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Faithful Presence by Bill Haslam (Book Review)
The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square
I was recently invited to offer my review of a book bearing the name of this article’s title. I didn’t know of Bill Haslam prior to reading this work.
About The Author
For those of you unaware, Haslam is best known for his tenure as two-term Governor of Tennessee, serving from 2011–2019. Impressively, he won his second term with the largest victory margin ever garnered in a Tennessee gubernatorial race.
He’s not the image of your typical American Conservative. Under Haslam’s leadership, his became the first state to sponsor free community college for all its citizens. He managed to add 475,000 new jobs. It also became the fastest improving state in K-12 education. No joke!
Prior to all this, he served for two terms as mayor of Knoxville, TN. Before that, he defined himself in the business world as President of the renowned truck stop chain, Pilot Corporation. He’s an extremely intelligent and accomplished man; and his book takes on a subject that has really been at the heart of American politics since its very inception: What role should faith play in the public square?
