The Huckabee Win Is America's Loss

Mike Huckabee wants to be our president. He doesn't know about foreign policy. But he believes every word of the Southern Baptist interpretation of the Bible. Here is what he believes. God is angry with us and has always been. He was pissed off with us from day one. He was so pissed off that He wrestled with making a choice between killing all of us in a flood or saving just one family -- Noah's -- so that later God could sacrifice His only Son to save everyone descended from the one family he didn't kill and/or send them to hell for eternity. God did this because Adam and Eve, not to mention Noah's great, great grandchildren-that's you and me-didn't live up to God's pre-creation expectations. Cheerful, huh?

I was raised by fundamentalist missionary parents. My life has been one of all-consuming faith, not my faith, but the faith of others that I seem to have caught like a disease. What does God want? I'm still trying to find out. And having once been a famous "professional Christian" myself (until I cut and ran in 1985) my vision is muddied by the psychological baggage I carry.

The problem is Huckabee is sincere. So are the people who voted for him. I understand where they are coming from all too well. Every action, every thought, every moment is judged by an inner voice. Everything seems to have a moral component.

This election recalls the time I was involved in my own crusade, not for the presidency, but for the hearts and minds of the evangelicals my late father (Francis Schaeffer) and I were succeeding in politicizing, as we turned them into ardent pro-lifers. That crusade involved sell-out crowds in Madison Square Garden and all over the country.

I was a zealous evangelical back in the 1970s. When you are a zealous anything -- evangelical, Marxist, feminist, capitalist, Democrat, Republican, whatever-you express your zeal by lying. The lie is always the same lie: to say that you're certain about things, that you are right, and others wrong. They are so wrong that they are evil! This is a lie because truth is elusive. Nothing is as simple as any zealot, of any persuasion, thinks it is.

I've lived to bitterly regret the part I played in galvanizing the political energies of the evangelicals who soon morphed into the so-called religious right, the same people we just saw holding hands and beseeching Jesus to help their candidate save America from the rest of us. Looking back it seems to me that it was something like unlocking the doors to a slow-motion civil war, actually more like the doors to an insane asylum.

I've quit believing in ideological, let alone theological, purity. We guess. We hope. We muddle along. But there are no theological ideas worth hating anyone over. And if you understand vengeful Southern Baptist theology you won't want anyone near the White House who takes it seriously.

We've been here before. (Remember Pat Robertson?) Mike Huckabee will fade, because most Americans are more or less sane. But as he fades he'll take a little more of our self-respect with him.

The way to destroy harmony is to be too sure. I know. I understand how destructive it is to have a message you just have to impose on people even when you know it might ruin friendships, even when it might help rip a country apart. Been-there-done-that.

Nevertheless... in one dark little corner of my brain I still wish all the "lost" would get "saved." And there are lots of other religious Americans like me. We might say we theoretically want to all get along, but on the way there we'd also like to sandbag everyone with our message.

But wanting to "convert" each other is not the way to build any sort of a sense of all being Americans together. And the basis of the whole Southern Baptist raison d'etre is aggressive evangelization.

Huckabee represents the half of us who are waiting for Jesus to "rapture" us and believe that the other half are second class citizens that God is just biding His time to gleefully destroy and torture for eternity. Thanks but no thanks Iowa.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of, "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back."

Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer

Comments

[niikeb]

Honestly Considering the current republican field, they all talk about the same things. Are you scared because you hate religion? I'm sorry that your afraid of the only progressive republican just because hes a Christian. Sorry that only he and Ron Paul even mention that Bush's crusade in the middle east was a mistake. If your more comfortable with Mitt Romney Who's a leader in his wacky cult and wants to continue the drive into Iran, Or Rudy Guiliani who's the most warmongering SOB ever.

Is a Christian politician who's concerned about education, about minorities, about the poor, really a bad thing?

Are you afraid of Obama because GASP! Hes a Christian to?!?!?

Are you really just paranoid? I fail to see why a Christian who believes what Jesus said is any less qualified to be a leader then a Rudy Mitt or Hillery.

Honestly I'm terrified of Psycho Neocons and Pat Robertson. I'm afraid of big business Republicans who are destroying our Dollar! The last thing I'm worried about is a Christian President who thinks Abortion is bad Unions are good Poverty must be fixed, Iraq was a mistake, and every American deserves a chance. In a day where millions of Americans are in prison and their over crowded and creating a new class of 3rd class citizens, the man pardoned over 1000. Ronald Reagan Pardoned the most in California.

With the Psycho drug laws the war in Iraq and a monetary system falling apart, The only 4 men who might change that are Obama Huckabee Edwards and Paul.

The People who scare me are Rudy Hillery Romney, The people who think they are entitled to power, the people who will keep us in Iraq who will make sure the regular people keep getting poorer, and the rich richer. Those are the people I'm scared of.

[OhgReaTone]

Huckabee is a sad commentary on American faith in government and in faith itself. His positions on issues do highlight the wayward belief systems of evangelicals.
Ohg.
http://thefiresidepost.com/2008/01/07/death-penalty-politics/

[Lisette]

Well, here is what I was taught in Catholic Schools. That God is immutable or He couldn't be God in other words you can't add to God or take away anything. "He can't be increased or decreased". So God is not mad or angry or happy. Good luck to you on your journey.

[Mr.Fitz]

I'm kind of hoping Huckabee is nominated, because I can't see him winning against Obama, Clinton, or Edwards, but now that I think of it, I thought Bush was sure to lose too.

[desertdweller]

Mr. Schaeffer is proof-positive that religiosity can be cured. The first step is admitting that you have a problem in the first place.

[zizyphus]

Imagine the new Crusades in the Middle East that Huckabee would start in order to bring on Armageddon- so that the Christians can be "raptured" up to heaven.

That is the problem with electing evangelicals-they are dying to be raptured.

[Dandy12]

He's not a real threat, but he's still scary...
Actually, Mitt, McCain, and Rudy are scarier.
Huckabee is typical of a Rep. party chock full of bad choices, with a candidate named "None of the Above" winning.

[cuchulain]

One of the most important gauges for me is how someone defines "morality". I see morality and immorality along a continuum from supreme kindness to cruelty. Generosity, compassion, authentic empathy, giving, love . . . versus authoritarianism, warmongering, hatred, imperialism, sadism, and so on.

I've talked to many "Christians" who see their god as very moral, the things he does as moral, the things they believe he wants from all of us as moral. When I bring up the genocides, the way Adam and Even were treated, Lot's wife, Job, the revelers around the golden calf, and anyone who isn't "saved" after the second coming, they seem puzzled that I have a problem with any of it. Or, that I would have the nerve to find fault with their god, etc. etc.

I do. Luckily, I think all of the books in the Bible were written by fallible humans (not by any god), copied and mis-copied and translated and mistranslated thousands of times with tens of thousands of errors intact. I see it as literature, not revelation. I see it as a collection of fables, allegories, parables, fiction, not fact, not history. And in that sense, I can find much beauty and even some wisdom.

But, if I force myself to read it "literally" and as some divine truth, I'm appalled by the extreme immorality displayed by the chief protagonist. I don't want anyone running this country who believes in this collection of fiction "literally" and actually agrees with that protagonist.

[cuchulain]

A Huckabee presidency would be doubly dangerous. He would finish us. Bush has pushed us still further along the road to the gutter in sooo many ways . . . one of them being the evangelization of the government, the other being its privatization. Huckabee would work harder on the former, but would willingly go along with those who want "disaster capitalism" to take. over. everything.

Religion has zero place in government affairs. It's far too dangerous, because of that "certainty" factor you mention. How can you compete with people who say they are doing "god's will"? How can you prevent the damage they inflict on all of us?

Beyond all of that, it's a shame that American fundies have ignored the only part of the Bible that really would be a good fit with government, the Sermon on the Mount. They ignore it because it's kind. It's generous. It's a philosophy of life, not a hammer or a sword. Most of the rest is just pernicious authoritarianism and imperialism, spread with fire and sword, and that's the part they concentrate on and blather on about.

If people actually read the Bible, if they actually looked at what their god orders done, all of the genocides, all of the incredibly sadistic machinations (Job, for example), all of the bizarre acts of petulance, like killing Lot's wife for looking back upon the genocide that god had just committed . . . Oh, well. It's truly amazing that people who say they take it all word for word as true . . . can't fathom the implications of their own interpretations.

I don't want anyone in a position among the most powerful in the world who thinks he takes his orders from his version of some supreme deity he can't possibly understand.

[lanceomatic]

I really wish that the Republicans could have someone as courageous as one of their early own. I am referring to Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic" one of 19th Century's great orators. He had grown up in a religious family (his father was a preacher), but realized that the Bible was fraught with horror and abandoned his religion. One quote regarding Hell - "All the hatred of which the human is capable is in that one word - Hell."

[Counterglow]

Has anybody wondered why fundamentalists refuse to hold Huckabee accountable for paroling a convicted rapist so he could rape again, and murder?

The easy answer is to say they're hypocrites. Mr. Schaeffer provides a better answer: They really, truly believe that somebody who shares their faith is worthy of another chance, no matter how terrible their crimes.

Somebody who isn't a believer is just a filthy rapist who should rot in jail until God comes to send him to eternal torment in Hell.

[plutorage]

The problem I have with this constant attack on Huckabee for his religion is that it seems to say that the Bush / Romney Christians are better because they are Christians who believe it is ok if insurance cos. kill the uninsured, it is ok to deport mothers of Iraqi soldiers because they are illegal aliens, it is ok to throw kids out of school and leave them in the streets if their parents came here illegally, it is ok to bomb abortion clinics as long as you don't wear a turban, etc.

A more constructive approach would educate the elecotrate by pointing out that the trends in USA are similar to the trends in Afghanistan, Iran, etc. and that Huckabee's religion is ok if it is genuine Christianity and not extreme Christanofascism.

[Rescisco]

Some people are slaves to false beliefs and others are fools too easily swayed by false prophets. Given the apparent number of slaves and fools that populate the land, it is likely that all prospects for intelligent action are gone. Nothing to do but watch the spectacle as the reign of error continues. We are on the down hill side of evolution and picking up speed!

[crusade]

Don't forget that every candiadte claims to be a god fearing Christian.­Hillary,Ob­ama,etc.

[Giglawyer]

And yet, somehow, Huckabee has managed to govern Arkansas for 10 years and not turn it into a theocracy.

You may have your own crisis of faith, but not everyone is as weak-minded as you are. Many Christians, myself included, can believe what they believe and still function normally in a secular society, contemplating all sorts of issues of daily life without leaning on a theological crutch.