Religion is creeping into a Marion County School Board race in an unusual manner.
In February during off-topic remarks, incumbent Angie Boynton looked directly into the camera and said "she cannot bow down to Islam."
Chase Basinger, her challenger for the District 4 seat on the School Board, has introduced to the campaign his views on homosexuality and abortion.
During the meeting, Boynton looked into the camera and said, "You do not have my daughter hostage. She is safe. My response is I cannot bow down to Islam."
That video, Basinger said, is what first piqued his interest in the Marion County School Board District 4 race and to challenge Boynton.
"I think a legitimate question for that person is someone's emotional well-being," Basinger said.
Back in August in her first on-camera interview since the remarks, Boynton defended what she said.
"Any parent who had the situation that happened to me would be emotional, and I think he media mishandled it," Boynton recently said. "It wasn’t fair."
Basinger, a church music director, has also been questioned since he entered the race.
His children attend the Christian school where he works, not the public school system he's seeking to represent.
Before the primary election, Basinger sent letters to every pastor in town speaking out against issues some believe have no place in a school board race.
"The two things that were mentioned in my letter were abortion and homosexuality," Basinger said. "They are a personal belief I was sharing with local pastors. I was not sharing that with local mothers and fathers or kids."
Boynton said those two issues — homosexuality and abortion — are "battles."
"But I don't think we should ever bring a battle down to the level of our children," Boynton said.
Basinger said that if he's elected, he wouldn't dictate religious beliefs. He would, however, concentrate on overhauling the school budget and moving away from Common Core.
Boynton, who wears a button that says, "Our kids are more than a test score," agrees with Basinger that students in Marion County are tested too much.
The two candidates differ on the budget and whether a tax referendum needs to be passed in November to hire art, music and gym teachers and librarians.
Boynton changed her vote during the budget process not to hire the teachers this year.
"Then it would only be temporary — as in only maybe six months," she said.
Basinger is against the tax and said the school district should be looking at other areas of the $475 million budget to cut so that teachers can be hired.
Marion County School Board chairman Bobby James also faces a challenger in November: Jane Moerlie, a financial representative.