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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Just look at the two loons running the country now. There trying as hard as they can to forfill phophesy during our life time. I think Bush thinks that God has told him that he is the annointed one to bring about the Endtime.
We don't need any more leaders who think they have God's E-mail address !!
Huckabee and Beck ... two peas in a straitjacket. Could someone please medicate these morons and send them to the nearest Performance Art Faire ... PLEASE!?!
The ENDTIMES for me is a day without enough ruffage in my diet. To Hell with this nonsense (pardon the pun).
I heard Mr Huckabee answer a question about his beliefs regarding evolution. His answer given in a sarcastic manner was that if people wanted to believe that their ancsestors were monkeys that was fine with him. And this man could be President of the United States of America.
"And this man could be President of the United States of America."
Please! That is not going to happen.
Isn't he one of the GOP candidates who also said he didn't believe in evolution? He's got a nice smile, a quick wit, and all that - but his core assumptions about reality remain more grounded in theology than science.
Please tell me that we won't replace Bush with another religious zealot. Please!
King George W is NOT a religious zealot. He plays one on TV.
It sounds like you've managed to completely construe what he was saying, which is a tactic I always felt was better for their ilk, not ours.
But sure, okay, whatever. Crazy christian etc etc, jesus paul, armageddon, silly people, blah blah.
Or, maybe he's just describing a relatively legitimate belief that permeates the Pauline Christianity-- which is that armageddon is happening or could be tomorrow, or maybe it already happened. Is that really any more crazy than any other religious belief? Not.. really. So let him think the world could be ending, so long as he, as he said, acts as if it were a hundred thousand years from now, and so long as he acts sincerely, there's no issue.
The rest of America is finally waking up to what I've known all my life: these people are crazy. They will not stop. They want the end of the world more than Osama wants his caliphate. They stay awake at night fantasizing about Armageddon. They are the most dangerous people in the world to give a high office.
Am I the only one who remembers James Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, who opined that there was no point in conservation because Jesus was going to solve all out problems before the Year 2000?
Folks, when that happened there were millions of people down here in the south who nodded and "um-hmm"ed. And these are the same people who have put Bush in office twice.
They have to be stopped before they kill us all.
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I like this *um-hmm*-ed. Have to remember that expression! I hear it all the time as well. In fact, I have heard it for over fourty years in the South and MidSouth. I am not voting for Mr. Huckabee, or whatever his name is. For one thing he dieted and lost weight, and I diet and gain! No. The guy is alright, and I do not see anything weird in what he said there. After all, he is a preacher-man, or something, and that is what his faith tells him. Nothing to it. In 2005, I believe, yes, I think I remember it correctly, there was a very, very old rabbi in Israel who said that all jews should get out of the U.S. as disasters would be coming our way here. He was 108, or so, a kabbalist, and I did not take him too seriously either, old guy, y'know. I also did not move to Israel, as he urged. Now, what were we babbling about again? And what did Huckabee say that is important enough to blog about? P.S. are you sure his name is not Huckleberry Finn, reincarnated?
My first reaction was that he was just casually discussing the possibility, so we shouldn't read into it very much. Then my next reaction was... he's casually discussing the possibility that we are in the middle of the end of the world.
I'm not anti-religion, because I believe that spirituality can be a boon to many people, but anybody who thinks the Bible is the inerrant word of God is a crackpot, even if they don't know it yet.
O.k. Thanks for your opinion! Now that was important enough to read! Much of the New testament is not making any assertions about being the word of God, let alone the inerrant word of God. After all, the disciples or the self-appointed disciple Paul, have not been appointed God by anyone. But some things in the New Testament are worthwhile considering, such as do not say anything about another person, not even raca, which, supposedly, was something a jewish Rabbi, named Jesus, said. Raca, crackpot, whatever, just do not say it, or even think it. A stone once launched can not be recalled. In fact, someone might pick it up and lob it back at you.
Huckabee want to control our nuclear arsenal? The U.S. must be going insane to even give some of these clowns running for prez any air time at all. What does the world think of where the U.S. has gone!
Let me *um-hmm* a little bit here. Yeah! Now, airtime is one thing, but our vote is something entirely different, *now ain't it*? I am certain people the world over have ideas about the American voter, and what he/she gives his/her vote to. So, Greg, vote for the real thing next time, will ya? Oh, and progressive is one thing, but we also must be realistic, all those progressive ideas may well cost YOUR money. So, one progressive thing at a time, or maybe two? I vote for universal healthcare and improved and fully funded education. First things first. What do you say? My grandchildren are in College and working hard to pay for it and costs keep getting higher. If I do not watch out there soon may be great grandchildren as well. I am looking out for my offspring, which is already facing all that Busheebilling! *Fer cryin' out loud!*
First things first indeed. That would be ending the occupation of Iraq. We are drowning in red ink. Pols promising universal heathcare and fully-funded education are lying. There's no money.
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