Campaigning to the Choir

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Russellville, Tenn.

ALMOST all the signs I pass on the road, faded in the August sun and half buried in honeysuckle, concern East Tennessee’s most controversial election — the race for Hamblen County sheriff, between the sitting sheriff and the deputy he fired because of a law saying a state employee can’t run for office. Given people’s focus on that contest, it’s been strange to see the national news media going on about Thursday’s gubernatorial primary and about our lieutenant governor, Ron Ramsey, who suggested Islam might be more of a “cult” than a religion.

In my town, no one’s had much to say about Mr. Ramsey or his gaffe. He’s a non-factor in the Republican race, trailing behind Representative Zach Wamp of Chattanooga and far behind Knoxville’s mayor, Bill Haslam — two men who have, to a troubling degree, made Christianity a keystone of their campaigns. In one of the ads running, it seems, around the clock on my local television channels, Mr. Wamp says, “We must restore America to its Judeo-Christian roots.” In another, we’re assured that Mr. Haslam has “Bible study every week.”

As the daughter and granddaughter of preachers, and as someone who has lived in the hills of East Tennessee all my life, I know what a driving force faith is here, as necessary as food and water. Appalachia, don’t forget, is a land where homes were once miles apart and church was the only gathering place.

Some of my first memories are of sitting in my grandfather’s church, a little cinder-block building tucked in a thicket, listening to his voice ringing in the rafters. After my grandfather died, my dad took over as pastor. I never heard either of them mention politics from the pulpit, even though at home, in a family that has been divided between Democrats and Republicans going all the way back to the Civil War, there were some heated discussions. My dad always said that it was biblical to pray for our leaders, but not to campaign for them in a house of worship.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/opinion/05greene.html?th&emc=th