Tennessee Month of Prayer and Fasting Is a Failure
The state of Tennessee has repeatedly been cited in an annual survey by CNBC as one of the worst places to live in the entire United States.
So what has the state legislature of Tennessee done to try to address this problem?
This spring, Tennessee passed a resolution calling on all the citizens of the state to make July 2024 a month dedicated to prayer and fasting, declaring the Christian god to be the king of Tennessee, in order to stop violent crime there.
We’re halfway through the month of July now. So, let’s look at the facts to see whether Tennessee’s month of prayer and fasting is working.
The legislation:
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 803
A RESOLUTION to seek God's hand of mercy healing on Tennessee
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED
THIRTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, THE SENATE
CONCURRING, that the period of July 1, 2024, through July 31, 2024, be recognized as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize that God, as Creator and King of all Glory, has both the authority to judge and to bless nations or states.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we, as public servants in the Tennessee General
Assembly, seek God's Mercy upon our land and beseech Him to not withdraw His Hand of blessing from us.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we recognize our sins and shortcomings before Him and humbly ask His Forgiveness.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Lord Jesus to heal our land and remove the violence.
And here’s the crime that’s taken place during just the first two weeks of July:
1. 49-year-old man was arrested over the weekend when he tried to take a person’s dog while armed with a pepper gun. Washington County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Michael Damon Bawgus and charged him with aggravated domestic assault
2. A house burned down, with three individuals living illegally within its confines. According to officials cited by WBIR, among these occupants, two were female, and one was male. In a twist to the incident, one of the females was taken into custody by Knoxville Fire Investigators and is now facing charges of aggravated arson.
3. 39-year-old man, identified as Jacob Brown, faces multiple charges following a reported shooting incident in Knoxville's Mechanicsville area, at the Ridgebrook Apartments, according to local police.
4. A man allegedly engaged in an altercation with three other individuals in Knoxville. Brown is accused to have fired a gun towards the group.
5. 2700 block of Linden Avenue in Knoxville. A man was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.
6. 20-year-old Joseph Wools is facing multiple charges, including second-degree attempted murder, after a shooting at Mead's Quarry in Knoxville. went to his car to grab a handgun and began firing, first at one man and then into a crowd of 10 to 15 people.
7. A 32-year-old man was shot and killed after pulling out a gun during a family fight, Knoxville police say.
8. Two men are dead and a woman suffered an injury in a shooting that occurred near a bar overnight Tuesday, according to the Knoxville Police Department. The suspect later killed himself before he could be arrested.
9. A man in Chattanooga had a meeting with two managers after his request to work from home was denied. Officials say Schultz pulled two guns, shooting one that misfired. When police got to the third floor of the building, they found Schultz with a gunshot wound. Schultz then killed himself.
10. The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) was pursuing a suspect when an East Ridge officer attempted to deploy spike strips. The suspect's car then swerved and hit the officer, The East Ridge Police Department (EPD) confirmed. The officer was hit at high speeds and injured.
11. A man is charged with attempted first degree murder after Chattanooga police responded to an aggravated assault early on Wednesday morning. Police arrived to Poplar Street Ct. before 2:00am to find a 34-year-old male with multiple stab wounds and a 39-year-old female with blunt-force trauma to the head. The two victims were taken to the hospital as CPD's Homicide Unit began the investigation. Investigators found the suspect and male victim were in an argument over clothing when the suspect hit the female victim and stabbed the male victim.
12. They found a 37-year-old woman with non-life threatening injuries. Investigation found that the victim was in an argument over fireworks when she was shot by Kenneth Craig. He was arrested and charged with Attempted First Degree Murder.
13. Police arrested a teenager who is accused of waving a gun at a Kroger grocery store in Bordeaux over the weekend and threatening to shoot people inside the store.
14. In Nashville, a man carrying a Nazi flag was charged for using the flagpole to hit a downtown Nashville bartender who had just been fighting with members of the neo-Nazi protest group.
15. In Nashville, a man was shot by a man firing a gun from a passing car.
16. Outside a nightclub in Nashville, a woman pulled out a gun during an argument and shot another woman in the leg.
17. A man in Antioch was shot and killed Sunday night in an attempted robbery
18. Four men fired guns at a crowd of people in a parking lot in West Nashville, killing one man.
19. A man in Nashville was shot while drinking with friends in a parking lot
20. A 20-year-old woman was shot in the head and killed on a hiking trail near Hermitage, TN
21. A 16 year-old boy was shot and killed with his own gun during a fight in Nashville
22. A man killed himself after shooting his step brother several times in Nashville
23. A man was beaten to death in Nashville outside a golf club
24. Two people were shot in another drive by shooting in Nashville
25. A Nashville police officer was shot in the leg while attempting to arrest a fugitive
26. A group of children between the ages of 10 and 14 committed a series of armed robberies in Nashville
27. A man ran into a highway rest area in Smith County, TN with a shotgun and held several people hostage at gunpoint before fleeing on foot.
28. A man was arrested for committing domestic violence and then threatening to shoot Henry County law enforcement during a lengthy standoff at his home.
29. A man was shot in a Dollar General Store in Cordova, Tennessee
30. A man crashed a stolen Mercedes SUV into a retaining wall after being shot while driving the vehicle
31. A man and a teenage boy were shot on Hollywood Street in Memphis
32. Two men were shot at an apartment in the Raleigh neighborhood in Memphis
33. A suspect shot two men in Frayser, killing one and injuring the other
34. A man was shot and critically injured in the Broad Avenue Arts District in Memphis
35. A teenage boy shot and killed another teenage boy in Memphis
36. A man fired at least 24 bullets on Beale Street in Memphis
37. A man was shot to death in the Orange Mound neighborhood in Memphis
38. Two teenagers shot and killed a man near the Memphis airport
39. A man assaulted another driver during a road rage incident in Franklin
40. A man intentionally set a house on fire in Beech Bluff
41. A man stabbed his wife and set her on fire in Dickinson
42. A woman killed an employee at a Church’s Chicken fast food restaurant in Memphis
43. A man shot and killed his wife at a nursing home in Dunlap before killing himself
44. A mother was arrested for murdering her seven year-old daughter by drowning her in a creek near Hendersonville
45. A man shot another man’s dog during an argument in Memphis
These crimes are just some of those that took place in Tennessee during the first two weeks of July.
Since then, many other violent crimes in TN, including a 12 year-old girl arrested in Humboldt, TN, and charged with first degree murder after she suffocated her 8 year-old cousin to death after an argument about an iPhone. If praying to stop violence has any effect, why couldn’t it at the very least have kept Tennessee’s children from killing each other?
They’ve got serious problems to deal with in Tennessee. Once again this year, the annual survey by CNBC ranked TN as one of the least livable states in the USA, with a score of F+.
Instead of taking concrete action to deal with Tennessee’s problems, state legislators are spending the month of July praying, and encouraging citizens not to eat.
Tennesse’s month of prayer and fasting shows that Christian Nationalism isn’t just a betrayal of the American way of life. Christian Nationalism is also a thoroughly ineffective form of government.
What Christian Nationalists did in Tennessee they want to do to the entire country. They want to replace good government with magical incantations.
America is in no condition to fool around with this kind of nonsense.
It’s time to put the fantasies of faith-based government aside and deal with reality.
The government of Tennessee can pray all it wants, but it isn’t helping. If the Christian god exists, he isn’t listening.
The facts show that Christian Nationalism is an ineffective form of government.