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Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam has a group of political confidants with which he meets every Friday morning. This isn’t particularly strange in that many politicians have advisors and trusted friends from whom they seek counsel on a variety of issues. What is worrisome is that his group of advisors appear to be religious in nature.

In a video interview with David Fowler of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, an organization whose mission is “to promote and defend a culture that values the traditional family, for the sake of the common good”, Haslam is asked whose opinion he will most cherish after making a tough political decision. His answer names no one person but a group with whom he meets weekly; a group that knows “almost everything” about him.

Jeff Woods of Nashville Scene emailed the Haslam campaign for more information on his weekly Friday meetups only to receive the brief answer, “Bible study.” No subsequent requests for clarification were answered by the campaign.

If Haslam becomes the next governor of Tennessee and he is faced with legislation that will limit or restrict the liberties of secular Tennesseans, to whom will Haslam feel he most accountable, the citizens of Tennessee or his group of religious advisors?

The true enigma is that while conservatives traditionally believe in less government interference with private citizens and more emphasis on personal responsibility, this mindset does not seem to apply to so-called “vice laws.” If it violates Biblical precedent, then it must be legislated as authority for all, regardless of personal religious background. Let us hope that Haslam keeps that in mind should he be elected.

Rep. Zach Wamp made his message clear with few words: If you are not a Christian, you lack the moral fiber necessary to defend your freedoms. In a gubernatorial election that has seen many references to scripture and appeals to religion, Wamp furthered the tone of religious exclusivity with his July 4 visit to Higher Ground Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN.

In what was clearly a campaign stop to help capture the Southern Baptist vote, Wamp begins by informing those in attendance on his personal Baptist background. He strokes their egos by saying, “This is as good a choir and talent and feel and spirit as you’re gonna find anywhere, not just in this state, but in this world. I’ve been around the world. You should be pleased. You should be grateful.” At this point, most of the congregation should have experienced high levels of activity on their BS-meters, but since he was saying things that they agreed with, they let him continue.

Wamp referenced the Founding Fathers and concluded that “There’s so much freedom given to the people that unless they adhere to a moral and a religious code, and they were talking about the Bible, the Holy Bible, it wouldn’t work.” Wamp stated that without a Christian revival in this nation, our liberty would not be preserved. Apparently, for one to appreciate and defend their freedoms, they must fear the threat of eternal damnation first.

Since he was speaking on Independence Day, he of course mentioned our men and women in uniform fighting for freedom and linked their struggle to Christian message of Jesus dying to make mankind free from sin.

He ended on the scariest note of all. With brimstone flowing, he stated resolutely that no man or woman should hold elected office unless their lives are guided by god, and that religion should be present in the formation of every policy. Not wanting to do his words a disservice, I quote that piece of his mini-sermon.

When anybody says to you that they want to be in politics or government or elected office instead of asking them the first question, ‘Are you pro-life?’, ‘Do you believe that a man and a woman should be married to each other?’, and those are important questions, ask those second and third. Ask them this one first: ‘What is your worldview?’ and just wait for an answer. Because if they can’t tell you that my worldview is that God is the center of the universe – not man, He made us to serve Him and to serve each other, that the Bible is inerrant, every single word of it is true, it is the foundation, it is the beginning and the end, and it is the only thing that will stand the test of time. And that every policy should stand on those truths. Praise Him.

View his entire speech below:

One thing atheists must continually endure is flawed logic from the opposition. It isn’t enough that one lead a good and moral life with compassion for one’s fellow beings. No, you must subscribe to a specific set of rules — these differ from person to person — or you shall suffer the eternal consequences. A common question posed to atheists is, “What if you’re wrong?”

Jamie C. of Cookeville, TN posed the oft-repeated question in a discussion with myself and two other non-believers. What is the appropriate response to such an inquiry? The asker of such nonsense rarely gives pause to consider if they themselves may be wrong. The judgments they have passed and the hatred and bigotry they have been a party to because of their belief system would surely make them sick to their stomachs.

Being caught off guard, we only managed a “B-” answer, which was apparently good enough, as there were no follow up questions. The following video outlines a terrific answer to this question which atheists hear all too often.

User “TheoreticalBull****” provides a well thought-out answer.

In Tennessee it has long been the tradition of candidates to tout their religious beliefs and church attendance when courting the electorate. Being in the center of the Bible Belt, this message unsurprisingly resonates well with the majority of religious voters.

Each of the three remaining primary contenders for the Republican gubernatorial nomination make frequent references to their religious beliefs on the campaign trail as well as in campaign literature and on their websites. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam and former candidate Joe Kirkpatrick went so far as to state their religious affiliations on their website biographies directly after introducing themselves. Only Democrat Mike McWherter omits his personally religious beliefs from his website.

About Monday night’s televised debate among the remaining Republican candidates and McWherter, Tennessee Report correspondent Mike Morrow described the event as “laden with references to holy scripture and solemn appeals for prayer.”

In Chattanooga, two candidates for the Hamilton County Commission, Democrat Kenny Smith and Republican Tim Boyd, who attend the same church, have exchanged heated words on the role of personal religious belief in a public election. Boyd remarked on Smith’s apparently limited church attendance as evidence that he was less suited to hold office, while Smith defended himself as a solid Christian. Even the independent candidates not involved in the exchange felt the need to declare their own beliefs that Jesus is their personal savior.

It should come as no surprise that candidates are overtly religious on the campaign trail when the state constitution expressly forbids any non-theist from holding public office. Article IX, Section 2 of the Tennessee Constitution states that, “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.” To be fair, Section 1 of the same article forbids ministers from being elected to the legislature, but only because they should not be distracted from their superior task of saving souls. The First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, however, make these disqualifications unenforceable.