Hands on bible. File photo via Shutterstock. more > Officials in Sumner County, Tennessee, are under fire for including a reference to “the Judeo-Christian values inherent in our nation’s founding” in a document outlining “standing rules” for county commissioners. The preamble to the county’s “Standing Rules and Procedures,” amended in October, reads in part, “In order to perfect the operation of our County government, to ensure that it is just, orderly, efficient, cost-effective and most importantly reflective of the Judeo-Christian values inherent in our nation’s founding…” The wording, approved at an Oct. 17 commissioners’ meeting, was finalized over the objections of interim county attorney Ben Allen. According to the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, which first reported the story, Mr. Allen said the text “would be a violation of the First Amendment and the establishment clause.” Mr. Allen’s concerns were buttressed by a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist advocacy group that lobbies to “protect the constitutional principle” of church-state separation. “The Board may not use its legislative power to promote, favor, and force a select set of religious values on Sumner County’s citizens,” FRFF legal fellow Samantha F. Lawrence wrote. “[I]t is erroneous to assert that […]
