Mike Huckabee Amps Up The Theocratic Rhetoric

Mike Huckabee often mixes religion with politics. But the former Arkansas governor jumped the shark on the eve of the Michigan primary, when he told a crowd of cheering (and faithful) supporters that the Constitution needs a religious fix:

"I have opponents in this race," he said, "who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do--to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family."

Huckabee's proposal to amend the Constitution in order to make it conform with the Bible didn't get all the attention it deserved. Perhaps because it was jumbled in with a mix of other coverage of the six major candidates. Perhaps because metastasized evangelical belief has become acceptable political discourse. Certainly because the media let him get away with it. No serious candidate for the American presidency had ever taken such an extreme position regarding the separation of church and state. Rev. Huckabee is proposing a policy that would render meaningless the "separation clause" in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Huckabee is an ordained minister. He has preached sermons to Baptist congregations during the primary campaign. His position on abortion and homosexual marriage are rooted in Christian scripture. He has claimed that "God . . . created a government structure."

Huckabee is one of two Republican candidates still in the race who reject Darwin's theory of evolution. "It is a theory of evolution, that's why it's called the theory of evolution," he said on a PBS program in 2004 when he was governor of Arkansas--resorting to the canard that confuses the colloquial and scientific use of the word theory.

Now Huckabee becomes the first candidate since the Rev. Pat Robertson in 1988, and the first contending presidential candidate in the nation's history to openly and unapologetically run as a theocrat. Yet it's possible that there's a worldly method to his religious madness, a method informed by polling data and George W. Bush's unprecedented success uniting the evangelical vote.

Keep reading.

Comments

[PauCK]

RE: 6. Thou shalt not kill.
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I want to repeat this from another post if I may. People thumping the Bible are quick to note the appearance of the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court and halls of power in Washington. I would like to point out that they are meaningless to politicians anyway. "Thou shalt not kill" for all it's prominence has yet to bring a halt to the death penalty. Is there some fine print I am missing?

Politicians worship votes and power, not bibles. They would want it in the constitution for only two reasons. (a) talking about it may buy some votes and (b) having it there may give them more power over the "people" without doing anything to assure we are any better represented by our government...unless it was written to require congress and the president to abide by religious principles when they make law.

Yea like that's ever going to happen.

[PauCK]

Leave the Bible out of the Constitution. It is written to protect religious "FREEDOM" which means a person can abide by whatever book his/her religion holds dear. Putting the "bible" in the constitution would destroy one of the founding father's greatest ideas. Separation of Church and State. Iran is ruled by it's religion (evil empire) Afghanistan was as well. ( Al Qaeda ).
It is often said that to avoid an argument don't discuss politics or religion. Let's not mix them and really have an argument !!

[Sciguy]

Hmmm... wasn't Schmuckabee, once upon a time, a conservative who was AGAINST changing the Constitution? True, he can't change it by himself, but the first step in creating change is to have one person say "We need to change this."

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But the best part was when I searched for "Huckabee constitution" on GoodSearch. I got this ad:

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Huckabee
Find and Compare prices on huckabee at Smarter.com.
www.smarter.com

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I always suspected that he was for sale...

[Ironfox]

Huckabee is not a mainstream evangelical. He is,in fact, a Pre-Millenialist Reconstructionist and far more extreme than he pretends to be. I would hope that potential voters would investigate what the Reconstructionist movement actually is before supporting this very dangerous man because the MSM is not going to tell you.

[S1m0n]

Hey, at least Huck's on record agreeing that the present restrictions on gay marriage violate the constitution as it presently stands. It'll be a cold day in hell before he gets an amendment, so we should be asking him what he will do, if elected: obey the constitution, or his God?

If the latter, he needs to be questioned closely on which other parts of the constitution he intends to disobey.

[katzenmom]

As an atheist, I'd like to debunk the myth that Huckabee is an ordained minister. He dropped out of seminary. He has served as a lay preacher to Baptist congregations, as is his right, even should he become president. However, he fails to recognize that the Constitution he wishes to dismantle is what permits him to live by his own code of ethics. Freedom OF religion necessarily, implies freedom FROM any single religion's domination.

Morality is a personal matter. It cannot be equated with religious concepts of sin, nor legislated in a free society, except to the extent that "sin" coincides with an act that harms an individual or group. Legislation deals with crime. Religion deals with sin. If Gov. Huckabee becomes president because of his proposed Constitutional Amendments, he will not succeed in implementing them. Even the Troglodyte neo-con majority on the Supreme Court would disallow them.

I cannot help but question the "Christianity" of voters who would vote for Huckabee on this basis alone. Somewhere in the Bible, regarding "faith, hope, and charity", didn't Christ say: "And the greatest of these is Charity"? If so, before you vote this year, please examine the Republicans' contributions to charity. Because other than their contributions to corporations, banks, and the top 1% of the economy, I can't see a thing.

I vote Democrat because Democrats promote education, racial equality, assistance to the under-privileged and the needy, social consciousness, and involving all of us in redressing injustice. It costs me, but it's every responsible member of society's duty to promote these aims.

Aren't these Christian values, too? Christ hung out not with the rabbis, the wealthy, and the powerful, but the least influential members of his society, trying to uplift them. Do your votes really reflect the morality you're purporting to uphold and align with Christ's goals?

[Mariel]

How do you like the candidates who do NOT believe in he Judeo-Christian ethic?

Some of you like Ron Paul, who is a committed fundamentalist Christian, more sincerely so, probably, than Bush.

You are speaking against the ethics you are living by, handed down from ancestors. As many people now abandon these ethics, society quivers.

[BobOnThis]

SAVE THE SPERM!

I knew the Hucksters delusional religiousity would escalate beyond comprehension as he headed south and ran out of money.

While in S.C. he was advocating and supporting a new HR that would affectively make contraception illegal... and could be interpreted as attempted murder!

Guys that pull out before ejaculation, or God forbid... masturbate without a fertile egg in the room, could face serial murder charges?

Good thing I got fixed way back, or is it?
Have I been committing genocide over the past 20 years... am I the epitome of a serial sperm killer?

A SPERM IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE?

[pigomatic]

I wonder how Huck's supporters would react to a politician promising to install sharia law in, say, Detroit? "Oh don't get upset, we will apply sharia law only to Muslims. And visitors into Muslim enclaves. And maybe when we have contact with outsiders. It's God's law, you know."

[Pdubya]

I'm just happy he's out of money.

[KarenZipdrive]

Huckabee's loss in South Carolina tells us that even backwood Southern hicks reject his religiosity and bullshit.
We've HAD an evangelical in office for the last seven years, and we know how that's worked out.
The American people fell for it once, but even the Deliverance Set seem to be weary of men who hide in the skirts of Jesus.

[EricArthurBlair]

Just wait until President Huckleberry orders all the Catholics to get rid of all the "graven images" in their churches!

[Galt907]

The brilliant men who drafted the Constitution (The greatest governing document ever drafted by man) understood that there was nothing repellant about religion, what they also understood and is powerfully presented is that there is no place for religion in government.
Although they were, individually, religious men who believe in god, that word (god) does not appear in the Constitution. Other countries believed that power came from god to the government which ruled the people. The United States was formed with the belief that all power comes from the people and that a portion of that power is given to the government.

[LudwigVan]

The only way the US will become a theocracy, even Evangelical Christian, is by a revolution and coup, à la Iran.

And I remember Robertson's ill-fated campaign in 1988. It was probably his best year to run, that being immediately post-Reagan. Huckabee could've used a huge contribution from Pat; the former's campaign is almost out of money.

[JSquercia]

I am amazed to learn that GOD created a govermental structure but if he did it would seem to me that of rule by KINGS . It also seems that he had NO problem with SLAVERY except when it involved the Chosen People . Afterall we have early Christian slaves being told to obey their masters