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Huckabee's Got the Fever! White House Hopeful Tells CNN That Biblical Armageddon Might Be Underway Now
In an under-the-radar interview that aired on CNN Friday night (Oct. 19), conservative talk show host Glenn Beck asked Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee about current events in the Middle East.
Then came the payoff question about Armageddon, and Huckabee delivered the ministerial money shot for values voters everywhere:
BECK: You're a biblical guy. You're a preacher. Do you believe we are possibly facing "End Times" scenarios with any of the events that we're seeing?HUCKABEE: You know, every generation has thought that they were, and we could be, but we don't ever act like, "OK, this is it," so we just sit back and coast and ride it out until the end. We always act as if it could be today, but we also plan as if it could be 100,000 years from now.
This is crazy, like televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell openly blaming 9/11 on God's wrath toward gays and feminists.
Huckabee claims "every generation" thinks biblical Armageddon is imminent, as if it's normal. Maybe for doom and gloom preachers and their followers. The term also has its metaphorical use, obviously, but people of the Enlightenment -- as a whole -- haven't gone through life expecting or dreading it in a century or more. Certainly not our modern leaders.
FDR led the nation through economic depression and world war by being positive: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Ronald Reagan made clear that the famous riff about a "shining city on a hill" was decidedly not, in his mind, about the heavens, but rather about our future here on earth. Al Gore doesn't falsely pin the rap of global warming on theology's head.
Huckabee, on the other hand, looks at the world today and flatly states that "we could be" facing the biblical grand finale, and so we "act as if it could be today," while we also "plan as if it could be 100,000 years from now."
What's he talking about, planning that far in advance? I'm having trouble pulling together Thanksgiving and it's already late October.
In truth, as a fundamentalist preacher he believes the Bible is inerrant. Armageddon is something that will literally happen at some point. He says it may be starting now, meaning the Book of Revelation would be a sort of mission statement of U.S. foreign policy under a President Huckabee. Since his beliefs are so rigid and absolute, he can't be expected to check them at the door before entering the Oval Office.
Do we really want him in charge of the nuclear button (we don't have the only one) the next time 19 zealots blow up a building, or some potentate rattles a cage? He's already on record as saying we're in World War III, and the mixture of religious extremism and militarism is potent. Maybe he thinks the world isn't aggressive enough, that the British should have attacked, say, Saudi Arabia after the London subway bombing instead of using Scotland Yard to nab the terrorists.
After all, why oversee boring police work when you can overreact and become God's own "Commander Guy?"
In Huck's worldview, if he's right about Armageddon we're all dead, and if he's wrong yet drops the big one we're still all dead. I say let's call the whole thing off!
Military force might not always be avoidable, but using it to expedite America's spiritual journey into the hereafter? That's not what Jefferson and Madison had in mind with that whole separation of church and state thing. The job Huckabee seeks, leading 300 million people in a secular democracy of varying faith(s), is totally the wrong fit for his skill-set as a pulpiteer.
Let us pray.
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Huckabee also said that most of the delegates signing the declaration of independence were clergy! 1 was. 2 had been. Huckabee and his brand of fanatics also like to claim the founding fathers were fanatical Christians. Not based on what they wrote!
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html
The fact that crazed baby boomers and damaged Y's place any stock into this type of global fatalism is the thought that keeps me awake at night. Human extinction will be at our own hands, pitty.
Beck and Huckabee. Two living arguments for free, public psychiatric care.
Huckabee: Which translation of the Bible is the TRUE ONE?
If a European Leader Negotiates a 7-Year Peace Treaty in the near future, then everybody owes Huckabee an Apology.
Say what? Huckabee owes us an apology for dumbing down political discourse. It's a good thing if our leaders are morally sound, but running for the highest office in a secular country on a platform of old time christian fundamentalism is NOT what the doctor ordered.
Glen - CA fires
Huckabee - spent his way out of AR
nough said
Mr. Williams, no one who's been paying attention to politics the last several years should be the least bit surprised over Huckabee's statements. Certainly none of us raised within the Christian Evangelical world are surprised. Those are moderate and reasonable, compared to many.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party leaders have been absolutely clueless about the thought processes and motivations of the Evangelical Right, just making easy jokes about them & not taking them seriously, saying they are just being manipulated via evangelical code words and praise jargon to get their vote, etc.
If the Christian PoliticoJihadists are mass delusional, I think those who would oppose them have some sort of mass mental block about it all. Once they finally figure out it's actually now the televangelists calling all the shots, response from the political left/center leaders is usually a version of "OH MY GOD, PLEASE say you ARE kidding, these people running Washington REALLY believe that wacked out shit???? Then we're all screwed. I'm just going to go home and have a tall one, pretend it's all a comedy sketch and try to enjoy watching it all crumble."
And, so the Democrats are either in denial, or when they realize what's really going down, melt into a worthless quivering pile of jelly.
Just hope all those eager to ride political success on the Family Values bandwagon realize before it's too that that its destination has always been Armegeddon. Maybe the muddy pickup beer drinking NASCAR crowd will finally figure it out and come to America's rescue, because the moderate/left of center intellectuals have so far been a total wash.
I mean, any good Evangelical knows to get to the God's Kingdom Come (Jesus' kingdom on Earth after His Second Coming) stage, you gotta go thru the Armageddon stage. It's all there in Revelation (last book in most versions of the New Testament).
See, lost most of y'all already!!!! Point made!
A couple of commenters have tried to softpeddle Huckabee's theology by saying he's got a "relatively legitimate" belief in Armageddon and that his views can't be taken as proof of "how he would act as president."
He's not a benign religious character at all. His bio reveals that he started out working for an off-the-wall televangelist from Fort Worth, James Robison. Later he headed up the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the governing body of all the Baptist churches in the state. You want conservative religious-right? That's about as hard-core as you can get.
He believes creationism should be taught in the public schools, he's already said this year in the debates that he doesn't believe in evolution, he believes every word of the Bible is 100% true, and now he says that "End Times" may be upon us.
He's a fire and brimstone holy-roller who just happens to delivers the goods with a pleasant, down home, aw-shucks demeanor. We should not be fooled.
I very much consider his background to be prologue of what a Huckabee presidency would be like.
If Armageddon becomes a reality, Bush and Cheney have worked as catalysts for accelerating change in that direction. More like them will help propel it into fruition. Oh yeah, we were always supposed to be the "good guys"...
Dandy12,
See, you don't get it in exactly the same way Democratic Party strategists don't get it!!!!
There is no substitute for knowing the theology. With the Christian Right, the "good guys" ARE those who propel the Battle of Armageddon into fruition! Remember "Bring it on!?"
The worst that could happen, in BushCo's view, is not that America would be driven into the ground by war, environmental degradation, economic ruin, civil unrest/revolt, even military coup. The worst that could happen is not that American leadership would be guilty of torture, war crimes, total ignorance of science unless it suits them at the moment, Orwellian criminal hypocrisy, and basically trashing every ideal our country stands for.
The worst that could happen is that BushCo & his coalition of Christian Jihadists would end up on the low-rent end of Heaven because they didn't do all they could to help fulfill biblical prophesy which has to take place before the Second Coming of Christ.
Dandy, you just gotta know the mumbo jumbo a bit better !
Will there be an end-time if Christ is in Gitmo? Most of what I've read of his teaching is so anathema to Right wing America, that I have no doubt that short of swinging a sword of fire and a bullet proof aura, Jesus would be arrested and interrogated like any other enemy of the state.
Theyak
Again, a look at the theology of this crowd reveals that it's not about Jesus' teachings, or doing good deeds. It's about being "saved" by believing John 3:16 (please don't make me quote it, just go look it up), and obeying God. And, spokesperson for God is of course the riches handful of evangelical televangelists and the Southern Baptist Convention which was taken over by hard right conservatives about 15 or 20 yrs ago.
Now, stay with me. No glazed eyes, ok? This crowd actually looks DOWN upon those Christians whose main focus is to lead a more Christlike life (all you non-Christians, a.k.a., "do unto others, judge not lest ye be judged, forgive your enemies, no water-boarding; well not that last one"...), because the evangelicals say that's just trying to buy one's way into Heaven via good deeds, and since we are all sinners and none are perfect in the eyes of the Lord, that's impossible.
Then they back it up by citing the story of Christ dying on the cross between the two criminals also dying on their crosses, and the one criminal says he believes Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus says, "This day I'll be with you in Heaven". In essence, believe in Jesus and that's all you need--this guy was a criminal his whole life and presumably did few good deeds, but he went to heaven anyway because he found the shortcut before it was too late.
Now, to this, this evangelical crowd has added, "and obey God by helping fulfill prophesy"
Yeah, I promise. And, yeah, I can hear you now," and they think Mitt Romney and Mormonism is nusto?!!!!!"
That's what motivates our President and quite a few of his top guys, y'all. For real.
It is truly sad that someone of Huckabee's intellect falls victim to the irrational Americanized belief in the end-of-times scenario. How does he know that HeyZeus II has not already come and the good guys are already gone.
Ohg
http://thefireside.wordpress.com/2007/10/13/revelation-oracle-of-the-bible/
The sheep love this endtime BS. They never seem to notice that the people pushing that crapola have a dismal track record.
Snaggster
They don't care about the track record. They only care about the BS. It's the nature of religious zeal. It's kind of like being in love---all rational thought tends to fade into the background.
And THAT's why our Founding Fathers, in their great wisdom, were so keen on separation of church and state!
Jackson, you have taken a HUGE leap of faith (pun intended) with stretching Huckabee's remarks on Armageddon into your assumptions as to how he would act as president. I don't want him to win but his Christianity has nothing to do with that desire.
Now, if he had said that he would nuke Iran the day he takes office because God wants him to usher in Armageddon in full force, then you would have something going with this blog. As it stands, you seem to be trying to fan the flames of hysteria against any Christian that actually believes in an end-days scenario including Armageddon.
By the way, Armageddon refers to the hill area in Israel historically known as Megiddo in the Valley of Jezreel and a huge battle that will take place there according to Biblical prophecy. The actual site has also seen many other battles throughout history due to its strategic importance.
Actually, quadman, this type of what I call Jihadist Evangelistic Christianity--and by that, I mean the Christian warrior/soldier worldview---DOES have implications as to how one of its followers would act as President.
Look, I'm an atheist, and I think Huckabee's responses on evolution demonstrate a level of scientific illiteracy we shouldn't tolerate in a high school graduate, let alone a President. But I just don't see his response on this question as so off-the-wall. Other than the Christian perspective, how's his statement really different from "Human life could be wiped out next year by a meteor, but it's not likely"?
It's not like there are any non-Christians running for President. It's just a choice among different degrees and flavors.
Now, if he said "I have faith that we are living in the end times, so we don't need to worry about global warming because we'll all go to heaven before the poles melt" or "let's start a war in the Middle East to hasten the End Times", then I'd be worried.
"how's his statement really different from "Human life could be wiped out next year by a meteor, but it's not likely"?"
Uh... because meteors are real???
What is the operational difference between utter distruction brought on by humans and that brought on by God? I suppose when the Christians have their way and destroy the place, they will say, "God works in mysterious ways."
I am as worried about Christian fanatics as I ever will be about Muslims.
Yes, Jeff, now YOU are getting it!
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