Potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently appealed to evangelical conservatives to cast their votes for Republicans so atheist employees in the government could be fired and replaced with those who are faithful.

While speaking at the 2014 Values Voter Summit at the end of September, Huckabee said, “Some of you are frustrated and even upset and angry about America, and I get it. And I say to you, the answer is as simple as it is that the answer to the phones in our hearts that God is ringing. When we register people to vote, when we get them to the polls to vote, when we hire the people that will take our values to this city, and when we fire the ones who refuse to hear not only our hearts, but God’s heart.”

Huckabee, who has earlier served as the governor of Arkansas, ran for president in 2008 and wants to try again in 2016. The suggestion that government employees who “refuse to hear God’s heart” should be replaced by those who “do hear God’s heart” has been perceived as rather disturbing and critics feel that it goes against the secular values upon which America was founded. They have pointed out how the United States Constitution even specifies that no religious preference is required as a qualification for anyone that wants to serve a government office or public trust in America.

The No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution (Article VI, paragraph 3) states, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

In his lengthy speech, Huckabee also ranted against America’s courts. Since he openly opposes marriage equality for gays and lesbians, the Republicans’ potential presidential candidate said that the existing judicial system and the Supreme Court do not have the authority any longer that the executive and legislative branches of government do.

“This nonsense that has happened where individual judges around the country have decided that they can upend the duly passed laws and constitutional limits in states that affirm natural marriage — we need to say no: judges don’t get to legislate,” he said.

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