Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the official book of the state, saying the measure actually downplayed the significance of the Good Book and turned it into a historical, rather than spiritual, text.
“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse, the Washington Post reported.
He went on, saying: “If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance. If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”
Supporters said the Bible actually holds economic, cultural and historical significance for Tennessee and pointed to the text of the bill, which reminded “printing the Bible is a multi-million dollar industry for the state with many top Bible publishers headquartered in Nashville. Source
of regional currencies against the U.S. dollar cost the General Conference, the administrative body that oversees the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a total of $19.4 million.
Vice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America’s leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.
Norway is a progressive country. It has already adopted policies and legislation to support minority rights, women’s rights, and LGBT rights. It was the first country to pass an anti-discrimination law to protect the rights for same-sex couples.
The European Parliament has backed a re-authorization of a pesticide believed to be carcinogenic for another 7 years, despite a widespread protest campaign calling for a full ban instead of a downsized “compromise” deal.
Last week, 
Dixie Catholics credit the strong Southern sense of community, and dialogue with faithful Protestants, with helping to power the Church’s growth there.
On Wednesday the Bishop Of Rome addressed 11,000 ticketed guests on the South Lawn of the White House, during which he pontificated on the dire importance of exhibiting religious tolerance. During his hour-long speech, a smiling Pope Francis was quoted telling the White House guests that the Koran, and the spiritual teachings contained therein, are just as valid as the Holy Bible, and should therefore be respected as such.
President Obama urged students to open up their digital life to the federal government, if they wanted to be protected by the government, calling the current privacy expectations from Americans unrealistic. “People have a whole new set of privacy expectations that are understandable. They also expect though that since their lives are all digitized, that the digital world is safe, which creates a contradictory demand on government,” he said. 
Apple has quietly bought and leased a bunch of buildings and named them after Greek deities, according to a report today in the Silicon Valley Business Journal based on documents filed with city governments. A lot of the buildings seemingly relate to Apple’s reported plans to build an electric, possibly self-driving, car.