Do you want to know what’s funniest about the brand-new Tennessee Religious Freedom Caucus? Not the fact that we have one — after all, Tennessee is the state where people have actually filed lawsuits to stop construction of a mosque, and where a Nashville mosque has been vandalized not once but twice. So you can see how religious liberty is still an issue here.
Nope, it’s the people who are in the Religious Freedom Caucus.
From the state House we have Representatives Charles Curtiss, D-Sparta; Rick Womick, R-Rockvale; Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville; Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma; Mark White, R-Memphis; Joe Pitts, D-Clarksville; Harold Love, D-Nashville; John DeBerry, D-Memphis and Jimmy Matlock, R-Lenoir City.
On the state Senate side we have Senators Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown; Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville; John Stevens, R-Huntingdon; Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet; Charlotte Burks, D-Monterey and Reginald Tate, D-Memphis.
Let’s look at a few of these folks, shall we:
• Rick Womick, of course, was last in the national news for wanting to bar Muslims from serving in the U.S. military, saying they should just “go back where they came from.”
• Judd Matheny was one of the geniuses behind Tennessee’s infamous anti-Sharia law bill two years ago.
• Jimmy Matlock last embarrassed himself by getting foamy-mouthed when the president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition dared wish him a “happy holiday,” not happy Christmas:
Apparently, Rep. Matlock doesn’t appreciate other groups usurping his Christmas, “…this is not a holiday season, it is a Christmas season. We celebrate Christmas, not the holidays. This is a Christian Nation!”
When Dr. Richmond explained that it was the first full day of Hanukkah, Matlock retorted, “This is a Christian Nation! We celebrate the Christmas season, not the holiday season. And I don’t want to hear anything about transvestites. That is against all that I believe.”
Sigh. And I didn’t even get into Bill Dunn’s whole “Monkey Bill” nonsense.
Seems some folks have confused “religious freedom” with “promote Christianity.” Shocked, I know.
