Huckabee in GOP top tier

[Soldier4Christ]

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel?

Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.

Now that he has his moment in the political spotlight, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee does not want his days at the pulpit to be scrutinized.

As Huckabee has surged to the front of the Republican pack in Iowa, his religious views have drawn media and voter attention. After all, Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, has been campaigning as a "Christian leader." But he has vacillated on how far to interject faith into politics. At an early debate, he indicated he does not believe in evolution, but at a more recent debate, when he was asked by Wolf Blitzer if the creation of the Earth occurred six thousand years ago and only took six days, as stated in the Old Testament, Huckabee said, "I don't know. I wasn't there." During a question-and-answer session with students at fundamentalist Liberty University last month, he asserted that his rise in the polls has an explanation that is "beyond human" and is due to the power of his supporters' prayers. Afterward, he backtracked slightly, adding, "I'm saying that when people pray, things happen.... I'm not saying that God wants me to be elected." (At a victory rally held after Huckabee won a 1993 special election for lieutenant governor, Huckabee told his supporters that he had only won because God had intervened, according to the Texarkana Gazette.)

With Huckabee walking this fine line, his campaign has declined to make available sermons that Huckabee delivered during his preaching days.

Before beginning his political career, Huckabee was a Southern Baptist minister for 12 years in his home state of Arkansas. He assumed the pastorate at Immanuel Baptist Church in the town of Pine Bluff in 1980, at the age of 25. Six years later, he moved to Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana. In both locations, Huckabee's energy, ambition, and skills as a communicator energized his congregation. Under his leadership, each church grew.

When asked for copies of the sermons Huckabee delivered at Immanuel Church, an employee there claimed none could be found. A Beech Street Church pastor's assistant maintained that much of the archival material from Huckabee's tenure as pastor had been destroyed during a remodeling. The rest, she said, was not available to the press.

When Mother Jones contacted the Huckabee campaign and asked if it would help make his previous sermons available, the campaign replied in a one-sentence email that it had received multiple requests for such material and was "not able to accommodate" them.

Only a small sampling of Huckabee's early speeches are publicly available. While the pastor at Beech Street, Huckabee became president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. (At 34, he was the youngest person to ever preside over the 490,000-person group.) He held the office from 1989 to 1991. Several of his sermonlike speeches were featured in the convention's publications. In a 1990 speech to his fellow state Baptists, Huckabee urged the audience to hold to what he called "The 10 Commendations," including "Thou shalt love like a family" and "Thou shalt be found faithful." Huckabee also said, "It doesn't embarrass me one bit to let you know that I believe Adam and Eve were real people."

This remark was a bolder endorsement of biblical creationism than any comment Huckabee has been willing to make while campaigning for president this year. During a CNN/YouTube debate, the Republican field was asked by a man holding a Bible, "Do you believe every word of this book?" Huckabee said that portions of the Bible should "obviously" be seen as "allegorical." He again stated that he could not know the exact meaning of parts of the Bible, saying, "There are parts of it I don't fully comprehend and understand, because the Bible is a revelation of an infinite god, and no finite person is ever going to fully understand it." His earlier comment about Adam and Eve suggests he takes at least Genesis literally.

Huckabee certainly has reason to be concerned about an examination of his earlier remarks and sermons. Comments he made 15 years ago about AIDS and homosexuality recently became a campaign issue. During a failed run for the U.S. Senate in 1992, Huckabee noted in response to a questionnaire, "Homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk." He suggested that the federal government commit no additional federal funding to finding a cure for AIDS, then considered by many to be a gay disease. In the same reply, Huckabee displayed callousness toward AIDS victims and an ignorance about the ways in which AIDS could be transmitted. "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague," he wrote. "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents." Instead of additional federal funding, said Huckabee, "An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor [,] Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research."

Seeking to explain these comments recently, Huckabee made it clear that he still sees homosexuality as sinful, but that he has softened his position on AIDS research. "If I were making those same comments today, I might make them a little differently," he said.

Huckabee has indeed mixed religion with policy previously. In 1997, when he was governor, he answered a question about capital punishment during a call-in show:

    Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, "This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency."

Huckabee's argument: since Jesus didn't say that, according to the New Testament, capital punishment is fine. Also that year, Huckabee refused to sign legislation to assist storm victims because the measure referred to tornadoes and floods as "acts of God." Putting his name on such legislation, Huckabee explained, "would be violating my own conscience" due to the bill equating "a destructive and deadly force" as "an act of God."

In all the sermons Huckabee delivered before jumping into politics, he no doubt revealed beliefs and ideas that would be of interest to voters today. But his campaign, looking to attract evangelical Christian voters without alienating others, is not interested in seeing that material become part of the current political discourse. Huckabee the candidate is shunning Huckabee the pastor?

[Soldier4Christ]

2Ti 1:8  Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.


Is he afraid that if he speaks out about his beliefs that he will not be accepted as President? Would a person that does this when in times of trials and tribulations still stand up for Jesus? I would have to speak out and stand up for Jesus anyway no matter what the consequences.

[Brother Jerry]

Another completely misrepresentation of what was said and is meant.

he was asked by Wolf Blitzer if the creation of the Earth occurred six thousand years ago and only took six days, as stated in the Old Testament, Huckabee said, "I don't know. I wasn't there."

This is a true statement.  If I was asked if the creation took place 6000 years ago and 6 days.  I could only honestly say that I was not there.  But I believe that it did because God says that it did in the Bible. 

During a question-and-answer session with students at fundamentalist Liberty University last month, he asserted that his rise in the polls has an explanation that is "beyond human" and is due to the power of his supporters' prayers. Afterward, he backtracked slightly, adding, "I'm saying that when people pray, things happen.... I'm not saying that God wants me to be elected." (At a victory rally held after Huckabee won a 1993 special election for lieutenant governor, Huckabee told his supporters that he had only won because God had intervened, according to the Texarkana Gazette.)

This would be a correct statement as well.  You have to look at the context...and in this situation the tense..At the victory celebration I too would say that it happened only because God wanted it to happen.  But before that celebration I could say that I only hope that God wants me to win and that He will do great and mighty things with me.  If Mike say "God wants me to be elected." what do you think the outcome would have been?! 

The AIDS thing is the same.  15 years ago we did not know near what we do now.  And his statement about this being the first epidemic of this sort in which we did not isolate the people is true.  However we also look upon things slightly different as well in that they are not contagious via airborne or similar.  Also that we hope to find a cure sort of thing.  In light of new information on the disease and how it is transmitted and such, of course opinions can change.  I do not think he is changing his stance on homosexuality and how it is an abomination, but would change his stance on the treatment of the ill.

I do not think he is afraid to speak about his faith.  And has answered questions truthfully and justly.  It is the press once again stepping up and spinning things incorrectly.  Taking just enough of one to the other to try and prove their point.  And in this case I think they failed if looking at in the light just as we do when we study our Bibles.

[Soldier4Christ]

Huckabee's theology degree?
Now says ain't necessarily so 
Campaign admits Republican candidate
doesn't have claimed religious credential

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told the Christian Broadcasting Network he had a theology degree, he told voters in Iowa he had a theology degree, he repeated the claim in last month's CNN YouTube debate ... but, his campaign now says, it was not true.

Huckabee's claim began unraveling following his offhanded comment about Mormonism in a New York Times interview last weekend.

Reporter Zev Chafets wrote: "I asked Huckabee, who describes himself as the only Republican candidate with a degree in theology, if he considered Mormonism a cult or a religion. 'I think it's a religion,' he said. 'I really don't know much about it.'

"I was about to jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee surprised me with a question of his own: 'Don't Mormons,' he asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?'"

In the interview, Huckabee's account of his education made no mention of his having earned a theology degree.

Chafets wrote: "If young Mike Huckabee was ever rebellious or difficult, there's no record of it. He preached his first sermon as a teenager, married his high-school sweetheart and went off to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. There he majored in speech and communications, worked at a radio station and earned his B.A. in a little more than two years. He spent a year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex., before dropping out to work for the televangelist James Robison, who bought him his first decent wardrobe and showed him how to use television."

While Huckabee apologized personally to fellow candidate and Mormon Mitt Romney for his remarks, Chafets' characterization of the former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist pastor as a seminary dropout who did not seem well-versed in comparative religion, drew the attention of political bloggers.

National Review's Jim Geraghty cited Huckabee's claimed theology degree when criticizing the candidate for telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer he had been trying to avoid talking about the subject with Chafets but the reporter was "comparably well-schooled on comparative religions."

"I'm going to call horsepuckey on Huckabee's claim that a New York Times reporter knew more about comparative religions than [a] guy with a theology degree," Geraghty wrote.

That prompted Joe Carter, Huckabee's research director, to respond to Geraghty by e-mail.

    Jim,

    Governor Huckabee doesn't have a theology degree. He only spent a year in seminary.

    Also, it's not surprising that he doesn't know much about the specific beliefs of the LDS church. There aren't a lot of LDS members in Arkansas; they comprise just .007 percent [sic] of the population (about 20,000 out of 2,810,872 people). Most Southern evangelicals don't have much exposure to that particular religion. Even in seminary you're not likely to study the LDS faith unless you take a class on apologetics.

    Joe

Carter made a math error – 0.7 percent of Arkansas' residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints.

Today, following a news conference announcing that former Reagan confidante, Ed Rollins, has become Huckabee's national campaign manager, the candidate was asked about a PowerlineBlog story that he did not have the theology degree he had claimed.

"I have a Bachelor of Arts in religion and a minor in communications in my undergraduate work," Huckabee answered. "And then I have 46 hours on a master's degree at Southwestern Theology Seminary. So, my degree as a theological degree is at the college level and then 46 hours toward a masters – three years of study of New Testament Greek, and then the rest of it, all in seminary was theological studies, but my degree was actually in religion."

Speaking in Iowa in October, Huckabee told a sympathetic crowd, "Anytime you have been a person who was identified as a pastor and you've got a seminary education and theology degree, people tend to worry about you."

In November, while appearing on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Huckabee said, "People look at my record and say that I'm as strong on immigration, strong on terror as anybody. In fact I think I'm stronger than most people because I truly understand the nature of the war that we are in with Islamofascism. These are people that want to kill us. It's a theocratic war. And I don't know if anybody fully understands that. I'm the only guy on that stage with a theology degree. I think I understand it really well. And know the threat of it is absolutely overwhelming to us."

Last month, during the CNN YouTube debate, Huckabee responded to a question to the candidates about their belief in the Bible: "Sure. I believe the Bible is exactly what it is. It's the word of revelation to us from God himself. ... And as the only person here on the stage with a theology degree, there are parts of it I don't fully comprehend and understand, because the Bible is a revelation of an infinite god, and no finite person is ever going to fully understand it. If they do, their god is too small."

[Soldier4Christ]

This one is going to cause him a whole lot of grief.

[HisDaughter]

With Huckabee walking this fine line, his campaign has declined to make available sermons that Huckabee delivered during his preaching days.

Before beginning his political career, Huckabee was a Southern Baptist minister for 12 years in his home state of Arkansas. He assumed the pastorate at Immanuel Baptist Church in the town of Pine Bluff in 1980, at the age of 25. Six years later, he moved to Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana. In both locations, Huckabee's energy, ambition, and skills as a communicator energized his congregation. Under his leadership, each church grew.

When asked for copies of the sermons Huckabee delivered at Immanuel Church, an employee there claimed none could be found. A Beech Street Church pastor's assistant maintained that much of the archival material from Huckabee's tenure as pastor had been destroyed during a remodeling. The rest, she said, was not available to the press.

When Mother Jones contacted the Huckabee campaign and asked if it would help make his previous sermons available, the campaign replied in a one-sentence email that it had received multiple requests for such material and was "not able to accommodate" them.

And why should he?  It would only be used against him.  I think everyone on earth knows what a Christian believes.  It's really not a mystery or a deep dark secret.  If they want to read a sermon they can log on here.  If they want to hear one they can go to any of their local churches on Sunday morning.  They don't need one of Huckabee's specific sermons.  That is if their intentions are all above board.  Right?  

[HisDaughter]

This one is going to cause him a whole lot of grief.

Yes.  That's a bit disappointing.

[Soldier4Christ]

Huckabee accuses Bush of "bunker mentality"

Mike Huckabee, who has joked about his lack of foreign policy experience, is criticizing the Bush administration's efforts, denouncing a go-it-alone "arrogant bunker mentality" and questioning decisions on Iraq.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor now running for the Republican presidential nomination, lays out a policy plan that is long on optimism but short on details in the January-February issue of the journal Foreign Affairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. A copy of his article was released Friday.

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops to invade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. "I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighed his advice," Huckabee said.

He said this year's troop increase under Bush has resulted in significant but tenuous gains, and he said - much as Bush has - that he would not withdraw troops from Iraq any faster than Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander there, recommends. The military has now slowly begun to reverse the troop increase.

Huckabee has previously joked about his lack of experience in international affairs. "I may not be the expert as some people on foreign policy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night," he said earlier this month.

While the Foreign Affairs article is missing the one-liners he is known for, it does have a few folksy comparisons to illustrate his points. On Iran, for example, he makes a case for diplomacy by saying, "Before we put boots on the ground elsewhere, we had better have wingtips there first."

He adds that the U.S. can exploit the Iranian government's hunger for regional clout, saying, "We cannot live with al-Qaida, but we might be able to live with a contained Iran."

Last week, Huckabee missed a report the White House released saying Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program; one day later, the candidate said he was unaware of the report and had been campaigning too hard to read the newspaper or be briefed. The Foreign Affairs article seems to have been written before the report was released, citing "urgent concerns about Iran's development of nuclear weapons."

In his article, Huckabee also thumped Bush for failing to pursue al-Qaida in Pakistan, noting recent terrorism plans, since thwarted, that were planned there: "Whereas our failure to tackle Iran seems to be leading inexorably to our attacking it, our failure to tackle al-Qaida in Pakistan seems to be leading inexorably to its attacking us again."

Earlier Friday, on another topic in Boscawen, N.H., Huckabee said eliminating federal income taxes in favor of a national sales tax would help save Social Security - an odd pitch in a state where residents pay no state income or sales taxes.

"Instead of basing our national budget off of payroll taxes for Social Security ... it means the base of funding is much broader," said Huckabee, whose shoestring campaign has surged nationally and in Iowa, which holds caucuses five days before New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary.

The tax plan Huckabee has proposed, called the "FAIR tax," would eliminate federal income and investment taxes and replace them with a 23 percent federal sales tax. Even the backers of the tax admit it is unlikely to get through Congress, and other leading GOP candidates have been critical of the idea.

It's a tough sell in New Hampshire, where residents do not pay state income taxes or general sales taxes. Scott Sweezey, a programmer at the plant where Huckabee spoke, said he doesn't know how to make a consumption tax treat people fairly.

"Low-income or retired would pay the same tax as somebody who has a million dollars," said Sweezey, an independent. "I guess if you don't buy anything, you don't pay any sales tax, but if you do buy something, you pay sales tax."

Separately, Huckabee also named Republican political strategist Ed Rollins as his national campaign chairman. Rollins was national campaign director for Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.

[Brother Jerry]

Yeah...that could hurt a bit.  I personally do not think it matters, but he should not say he has one when he does not.

And as far as Iraq is concerned if I were him I would walk that line very carefully as well.  Lot of folks even on the right who are looking hard at that.  And wrong moves there could cost a pretty penny.

He is not in office yet so please do not let the current surge to first get to his head.

[carlotta]

Hi! I just joined this forum, so please excuse me if this question has been dealt with already.  I watch a lot of political coverage on TV, and I can't understand the reaction to Gov. Huckabee from other Christians. People who share his principles ,object to him being too openly Christian. The ad with the apparent cross in the background is an example---there was a Christmas tree, and he said "Merry Christmas", so what difference would it make if there were a cross, or not?  But the head of the Catholic League criticized the ad as "subliminal advertising".  Other Christian commentators criticize his Bible-based beliefs, but don't even look at some of the basic Mormon beliefs of Romney; I looked into Mormonism a while ago, and some of their teachings on the nature of God and the destiny of man are very strange, more like science fiction than theology.  Yet Romney is not having his beliefs questioned as Huckabee is.  Nor do I remember Jimmy Carter being criticised for being a Baptist; of course, he puts liberalism before Biblical authority, so I suppose that kind of wishy-washy Christianity is  OK with the commentators.

[Shammu]

carlotta, welcome to Christians Unite forum.

Hi! I just joined this forum, so please excuse me if this question has been dealt with already.  I watch a lot of political coverage on TV, and I can't understand the reaction to Gov. Huckabee from other Christians. People who share his principles ,object to him being too openly Christian. The ad with the apparent cross in the background is an example---there was a Christmas tree, and he said "Merry Christmas", so what difference would it make if there were a cross, or not?  But the head of the Catholic League criticized the ad as "subliminal advertising".  Other Christian commentators criticize his Bible-based beliefs, but don't even look at some of the basic Mormon beliefs of Romney; I looked into Mormonism a while ago, and some of their teachings on the nature of God and the destiny of man are very strange, more like science fiction than theology.  Yet Romney is not having his beliefs questioned as Huckabee is.  Nor do I remember Jimmy Carter being criticised for being a Baptist; of course, he puts liberalism before Biblical authority, so I suppose that kind of wishy-washy Christianity is  OK with the commentators.

Gov. Huckabee has already explained the the "Cross" behind him was a bookcase. Only part of the case was seen, causing the "Cross Effect."

The other reason for people openly apposing Gov. Huckabee Christian attitude is........

Matthew 24:3-5, 8-10  While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?  4 Jesus answered them, Be careful that no one misleads you [deceiving you and leading you into error].  5 For many will come in (on the strength of) My name [appropriating the name which belongs to Me], saying, I am the Christ (the Messiah), and they will lead many astray.  8 All this is but the beginning [the early pains] of the birth pangs [of the intolerable anguish].  9 Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.  10 And then many will be offended and repelled and will begin to distrust and desert [Him Whom they ought to trust and obey] and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred.

[carlotta]

Thank you for replying to my question.  I'm not sure I understand your answer--are you saying that Gov. Huckabee is a true Christian, and therefore he is being persecuted by false Christians?  Sometimes (well, usually) I have to have things explained in pretty plain terms so I can understand them. 

[Shammu]

Yes carlotta, I believe that Gov. Mike Huckabee is being persecuted by false Christians.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hi carlotta,

You mentioned the word "liberal" in reference to Christians and the Catholic League. Both of these groups have objected to many Christians that stand on the fundamental teachings of God and have supported very liberal leaning teachings and government policies. I can't speak for Mike Huckabee's teachings as his writings have been prevented from being open to the public. He does give the impression that he is a fundamental type of Christian. What I mean by fundamental is that he takes his teachings directly from scripture. Because of this public impression he is going to be a very large target for criticism by these groups. Some of this criticism I believe is also because of the liberals having used tactics such as subliminal messages. It wasn't long ago that Hillary Clinton pulled such a trick as that and when it was pointed out did not even deny it. Naturally they are going to accuse others of doing what they have done even if it is not true and was just an innocent happening.

[carlotta]

Thank you for the replies.  I am still not sure what to make of Gov. Huckabee, because I was reading an article yesterday which said that many  Southern Baptists do not support him (even though he is a Southern Baptist) because when they recently had a doctrinal split, he went with the l iberals. The conservative Southern Baptists are supporting Fred Thompson.

Also--if Gov. Romney wins the GOP nomination, should Christians vote for him?  I would vote for ANYBODY rather than Hill lary, but Mormonism denies the fullness of Christ, voting for a Mormon would make me very uncomfortable.