In 2011, newly elected Gov. Robert Bentley stepped into a firestorm while delivering a speech at the historic Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery.

Speaking on the topic of religion, Bentley directly addressed his Christian faith.

"If you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes?" Bentley said. "It makes you and me brothers.

''Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother," Bentley added.

Those statements set off a wave of national criticism that the governor, a deacon at Tuscaloosa's First Baptist Church, was excluding Alabamians of different faiths.

At Bentley's side during the uproar was his new communications director, Rebekah Caldwell Mason of Tuscaloosa. Mason moved quickly to put out the fire.

''He is the governor of all the people, Christians, non-Christians alike," she assured media.

Since that time, Mason's influence with the governor - first as an official spokesperson and later as a senior political adviser - has grown. And now, there are those who are questioning Mason's role in state government.

Haleyville native and Miss Alabama contestant

Mason grew up in Haleyville where she was known as "Becky" and was a high school majorette. After graduating high school in 1989, she went on to Northwest Community College, where she was named Miss Northwest and competed in the 1990 Miss Alabama Pageant. She then attended the University of Alabama, earning a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications in 1993.

Her career in broadcast journalism began after college, taking her to WAAY Huntsville, WDBB Tuscaloosa, WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham and WVUA Tuscaloosa. Mason later worked as news director and news anchor at Tuscaloosa's WDBB and WVUA.

From station to politics

In 1996, then-Rebekah Caldwell married fellow broadcast journalist Jon Mason. During that time, the couple opened a local ad agency in Tuscaloosa known as Caldwell Mason Marketing and JRM Enterprises Inc., which operated "Outdoor Boards" a national outdoor advertising agency.

Through Caldwell Mason, the couple provided marketing, design and video production services and counted among its clients The University of Alabama, City of Tuscaloosa and Shelton State Community College.

It was around this time that the Masons became involved with the gubernatorial campaign of a little-known Tuscaloosa dermatologist named Robert Bentley. The Masons, Dr. Bentley and his wife, Dianne, all attend First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa, where Bentley is a deacon and Jon Mason teaches Sunday School.

Bentley had served in the State House from 2002-2010. Rebekah Mason later served as the Bentley campaign's press secretary during his 2010 campaign for governor during the upset victory over GOP frontrunner Bradley Byrne and his eventual win over Democratic challenger Ron Sparks.

After Bentley's election, Mason followed him to Montgomery where she was named Communications Director, where she first dealt with Bentley's controversial "brothers and sisters" comments and then touted his promise to not draw a salary until the state reached full employment. In her two and a half years with the governor's office, Mason earned a total of $161,640, with $66,000 coming in 2012, the last full year she was a state employee.

Her work with Gov. Bentley included trips around Alabama on state aircraft, including the April 2011 visit by President Obama to survey tornado damage in North Alabama. In 2012, they were photographed visiting Mason's alma mater, where Bentley surprised the Haleyville High School band during practice.

In 2011, Mason's husband joined her in Montgomery, as Gov. Bentley's director of the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. Jon Mason earned $91,000 in 2014, according to the Alabama Department of Finance.

In 2013, Rebekah Mason left her job as communications director to become a spokesperson for the Bentley campaign and made the official move off the state payroll. At the time, Bentley was enjoying widespread support, raising more than $1 million in the first two months after he announced his reelection.

It was in July 2013 that Mason formed RCM Communications, a company offering consulting and advising services, and registered to Mason's home address in Tuscaloosa.

RCM Communications

Starting in July 2013 with RCM's formation and ending in November 2014 just before the gubernatorial election, the campaign to reelect Gov. Bentley paid Mason's firm $426,978 for consulting and polling work, almost half of the campaign's total consulting expenses.

According to RCM's filings, Rebekah Mason is the only listed officer of the company which has no phone number, no website and no Facebook page. Caldwell Mason Marketing, the couple's earlier company, does have a website and Facebook page but they have not been updated since 2009.

RCM did not do work for any other candidates in the 2014 election, according to financial disclosure forms filed with the Secretary of State.

According to Alabama's Fair Campaign Practices Act, candidates must report expenditures over $100, including who the money was paid to and the purpose. RCM's payments are listed as being for either consulting and polling or advertising, all of which falls within the parameters of what campaign money can be used for.

The move to the campaign staff also marked the end of Mason's requirements to file disclosure forms with the State Ethics Commission. Mason filed statements for 2012 and 2013, listing her job as communications advisor, as well as her work with RCM in 2013.

As a campaign staffer, she was not required to file a report for 2014, according to the Ethics Commission.

From campaign staffer to senior political advisor

After Bentley's landslide victory over Democrat Parker Griffith, Mason moved into the role of Senior Political Advisor. Her name and title are included in state flight logs but almost nowhere else: she has no published state email or phone number. Multiple requests for information on Mason's role in the governor's office have not been answered.

Rebekah Mason is not on the state payroll. Neither is Chief of Staff Seth Hammett, who remains a paid employee of Power South Energy Cooperative in Andalusia, a position that has been cleared by the State Ethics Commission.

The source of Mason's pay is not so transparent.

Sources say Mason is paid - either as a contractor or employee - through the Alabama Council for Excellent Government, a non-profit organization formed in February by Cooper Shattuck, general counsel for the University of Alabama board of trustees and Bentley's former legal adviser. At the time, Shattuck said the organization was formed at the request of Bentley to promote his plans for tax increases.

Shortly before the November election, Bentley announced he would use leftover campaign funds to establish a non-profit that he said would be used for different projects, including perhaps helping foster children and the restoration of the Governor's Mansion.

"If I have money left over, it's going to go back to help the state," Bentley told reporters at the Capitol just before the election.

The Alabama Council for Excellent Government's website, acegov.com, lists Marquita Davis and R.B. Walker as the group's other two board members. Davis is a former state finance director under Bentley and current executive director of the Jefferson County Committee for Economic opportunity. Walker is an assistant to the Executive Vice President at Alabama Power.

Mason's name does not appear on the group's website and because of the nature of 501c4, it is unknown how much RCM is being paid. Unlike the better known 501c3, the IRS does not required 501c4 organizations to report donors or most spending, as long as the funds are used to "promote social welfare," a loosely defined criteria that only prevents spending to promote a specific candidate's election.

In the case of ACEGOV, the promotion is all about pushing for Bentley's tax plan.

"Governor Robert Bentley has made the bold decision to identify, address and solve those problems rather than prolong them with temporary, quick-fixes. And he has presented Alabamians and Alabama lawmakers with real solutions," ACEGOV's website notes. "The Alabama Council for Excellent Government exists to support Governor Bentley in his efforts to solve real problems and to make Alabama greater, stronger and more excellent for all the hardworking men and women who call this great state our home."

Mason did not return messages left at her home by AL.com. ACEGOV did not respond to requests for confirmation on Mason's position with the group.

Questions of influence

Those in Montgomery who work with the governor said Mason, 43, is an integral part of his team and that her influence has continued to grow.

"You can't get to the governor unless she clears it," said one legislator, who asked that his name not be used. "Some people resent that."

Earlier this year, Mason was named one of "The 50 Most Powerful and Influential People in Alabama" by the conservative site Yellowhammer.com, who described her as "part of the very small circle of the governor's closest advisors."

"From crafting State of the State Addresses to coordinating external efforts to advance the governor's agenda, Mason is involved in all of it. No one has the governor's ear more than she does. No one," the site noted.

Mason was also influential, Yellowhammer said, in "every speech or comment the governor has given over the last four years," including presumably the 2014 pledge for no new taxes that was abandoned in 2015, drawing rage from Republicans.

Governor under fire

Bentley's tenure as governor has been virtually scandal free until last week when his wife of 50 years, Dianne Bentley, filed for divorce, citing "complete incompatibility of temperament." Since then, Mason's name has been dragged into the controversy, thanks in part to blog posts and radio commenters.

On Thursday, State Republican Executive Committee member Terry Dunn took to Facebook to suggest that Mason caused the Bentley's divorce. A judge has sealed the case filing.

In January, Bentley insiders said Dianne Bentley wanted to skip her husband's inauguration - which occurred just weeks after divorce papers said the first couple separated - but was convinced to come at the last minute. There is no proof why Mrs. Bentley didn't want to attend and the governor has remained mum on the entire situation.

The rumors have been enough, however, for Rep. Allen Farley of McCalla to file paperwork at the Attorney General's office requesting an investigation into whether Bentley used state funds to cover up actions that led to the divorce. Those actions include improperly paying state troopers that serve on the governor's security detail overtime and using his plane for things other than state business.

The AG's office confirmed to AL.com it has received Farley's letter but said its contents are not public record.

Bentley has denied he misused any state funds.