In a 2003 interview with the Trinity Broadcasting Network, right-wing pastor Jody Hice, who is now the GOP nominee for an open U.S. House seat in Georgia, claimed that America must follow God’s law or slide down a slippery slope to catastrophe.

Hice, who also told host Ben Kinchlow that Satan is to blame for legal efforts to separate church and state, warned of “disastrous” attempts to “shove God’s law out of the way” in public life.

After Kinchlow said that without “Judeo-Christian” principles in government “people end up killing each other,” Hice claimed that the Ten Commandments “predate Christianity” and therefore do not represent an establishment of religion.

Hice also described his campaign to place copies of the Ten Commandments throughout public buildings is part of a spiritual battle to save America.

“Are we going to be a nation that is led by people who acknowledge God? Who acknowledge God’s law and acknowledge the role of God’s law in our society and the founding of our country? Or are we going to be led by people who totally reject God?” Hice continued. “It’s a frightening thing if we don’t rise up.”