Huckabee Defends Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Via Ben Smith:

An assist from an unexpected quarter:

"[Y]ou can't hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do," Huckabee says. "It's interesting to me that there are some people on the left who are having to be very uncomfortable with what ... Wright said, when they all were all over a Jerry Falwell, or anyone on the right who said things that they found very awkward and uncomfortable, years ago. Many times those were statements lifted out of the context of a larger sermon. Sermons, after all, are rarely written word for word by pastors like Rev. Wright, who are delivering them extemporaneously, and caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are things that sometimes get said, that if you put them on paper and looked at them in print, you'd say 'Well, I didn't mean to say it quite like that.'"

Later, he defended Wright's anger, too:

"As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say 'That's a terrible statement!' ... I grew up in a very segregated South. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names..."

Watch the video:

Comments

[XYZ]

I like Huckabee, he has more character than McCain, and Clinton combined. He's to far to the right of my views, but I do like the man.

Here is a really outside the box idea, Obama/Huckabee :() did I just type that???

[nabrum]

Agree. I disagreed with some of his platforms, eg, abortion, but he wanted to run a clean campaign. He appears to be a decent man.

Ironically, McCain also stuck up for Obama when butthead Hannity gave him a loaded question about Obama and Wright. When flabbergasted Hannity pressed again, McCain said he knows Obama from the Senate floor and he's not like what Hannity was trying to proclaim - as Hannity tries to do on every one of his shows. Yesterday he had Gingrich agreeing with him - duh!

Maybe if Obama gets the nomination, we just might have a clean, yet rigorous, campaign. Don't think I've ever seen one of those.

[highlyamused]

Sometimes I wonder if we deserve a 'decent' man. Been so long since we've backed one....I suspect not. Look what they're doing to Obama.
We like to be told what we want to hear......­if you can't play that game with us....you can't be president.

[Davwbaird]

this country can cause the best of us to do unspeakable stuff. But where was hillary?

[thomdavis1]

wow--I am honestly shocked...­I find many of Huckabee's stances reprehensible, but maybe he's not such a bad guy

[GnitenGoodLk]

Hucka-who??

Gimme a break....H­uckabee is furthering his conservative & Republican agenda by staying on the radar and tilting it as he's been asked to do by who knows. He lost the race. Go write books somewhere. He needs to stay out of Democratic business and go address his own party. He's a politician first, pastor second, and apparently, a conservative pundit serving Republicans by being the "face of nice"

Scat!

[2008andbeyond]

Come on now. Don't throw hate at Huck; he hasn't thrown any mud or been disingenuous toward Barack or any Dem candidate that I'm aware of. On caucus night in Iowa, he was more gracious in celebrating both his own win and tipping his hat toward Barack's victory than Hillary has been after any of her 30 losses thus far.

You don't have to like or support someone to give credit for adult and truthful behavior. Based on Hillary the past four weeks, I forgot what it's like to have a competitor be honest and upstanding.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Huckabee is a Democrat hitjob from the Republicans. He's trying to put a "good guy" face to Republicans to squash the callous story line of their party.

Obama doesn't need him, Hillary doesn't need him. He should be discussing his own party's disastrous policies and failures.

Huckachuckle go home.

[angelbravo]

HuckaClass!!!! way to go Mike!!!!!!

[GnitenGoodLk]

I'm an Obama supporter.­..if you think this guy is good for him, or our party, you're beyond my help.

[axt113]

Huckabee just proved that he is a man of intelligence. Unlike the MSM and most of the Obama haters on this site, he understands that the issue is complex and nuanced

[Agreed]

Today, I have become a Republicrat

[chronic]

Right wing freaks heads are exploding all across America after Hucks statements on Rev. Wright.



Will the traitorous mainstream media show this clip of Huckabee 24/7 for the next week?


I DOUBT IT! Because they want division and controversy. It $ells!!

[perfectlycromulent]

That's real class from Mr. Huckabee.

[MsDoni]

Huckabee always struck me as a decent guy...I'm glad he didn't prove me wrong.

[atila]

this guy show more decency and guts than some democrats.­....

[SeekerOne]

Very true.

[JerDogNebr]

I started this election season as a registered Republican, but switched to Democrat to help stop this disaster we call the "Bush adminstrat­ion." Mike Huckabee always struck me as a nice guy with rather odd ideas, but who, if you were stuck in an airport in Sioux Falls, would be nice to talk to. On the other hand if it was Mitt Romney, then you would want to eat a bullet after thirty minutes. I was really glad to see him do the right thing on this issue. I

But, isn't it amazing that a politician who is simply "decent" to another politician from the other party is so refreshing? It's really a sad commentary on the state of political discourse in this country.

[Tejano1]

you're absolutely right. i hadn't realized it till you pointed it out. common decency isn't so common anymore.

[muffinmix]

Geeez Joe. joe is beside himself with how much he likes this guy. Im sure during commerical he tried to get him over for dinner. "we are going to rock out next time, Ill bring my guitar, we'll get you a bass..."

[Peachie49]

Too often we want to portray God as being some weak-minded being that is so "loving" and "soft", oh God would NEVER say or do a harsh thing to mankind, He is just too loving. However, the Bible is filled with verses that "Convict", "Shocks", "causes one to think" because the Word appears harsh. And yes, even the words of Jesus at times were harsh also. The true message is that WE, People, are sinners and we are SAVED because of God's Grace, not some great feat or performance on our part. The reality is too many of us, buy into an idea that "we, Man is so perfect and wonderful'. We don't truly study God's Word, just nit pick at best that which we find "cozy"-
God's Word is more powerful than that, yes there are loving, soft messages, but there are WAKE UP CALLS as well, and they are not intended to be easy reading.
Jeremiah 7:1-29 TNIV



False Religion Worthless
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message:

" 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

9 " 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, [a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

12 " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.'

16 "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. 19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?

20 " 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on people and animals, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.

21 " 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.­'

27 "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. 28 Therefore say to them, 'This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.

29 " 'Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.
Jeremiah 7:1-29 TNIV
Finally, God gives us the answer for this present turmoil, the question is-"are we willing to listen?"

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (KJV) 2 Chronicles 7:14

[Rowena]

It is shameful that is took a conservative to come out and defend Obama on this issue. Liberals should be shouting to the rooftops about the absolutely treasonous and hateful things that have been spouted by preachers on the right, and a whole line of conservative candidates have courted them for it. McCain ASKED for the endorsement of John Hagee, and CAMPAIGNED with Rod Parsley, who said Hurricane Katrina was God's judgement on New Orleans for hosting a gay pride parade. McCain referred to Parsley as "my spiritual adviser." Apparently none of that bothers Pat Buchanan, but he is shocked, SHOCKED, that a black preacher, a 60s activist, might have some flaming rhetoric about white greed. Obama might have had Jeremiah Wright as a pastor in his private life, but he never campaigned with him. Does none of this strike any of you Obama-haters as just a mite ironic? I heard two people interviewed this morning, one of them a very highly respected white religious scholar, who said he is a friend of Jeremiah Wright, and that he is nothing like he is being portrayed in the media at all. And of course, the media never reports that Wright has a list of honorary degrees as long as your arm, a record of good works the like of which John Hagee and Rod Parsley could never match, and a commendation from President Johnson. And oh yes, he's a veteran of the Vietnam War. The other person who was interviewed was also a college professor who attended Wright's church for many of the years Obama attended, and she NEVER heard him use rhetoric like the clips we have been hearing. So it is quite possible that Obama did not hear Wright say the things on those clips, even though he may have heard other controversial things. Those of you who are so quick to condemn Obama with no evidence whatsoever should avoid looking for the splinter in someone else's eye, while ignoring the beam in your own eye.

[Davwbaird]

What you say is true. The fox people need to lose their license. They are hate mongers and low life.

[kettletop]

Gotta love Huckabee. It's a shame he wasn't the Republican nominee. It would be fun to get to know this man better. He is so refreshing, I can almost forgive the whole "doesn't believe in evolution" thing. Doesn't believe in evolution? He's the most evolved Republican I've ever heard of!

[Mariel]

This wonderful video may be found on Huckabee's blog for March l8. Along with two other videos from the last two days showing the good stuff Huckabee brought to Arkansas when he was governor. Those of us who miss him love to see these videos. He is not writing on the blog now, but his supporters are still posting. Including me.

[WomanInOrangeSweater]

I've always thought Huckabee got a bum rap. Sure, we're afraid of evangelical Christians for good reason. But unlike Bush and the other "Christians" we're used to, Huckabee really seems to follow the words of Christ. He may have been the only true populist candidate left. That whole evolution/right to life thing was hard to get around, but I actually liked the guy.

[Fareed]

I have not seen the Vedio, but I will be sure to look at it. Thank you Reverend Mike Huckabee for your Guidance. I said all along if Pastor Wright veered off from the Scriptures it was the jurisdiction of the Church to address his comments. It amazed me how Bill O'Riely, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et. al. found there way into a discussion on Religion. These shock jocks are into everything but Church; they should learn by now, Stop the Dama Vote Obama. A respected Church Father and Brother Mike Huckabee has spoken not of his own, but of the Word, and the Congregation said Amen.