rep. Vance McAllister of Louisiana did not receive a “F;” no Republican received a score higher than a “D.”
Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rush Holt, D-N.J., topped the scale with scores of 100.
“I think we’re going to open ourselves up to a lawsuit. You can’t adopt the Bible and not adopt Christianity,” said Louisiana state Rep. Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, who — while stating he personally loves the notion of the Bible as the “state book” — still voted against the measure.