The Bible Becomes a Campaign Issue

Only in the South...:

A mysterious ad that accuses a candidate for governor in Alabama of supporting the theory of evolution and questioning the Bible has triggered a dizzying and nasty shouting match in the state's hotly contested Republican primary race.

The ad -- part of a campaign against Republican candidate Bradley Byrne by a group called the True Republican PAC -- questions Byrne's faith and accuses him of being a "liberal."

Noting that Byrne was elected to the state school board as a Democrat in the 1990s, the ad's narrator says in a quizzical voice:

"On the school board, Byrne supported teaching evolution, said evolution best explains the origin of life -- even recently said the Bible is only partially true." Another voice closes the ad by saying Byrne is "trying to look conservative."

That and other ads triggered an all-hands-on-deck response from the Byrne campaign, which launched a "truth team" website, issued a series of statements denying the group's charges, accused a GOP opponent and Democratic operatives of being in cahoots against him, and launched an ad of its own. The campaign also released a lengthy statement calling the faith ad "despicable."

In the statement, Byrne said he believes "every single word" in the Bible is true and that, to the contrary, he fought to get creationism taught in Alabama's schools.

Byrne campaign spokeswoman Marty Sullivan said the ad's creators took local newspaper quotes out of context in leveling the claims about the candidate's faith. She said Byrne's longstanding position is that both creationism and evolution should be taught in schools.

"Bradley's faith is very important to him and this has been very painful to him to have this kind of attack launched on him," Sullivan told FoxNews.com. "There's nothing about it that's even remotely true."

In the country today there's probably only three or four states where this could possibly be a campaign issue. In most states they'd laugh at an argument over the truthfulness of the Bible or whether evolution is appropriate curriculum for schools.