Tennessee Governor Declares Different Religions Week

July 13, 2003

Source: Go Memphis

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/faith_values/article/0,1426,MCA_4076_2105575,00.html

On July 13, 2003 Go Memphis printed an editorial by David Waters stating that "in Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen has declared July 11-18 Different Religions Week... 'I encourage all citizens of Tennessee to attend a religious service of a faith different than their own, so that religious tolerance may lie closer to our grasp,' Bredesen said in his proclamation... The governor was inspired by Nathan Black, a Rice University student who proposed the idea in March... 'Notions of religious superiority cannot be stopped by any kind of universal sense,' Black wrote in an essay published last week by the Christian Science Monitor... You might have to cover your head or take off your shoes or pass the peace, but you don't have to check your convictions at the door. You can appreciate or care about someone else's children without disowning your own."