We don’t need a resolution for our proud religious heritage
Efforts to get governments to enact a resolution acknowledging God as part of the nation’s heritage have moved from the local to the state level, and the effort is as misguided in Nashville as it was in Knoxville, where it was turned down twice.
The resolution passed the House on March 1 with no discussion and was forwarded to the Senate State and Local Government Committee.
The House sponsor is Rep. Eddie Yokely, D-Greeneville, who said the resolution acknowledges that God has been in the nation’s historical foundation and heritage. The resolution has no practical effect other than to make a statement.
Yet, we have to wonder what kind of statement it makes — that lawmakers are so insecure about their personal faith they have to have it ratified by the state’s General Assembly or that they feel the need to use religion to pander to a particular interest group back home?
Discussions of the God resolution have included the simplistic notion that the gap between the establishment of religion and the free exercise thereof in the First Amendment was intended only to keep the government from favoring one denomination over another.
That certainly was an important point. However, the belief that government and religion should not mingle ran deeper than that.
The resolution also acknowledges that religious freedom also is part of the nation’s heritage. That is true even without the resolution. It is a proud heritage and one to be cherished by the religious and nonreligious alike — and it is a heritage that makes the God resolution unnecessary and irrelevant.