A Knoxville City Council candidate has recently got into hot water due to provocative Facebook comments made in 2019 and 2020. In a number of long rants, Robert Bentley Marlow wrote comments such as “All you deranged liberal hippie, dippy, trippy folks need to pay attention. These hobos are always criminals, thieves and junkies.” In separate posts, he also compared them to ‘animals‘ and even advocated euthanasia against the homeless.

As seen with the screenshots below, his comments were less than complimentary while brandishing many stereotypes about Knoxville’s homeless population.

Understandably, many Knoxville locals are not happy with this. In fact, many local Christians also spoke out against his comments, with one saying, “Unfortunately it isn’t new, but it makes me no less angry as a Christian. You can give lip service and claim to be anything you want, but if actions do not align then it begs to question.” Elsewhere, another wrote, “Absolutely disgusting comments. I hope he has a conversion of heart and begins to live a life that imitates Christ.”

Although it’s a free country and Robert Bentley Marlow is allowed to write as he pleases on Facebook, he may also learn that words often have consequences, and especially if you try to enter public positions that impact local politics, then this may not be the best look. Based on this, it will be interesting to see how his political career gets on.