Religion Here and Now: Tennessee: Gateway to Sex

Mark Silk | May 13, 2012 | Comments (0)

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I don't know about you, but I'm mighty glad that Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has gone ahead and signed that bill banning teachers from condoning "gateway sexual activity." As Haslam told Stephen Colbert the other day, "Kissing and hugging are the last stop before reaching Groin Central Station, so it's important to ban all the things that lead to the things that lead to sex."

Trouble is, holding hands and kissing and even masturbation may not be covered under the ban, and that's to say nothing about such things that lead to the things that lead to sex like dancing and camp meetings. In regard to the last of these, I'm thinking back to the time Sut Lovingood, the original Tennessee good ol' boy, took revenge on Parson Bullen for a pastoral reprimand that occurred not far from Chattanooga just before the Civil War.

As Lovingood described the scene to his amanuensis, George Washington Harris:

“You see, las’ year I went tu the big meetin at Rattlesnake Springs, an’ wer a sittin in a nice shady place convarsin wif a frien’ ove mine, intu the huckil berry thickit, jis’ duin nuffin tu nobody an’ makin no fuss, when, the fust thing I remembers, I woke up frum a trance what I hed been knocked inter by a four-year old hickory-stick, hilt in the paw ove ole Passun Bullin, durn his alligater hide; an’ he wer standin a striddil ove me, a foamin at the mouf, a-chompin his teeth – gesterin wif the hickory club – an’ a-preachin tu me so you cud a-hearn him a mile, about a sartin sins gineraly, an’ my wickedness pussonely an’ mensunin the name ove my frien’ loud enuf tu be hearn tu the meetin ‘ous. My poor innersent frien’ wer dun gone an’ I wer glad ove hit, fur I tho’t he ment tu kill me rite whar I lay, an’ I didn’t want her tu see me die.”

One can only imagine the "convarsin" that was going on between Sut and his "frien'" when the good parson came upon them.

Camp meetings have always been notorious for the promiscuous mixing of the sexes, and while I'm not exactly sure how common they still are in the hills and hollers of East Tennessee, there's no doubt that they promote "risk behaviors" that the Tennessee abstinence-only sex education program ought to "encourage[] the prevention of participation in." Sure, there may be some pushback from the Parson Bullenses of the world, who think they can manage the situation personally. But if the State of Tennessee is really going to get serious about promoting sexual abstinence, it can't be relying on four-year-old hickory sticks to do the job.

Topics: Politics, Legislation

Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the college's Program on Public Values. He joined Trinity College after working as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He writes on news media coverage of religious subject matter.
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