Huckabee & Religion

[Dr. Shane]

The jury is still out on Huckabee as far as I am concerned. However I am quite sure he has many paranoid Adventists up in arms. (Adventists tend to be overly concerned about a national Sunday law)

Huckabee: U.S. gave up on religion

I am going to past the entire article here with certain lines underlined by me. The line that will grab the most attention is, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ." In context, he is addressing a church convention and he is critiquing the church. The only thing that makes me nervous is that I don't know where he is going with the comment. If he is saying THE CHURCH needs to take the nation back with Christ, that is fine and I agree. If he is saying CIVIL GOVERNMENT needs to take back the nation for Christ, that would disqualify him for public office as far as I am concerned. But, in the context of the article, it doesn't sound like that is what he is saying. It really sounds more like he is saying the opposite: the church needs to do it because the government can't.

Government may have dropped the ball in modern American society, but religion dropped it first, Gov. Mike Huckabee told Southern Baptist pastors Sunday night.

"The reason we have so much government is because we have so much broken humanity," he said. "And the reason we have so much broken humanity is because sin reigns in the hearts and lives of human beings instead of the Savior."

Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, addressed his contemporaries at the two-day Pastors' Conference, which continues today. The three-day Southern Baptist Convention begins Tuesday here in the heartland of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the city in which the Mormons have their world headquarters.

Huckabee told the pastors gathered in the Salt Palace Convention Center that while the March 1, 1997, tornadoes which struck Arkansas were tragic, at least the devastation could be clearly seen from a helicopter. In contrast, he said, the catalysts for the nation's recent school shootings -- including the one March 24 near Jonesboro that left four students and a teacher dead and 10 others wounded -- were harder to see but were driven by "the winds of spiritual change in a nation that has forgotten its God."

"Government knows it does not have the answer, but it's arrogant and acts as though it does," Huckabee said. "Church does have the answer but will cowardly deny that it does and wonder when the world will be changed."

The shootings were just one more wake-up call to the nation, he said.

"I fear we will turn and hit the snooze button one more time and lose this great republic of ours."

Huckabee said ungiving individuals are responsible for higher taxes.

"I'm often asked why taxes are so high and government is so big. It's because the faith we have in local churches has become so small. If we'd been doing what we should have -- giving a dime from every dollar to help the widows, the orphans and the poor -- we now wouldn't be giving nearly 50 cents of every dollar to a government that's doing ... what we should have been doing all along."

Huckabee also explained why he left pastoring for politics.

"I didn't get into politics because I thought government had a better answer. I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives."

He compared his entry into politics to "getting inside the dragon's belly," adding, "There's not one thing we can do in those marbled halls and domed capitols that can equal what's done when Jesus touches the lives of a sinner."

The most basic unit of government is not the city council, quorum court or state legislature, Huckabee said. "It is Mom and Dad raising kids and teaching them respect for authority, others and God."

The nation has descended gradually into crisis, Huckabee said, and repairing the damage needs to be gradual, too. He said the solution is simple: faith in Christ.

Huckabee recalled the five occasions he's had to sit by the phone on the eve of an execution.

"It's the greatest sense of helplessness and despair you can imagine to know we've exhausted all help and hope here on earth for that person."

He also spoke of his early misconceptions of his duties as a pastor.

"In one of the first churches I was assigned to, I thought I was supposed to be the captain of a warship leading the congregation into a battle against spiritual darkness," he said.

"But they wanted the captain of the Love Boat. They just wanted everybody to be happy. It was not about how many people were won to Christ or how many teens were pulled away from drugs or how many marriages were saved. Instead, it was about the seniors having a great trip going to watch the fall leaves change, the teen-agers going to a better summer camp than the church across town."

Huckabee concluded his speech by recalling his 10th birthday, when he accepted Christ.

"I went to Vacation Bible School for all the wrong reasons -- I was told they'd give me all the cookies I could eat and all the Kool-Aid I could drink. But that day I got something better than cookies and Kool-Aid. I got the Savior.

"I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."

Before Huckabee spoke, more than 350 copies of his new book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting our Culture of Violence, had been placed in reporters' press boxes in the convention center press room.

The slick cover of the book is a grim one -- a black-and-white, blurry photograph of a young boy pointing a gun at the reader. The most prominent part of the photograph is the round barrel of the gun. At the top of the book, this question is posed: "Are we reaping what we've sown?"

The book was co-written by Dr. George Grant, director of the King's Meadow Study Center and a contributor to World magazine.

The back cover states: "No more hand-wringing, no more finger-pointing. No more sound bites." It also makes a reference to the Jonesboro school shootings. Huckabee has recently been criticized by opponents claiming he has capitalized on the shootings with the publication of his book.

The back cover states: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, four school children and a teacher were murdered by two students, ages thirteen and eleven, at an Arkansas middle school. Governor Mike Huckabee was informed of the tragedy en route from Washington, D.C. By the time he arrived, the news media were already waiting -- already polling the pundits and drawing conclusions based on the sketchiest information. The quest for quick answers has robbed us of the truth. Until now."

The paperback is published by Broadman & Holman, a Nashville, Tenn., arm of the Baptist Sunday School Board. It retails for $11.99. Publicists for the book said last week they didn't expect it to arrive at the convention until today.

Huckabee and his wife, Janet, left Salt Lake City immediately after his speech, and the governor did not hold a book signing at the convention. In fact, Huckabee didn't know the books had made it to the convention, said editors of the biweekly Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine who visited with the governor shortly before his speech.

Huckabee, governor since 1996, is a former president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. He has authored one other book, Character is the Issue: How People with Integrity Can Revolutionize America, which was first publicly announced at the 1997 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas a year ago and released last September.

Other books given to reporters at the convention Sunday included a how-to boycott book aimed at the Walt Disney Co. by Richard D. Land titled Sending a Message to Mickey: The ABC's of Making Your Voice Heard at Disney. The back cover features an outline of the famous mouse's round ears and the words: "He who has ears, let him hear."

The other book was Mormonism Unmasked by R. Philip Roberts, who examines the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[DrWhoCompanion]

All I know is, he's got The Chuck behind him:

Chuck & Huck!

[Woody]

All I know is that Huck is too soft on Immigration. And I think that Immigration is a most serious issue.

[carolaa]

All I know is that Huck is too soft on Immigration. And I think that Immigration is a most serious issue.

I hope you mean illegal immigration.

[Woody]

Both. Many of the 9-11 attackers were "legal".

[olger]

Some say that it's ok to keep on sinning, please don't judge the rapist/murderer.

oG

[Dr. Shane]

The reason many politicians are soft on immigration is that they know the not-so-secret secret. We need the workers. Unemployment is low in the US and the economy is growing in spite of energy costs.

The government does need to get its act together on immigration so the flow of immigrants into the country can be managed - but not reduced. Our borders need to be secured to stop the drug trade and other criminals. Yet a worker visa program needs to be established to allow the peasant-class opportunity to come in and work. Employers need them. Unemployment is low.

[Neil D]

Quote:

...and the economy is growing in spite of energy costs.

....Is it? There is talk among economists that we are poised for a recession.....for correction....a big recession...

[Dr. Shane]

Economies run in cycles. Currently there is fear of a downturn but the last quarters report still had the economy growing at quite a healthy pace. Just look at recent history. We had a recession in the early 1960s. JFK got it going with some tax cuts and LBJ kept it going with the Vietnam War. In the mid 1970s the war was winding down and the Mid-East Oil crises started. That sent us into a bad recession that we didn't get out of until the early 1980s. Reagan got the economy going again with some tax cuts. The economy turned down again in the early 1990s but pulled out of it mostly due to the tech sector booming. One the tech bubble popped at the end of the 1990s, the economy slumped again and was hit very hard after the attacks of 9/11. Bush got the economy growing again with some tax cuts. Now the housing sector has slowed down and economists are concerned about it spreading to the entire economy. A lot depends on the Federal Reserve. The government certainly has an impact of the economy but the largest impact comes from the private sector. Wal-Mart, for example, has done the economy more good during the past decade than anything the government has done.

If unemployment does rise significantly, the immigration debate will most certainly become more important to voters and politicians alike.

[Woody]

What was good enough for David and Moses .... is good enough for me. I pray that I have a similar religious experience overall. Blessings Olger.

[Bravus]

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2007/2115406.htm

[Woody]

I sure don't know what all this talk about Huck is about. It looks like Alan Keyes is going to win it all.

[Woody]

Yep ... He's a brother. I just don't know why there is all the talk of the Bama man ... when you have Keyes. I guess that a black Republican just doesn't get the attention that a black Demo does.