The Sumner County (Tennessee) Commission recently voted 20 to 4 in favor of adding a preamble to its Standing Rules and Procedures stating an intent that the operation of its government be “reflective of the Judeo-Christian values inherent in our nation’s founding.” Were liberals right to be aghast in their Establishment Clause concerns about such an intent? Should Christians rejoice?

On July 3, 1995, as a first-term state Senator, I gave a speech to the Downtown Chattanooga Rotary Club, one for which I would now be excoriated. The speech became a front-page, above-the-fold headline story. But there is one major thing I did not then understand and, consequently, one thing I got terribly wrong. I must address it now, because I believe political conservatives and Christians are making the same mistake I made. 

Thinking through and watching the debate over Amendment 1 to Tennessee’s Constitution, the so-called “Right to Work” amendment, has been a painful experience for me for two reasons. Today I share why in order that those who want to think about the future being bequeathed to their children and grandchild will see more clearly where we are in our nation. For them, some gut-level sobering truth is needed. Those interested only in the present may want to come back next week.

Can you think of a person over the last 30 years you would consider a statesman? I would like to think I was one during my 12 years in the Tennessee Senate, but alas, something I read the other day made me realize I did not come close. See if you would agree with my assessment of what a statesman is.

The indictment of former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada is painful to me because he has been a friend for two decades and was a legislative colleague. Were Glen not a public figure, I might say nothing, but he is not. For the following reasons, I see his indictment as a “severe mercy” that should be instructive for all with eyes to see and ears to hear.

This week a prominent private school in Nashville for girls grades 5 through 12 announced a new gender policy: “Any student who identifies as a girl may apply to our school.” Given the prestige of the school, no one should treat lightly a decision like this by highly educated, economically advantaged persons in the school’s leadership. Christians must realize they cannot retreat far enough into their First Amendment religious liberty cloister to hide from what is coming. Here is some help for thinking this through. 

Political campaigns have always been marked by what I will call “sharp practices,” but over the last four years, the degree of maliciousness and amount of flat out lying by people I once respected seems to have reached a new level. In recent weeks I have alternated between anger, sadness, and discouragement. Today, though, I offer a different perspective that I hope helps you through your election season blues.

I believe one state legislative primary is a microcosm of the dilemma voters face during Republican primaries and provides insight into what is most needed among those we elect. The one I have in mind is that between Senator Jack Johnson and Gary Humble in Williamson County. See if you agree with my assessment. And, if either of them takes my words and uses any part of them against the other, that candidate needs to lose.

The next attorney general for our state will soon be selected by the justices on the Tennessee Supreme Court. I would submit that it is the most influential position in state government. And only one person whose name is being bandied about that I think might appreciate at this moment in our Nation’s history the gravity and import of one of the office’s most important powers.

Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked abortion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization seems to have put many pro-life policy advocates in a rush to enact newer, stricter laws prohibiting doctors from performing abortion procedures. But by Justice Alito’s legal logic, all of us, the born and the unborn, are not much more than an aborted fetus. To be pro-life, one’s view of law and the constitution must go much deeper than prohibiting abortion procedures.