A Tennessee lawmaker is proposing that the Bible become the official state book.
Rep. Jerry Sexton introduced HB 615 that would amend the Tennessee code to make the acknowledgement.
The statement that would be added is simple: “The Holy Bible is hereby designated as the official state book.”
Tennessee has created a number of state symbols in recent years, naming the tomato the state fruit in 2003 and the Eastern boxing turtle the state reptile in 1995. The state also has several “state songs” including “Tennessee Waltz” and “Rocky Top.”
Another Representative, Jame VanHuss, has submitted a resolution to add text to the state Constitution that would acknowledge the rights of citizens come from God.
“We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior” House Joint Resolution 71 reads.
As usual when the Bible is going to be acknowledged by a public official, anti-Christianists have been launching complaints.
Rob Boston of the anti-Christian group Americans United for Separation of Church and State also wrote a blog post about the matter saying “I doubt the Bible played a major role in how any of them became a part of the United States.”
Gregory Hale, a self-proclaimed Satanist will spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty in the decapitation and cannibalism death of a Tennessee woman.
‘He told investigators that he fulfilled an obsession in wanting to kill a person and dismembering them,’ Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott told Circuit Court Judge Craig Johnson Thursday.
Hale said that he found the victim, Lisa Marie Hyder, at a liquor store and killed her after having sex with her. Hyder reportedly had struggled with alcoholism for years and had called family members and her ex-husband for help earlier that day because she was inebriated.
Police discovered human remains at Hale’s home and then found the body of Hyder in various buckets around Hale’s home.
Hale has a track record of bizarre behavior connected to his worship of Satan. His Facebook page has images of him in satanic worship including dismemberment using a large steel blade. He had been fired from a job at a meat packing plant for stealing animal’s body parts.
Hyder’s ex-husband says their 6-year-old and 4-year-old really don’t understand what happened and so he told them their mother “got sick and has gone home to live with God.”sa
A group of Tennessee high school cheerleaders is refusing to allow out of state anti-Christian groups to take away a tradition of pre-game prayer before football games.
Oneida High School had been offering prayers over the loudspeaker before the start of football games since 1930. Two years ago, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association told schools to stop doing the prayers because of threats of lawsuits from those wanting to remove Christians from society.
The school continued but began to get threats from outside anti-Christianist groups because of the prayers. So the school replaced the prayers with a moment of silence. The team, coaches and fans said they could feel a difference in the atmosphere at the games when the prayers stopped.
And that’s when the cheerleaders stepped in.
Cheerleader Asia Canada stood during the moment of silence and began to say the Lord’s Prayer out loud. The rest of the squad joined her. Soon, the entire stadium was saying the prayer.
And because it’s student led, the anti-Christianists can do nothing about it.
“The removal of prayer before football games wasn’t an option in my opinion,” cheerleader Kayla King told the Independent Herald. “It’s your option what you do during that moment of silence, whether you say a prayer or not, but ‘as for me and my house, we will worship the Lord.’ I’m thankful for the community I live in and hope to represent it well.”
An idea to reach people who were illegally cutting through a church’s parking lot to avoid an intersection is causing a stir in a Tennessee town.
Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Jackson, Tennessee set up a “drive thru prayer box” where drivers who were cutting through their parking lot could stop and write a prayer request on a 3 by 5 note card. The church was hoping it could be a way to advertise the church to those in the area and also to pray for their community.
Now, the church is receiving attention from the entire community and churches around the country.
“Now that [an] article has been published in the local newspaper, the number [of prayer requests] has grown substantially,” Barry Matthews of the church told the Christian Post. “We’re seeing requests that just grab your heart.”
Matthews says the church has also been flooded with calls from other churches facing the same problem of drivers cutting through their parking lots wanting to know how to set up their own “drive thru prayer station” ministries.
“They’re telling us this is an answer to their prayers,” Matthews said.
A Christian university in Dayton, Tennessee is being attacked because the school has taken a truly Biblical stance in regards to the origins of man.
The Board of Trustees and President Stephen Livesay have amended the school’s statement of faith to state that “all humanity is descended from Adam and Eve. They are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life forms.”
Several faculty members and students are protesting and complaining about the change, saying that such a position is out of touch with the world.
The school requires faculty to sign the statement of faith every year as part of contract renewals and when two long-term professors at Bryan College refused to sign the agreement saying God created Adam and Eve, resulting in their contracts not being renewed.
A small group of students is calling for the Board and President to be removed because of the change that led to the professors not being retained.
Kevin Clauson, the vice chair of Bryan’s faculty, told Inside Higher Ed that while he is sad some faculty have chosen to leave, Bryan as a Christian college must make sure “there is no slippage of doctrine.”
The controversy surrounding a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee is having a surprise impact on the church next door.
Pastor Dan Watts of Grace Baptist Church says that attendance has tripled and weekly giving has doubled since the construction of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro began in 2011.
Watts says that his church has been active in trying to reach out to the Arab Christians in the community who have been feeling pressured because of the controversy surrounding the mosque. He said that the Arabic Evangelical Church, which Grace Baptist allows to meet on their campus, has been a safe place for Arab Christians and even some of the neighboring Muslims who are curious about Christ.
The church has also been very vocal about their faith and has built over a dozen large crosses on their property as a statement of how they feel about their faith in Christ.
Murfreesboro, a town of 100,000 residents, has a population that is roughly 25% Muslim. Many of the residents are Somalian or Kurdish refugees who fled Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War.
Two young foster children in Tennessee were granted a “Christmas miracle” when a prayer sent into the sky this summer was answered.
Eva, 6, and Jasmine, 8, were taking part in Vacation Bible School at the church they attended in east Tennessee. The children were told to put a prayer request inside a balloon that would be inflated with helium and released into the air.
So the girls wrote a note asking God to allow them to be adopted by the foster parents who had been caring for them during the last two months. The balloon was released with 30 others.
None of the balloons were ever heard from again…except for Eva and Jasmine’s.
The balloon made its way to a trailer park in McHenry, Maryland. The people who found the balloon mailed it back to the girl’s foster parents, Lynn and Dennis.
Lynn told WBIR-TV and the Christian Post the balloon being found was a message from God that she and her husband should adopt the girls. They had been praying for God’s direction and felt the balloon was confirmation they were to follow their hearts.
On Tuesday, a judge legally made the girls the daughters of Lynn and Dennis.
At least six people are confirmed dead after a Sunday outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest.
The town of Washington, Illinois was devastated by a massive tornado that tore an 1/8th mile wide track through the entire town. Mayor Gary Manier said that up to 500 homes have been damaged or destroyed and that some neighborhoods are completely destroyed.
“How people survived is beyond me,” Manier said.
The tornadic storms are considered unusual for mid-November. Damaging winds and tornadoes were reported in 12 states: Michigan, Iowa, Illnois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
The storms moved so fast at times that weather forecasters were warning people to see shelter even before they could see a change in the weather.
The storm threatened the Chicago area forcing the game between the NFL’s Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens to be delayed for two hours as teams and spectators huddled under the stadium.
A Tennessee high school has taken a group of students to a mosque where some were given free copies of the Koran. A student who opted out of the trip was given a worksheet that said Muslims treat conquered people better than the United States treat minorities.
Hendersonville High School honors world studies students were taken to the mosque and a Hindu temple but a visit to a Christian church or Jewish temple was not included in the curriculum.
The principal of the school told a parent they could not afford to visit all five according to a report by FoxNews’ Todd Starnes. Continue reading →
A 10-year-old girl who finished an assignment to write about “someone she idolized” by writing about God was told by her teacher that she could not write about God.
The teacher then said the paper had to be taken home because it could not remain on school property. Continue reading →