--- title: The Bible as Official State Book: Three Failed Attempts description: A veto stopped a Tennessee bill that would have made the Bible the state book, but this isn't the first time such an idea has been scrapped canonical: https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-20T18:22:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:16.156Z article:section: History og:title: Tennessee Wasn't First State to Attempt to Make the Bible the Official State Book og:description: Louisiana and Mississippi also failed og:url: https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b577becbea9ae5/69888ffa524fc04e6cdf7a9b/bible-state-book.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 580816941 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tennessee Wasn't First State to Attempt to Make the Bible the Official State Book twitter:description: Louisiana and Mississippi also failed twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b577becbea9ae5/69888ffa524fc04e6cdf7a9b/bible-state-book.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Tennessee Wasn't First State to Attempt to Make the Bible the Official State Book ## Video: The Nantucket Project: The Bible Doesn't Say What You Think it Does [Watch (HLS stream): The Nantucket Project: The Bible Doesn't Say What You Think it Does](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vRWX5CaW.m3u8) (20:05)  _Published 2014-10-20. The Bible Doesn't Say What You Think it Does_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 20, 2016 6:22 PM UTC  USA, New Jersey, View of Bible and cross USA, New Jersey, View of Bible and crossTetra Images—Getty Images/Tetra images RF  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 20, 2016 6:22 PM UTC Tennessee’s governor last week [scuttled a bill that would have designated the Holy Bible](http://time.com/4295339/tennessee-bible-state-book/#) as the official state book, marking at least the third time in recent history that a state made the attempt but failed due to controversy. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed the bill, [citing](http://content-static.tennessean.com/PDFs/HaslamVetoLetter.pdf) constitutional issues and his own belief that the legislation “trivializes” the “sacred text.” The state House on Wednesday failed to override it, according to the [Associated Press](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/16987f47e17042fdaeb87e77166185b6). [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) Similar reasoning kept Louisiana legislators from having any luck getting their own version of such a bill approved in 2014\. Republican Rep. Thomas Carmody, who sponsored the bill, withdrew his proposal before it could even reach the state House of Representatives, saying it had become a distraction, [_The Times-Picayune_](http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/louisiana%5Fbible%5Fstate%5Fbook.html) reported at the time. Before he had switched gears, Carmody said the Bible “would be appropriate” for Louisiana, citing the state’s religious history. However, critics said the bill would be like adopting Christianity as the official state religion, according to the [_Advocate_](http://theadvocate.com/home/8966081-125/bible-as-state-book-bill)_._ Mississippi also tried to pass a similar bill in 2015, but it failed to garner support in committee. State Rep. Tom Miles, who co-sponsored the measure, [told TIME last year](http://time.com/3825594/tennessee-bible-state-book-bill/?iid=sr-link1) that he plans to introduce it again next session. “We feel like if it would have hit the floor, we had the votes,” he said at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/"},"headline":"Tennessee Wasn't First State to Attempt to Make the Bible the Official State Book","datePublished":"2016-04-20T18:22:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:16.156Z","description":"Louisiana and Mississippi also failed","url":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/","keywords":["politics","Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b577becbea9ae5/69888ffa524fc04e6cdf7a9b/bible-state-book.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86b577becbea9ae5/69888ffa524fc04e6cdf7a9b/bible-state-book.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"580816941","caption":"","creditText":"Tetra Images—Getty Images/Tetra images RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/","name":"Tennessee Wasn't First State to Attempt to Make the Bible the Official State Book"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Nantucket Project: The Bible Doesn't Say What You Think it Does","description":"The Bible Doesn't Say What You Think it Does","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vRWX5CaW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-20T17:39:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vRWX5CaW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/","duration":"PT20M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4301131/bible-state-book-bill-fail/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```