Mike Huckabee's Damning Question

Are the long campaigns for the presidential nominations too long? I’m beginning to think not, because each self-appointed candidate has greater opportunity to reveal who she or he really is.

Take for example Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and an ordained Southern Baptist minister. A couple of weeks ago a New York Times reporter Zev Chafets interviewed Mr. Huckabee: "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?'"

According to his personal blog: “Huckabee enrolled at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia (Clark County) where he majored in religion, minored in speech, and graduated after two-and-a-half years in 1975. Following his graduation, Huckabee attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, for one academic year.”

In my estimation, in light of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, Mr. Huckabee should have been informed about the basic beliefs of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. His ignorance in this area reveals so much about who he is, especially as populist darling of the Christian Right.

Mr. Huckabee could have left well enough alone, but he chose not to. What compelled him to blurt out the damning question ("Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?') but a need to "bear witness" at the expense of another faith tradition?

Mitt Romney Is No JFK

Mitt Romney's December 6 speech, "Faith in America" shamelessly pandered to the religious right:

"But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism.

"The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation 'Under God' and in God, we do indeed trust.

"We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders – in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our constitution rests."

In my estimation Mr. Romney, in his pandering, offered bad history about the founders and furthered a contemporary myth of a cabal of anti-religionists seeking to establish a secular religion. (And from a traditional view of religion, isn't the notion of a secular religion an oxymoron?)

To confirm that Mitt Romney is no John Kennedy, reread JFK's remarks delivered to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960.