Huckabee: Take This Nation Back for Christ

[ufojoe]

Granted, this is from 6/8/1998 and is in front of a group of pastors, but it's a bit scary
to see how this man thinks. Does he really believe that Jesus is the answer to all of
our problems? I hope he answers this question during a future interview or debate.

The nation has descended gradually into crisis, Huckabee said, and repairing the damage needs to be gradual, too. He said the solution is simple: faith in Christ.

"I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."

http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/jonesboro/afhuckabee08.asp   

Huckabee: U.S. gave up on religion
School shootings were wake-up call, he says
LINDA S. CAILLOUET
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

SALT LAKE CITY -- Government may have dropped the ball in modern American society, but religion dropped it first, Gov. Mike Huckabee told Southern Baptist pastors Sunday night.
   
"The reason we have so much government is because we have so much broken humanity," he said.

"And the reason we have so much broken humanity is because sin reigns in the hearts and lives of human beings instead of the Savior."
   
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, addressed his contemporaries at the two-day Pastors' Conference, which continues today. The three-day Southern Baptist Convention begins

Tuesday here in the heartland of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the city in which the Mormons have their world headquarters.
   
Huckabee told the pastors gathered in the Salt Palace Convention Center that while the March 1, 1997, tornadoes which struck Arkansas were tragic, at least the devastation could be clearly seen from a helicopter. In contrast, he said, the catalysts for the nation's recent school shootings -- including the one March 24 near Jonesboro that left four students and a teacher dead and 10 others wounded -- were harder to see but were driven by "the winds of spiritual change in a nation that has forgotten its God."

"Government knows it does not have the answer, but it's arrogant and acts as though it does," Huckabee said. "Church does have the answer but will cowardly deny that it does and wonder when the world will be changed."
   
The shootings were just one more wake-up call to the nation, he said.
   
"I fear we will turn and hit the snooze button one more time and lose this great republic of ours."
   
Huckabee said ungiving individuals are responsible for higher taxes.
   
"I'm often asked why taxes are so high and government is so big. It's because the faith we have in local churches has become so small. If we'd been doing what we should have -- giving a dime from every dollar to help the widows, the orphans and the poor -- we now wouldn't be giving nearly 50 cents of every dollar to a government that's doing ... what we should have been doing all along."
   
Huckabee also explained why he left pastoring for politics.
   
"I didn't get into politics because I thought government had a better answer. I got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that the real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives."
   
He compared his entry into politics to "getting inside the dragon's belly," adding, "There's not one thing we can do in those marbled halls and domed capitols that can equal what's done when Jesus touches the lives of a sinner."
   
The most basic unit of government is not the city council, quorum court or state legislature, Huckabee said. "It is Mom and Dad raising kids and teaching them respect for authority, others and God."
   
The nation has descended gradually into crisis, Huckabee said, and repairing the damage needs to be gradual, too. He said the solution is simple: faith in Christ.
   
Huckabee recalled the five occasions he's had to sit by the phone on the eve of an execution.
   
"It's the greatest sense of helplessness and despair you can imagine to know we've exhausted all help and hope here on earth for that person."
   
He also spoke of his early misconceptions of his duties as a pastor.
   
"In one of the first churches I was assigned to, I thought I was supposed to be the captain of a warship leading the congregation into a battle against spiritual darkness," he said.
   
"But they wanted the captain of the Love Boat. They just wanted everybody to be happy. It was not about how many people were won to Christ or how many teens were pulled away from drugs or how many marriages were saved. Instead, it was about the seniors having a great trip going to watch the fall leaves change, the teen-agers going to a better summer camp than the church across town."
   
Huckabee concluded his speech by recalling his 10th birthday, when he accepted Christ.
   
"I went to Vacation Bible School for all the wrong reasons -- I was told they'd give me all the cookies I could eat and all the Kool-Aid I could drink. But that day I got something better than cookies and Kool-Aid. I got the Savior.
   
"I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."
   
Before Huckabee spoke, more than 350 copies of his new book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting our Culture of Violence, had been placed in reporters' press boxes in the convention center press room.
   
The slick cover of the book is a grim one -- a black-and-white, blurry photograph of a young boy pointing a gun at the reader. The most prominent part of the photograph is the round barrel of the gun. At the top of the book, this question is posed: "Are we reaping what we've sown?"
   
The book was co-written by Dr. George Grant, director of the King's Meadow Study Center and a contributor to World magazine.
   
The back cover states: "No more hand-wringing, no more finger-pointing. No more sound bites." It also makes a reference to the Jonesboro school shootings. Huckabee has recently been criticized by opponents claiming he has capitalized on the shootings with the publication of his book.
   
The back cover states: "Just after lunch on March 24, 1998, four school children and a teacher were murdered by two students, ages thirteen and eleven, at an Arkansas middle school. Governor Mike Huckabee was informed of the tragedy en route from Washington, D.C. By the time he arrived, the news media were already waiting -- already polling the pundits and drawing conclusions based on the sketchiest information. The quest for quick answers has robbed us of the truth. Until now."
   
The paperback is published by Broadman & Holman, a Nashville, Tenn., arm of the Baptist Sunday School Board. It retails for $11.99. Publicists for the book said last week they didn't expect it to arrive at the convention until today.
   
Huckabee and his wife, Janet, left Salt Lake City immediately after his speech, and the governor did not hold a book signing at the convention. In fact, Huckabee didn't know the books had made it to the convention, said editors of the biweekly Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine who visited with the governor shortly before his speech.
   
Huckabee, governor since 1996, is a former president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. He has authored one other book, Character is the Issue: How People with Integrity Can Revolutionize America, which was first publicly announced at the 1997 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas a year ago and released last September.
   
Other books given to reporters at the convention Sunday included a how-to boycott book aimed at the Walt Disney Co. by Richard D. Land titled Sending a Message to Mickey: The ABC's of Making Your Voice Heard at Disney. The back cover features an outline of the famous mouse's round ears and the words: "He who has ears, let him hear."
   
The other book was Mormonism Unmasked by R. Philip Roberts, who examines the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

[SnookAU]

Where in the Constitution does it say anything about "Jesus Christ" or a "Savior"?

We've had SEVEN years with a "Jesus" president.  How's that working out for us?

[Swolf]

Personaly, I see nothing wrong with what he stated. And as I review his policies and his idea's I am more inclined to vote for him. I like his Fair Tax proposal, Ideas on Immigration, Health Care, and Energy Independance. This is what he believes per his site:
===========================================================================================
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=9

"The First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred.
My faith is my life - it defines me. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives.
Real faith makes us more humble and mindful, not of the faults of others, but of our own. It makes us less judgmental, as we see others with the same frailties we have.
Faith gives us strength in the face of injustice and motivates us to do our best for "the least of us."
Our nation was birthed in a spirit of faith - not a prescriptive faith telling us how or whether to believe, but acknowledging a providence that pervades our world.

The First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred. We should not banish religion from the public square, but should guarantee access to all voices and views. We should share and debate our faith, but never seek to impose it. When discussing faith and politics, we should honor the "candid" in candidate - I have much more respect for an honest atheist than a disingenuous believer.

My faith is my life - it defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives.

Real faith makes us humble and mindful, not of the faults of others, but of our own. It makes us less judgmental, as we see others with the same frailties we have. Faith gives us strength in the face of injustice and motivates us to do our best for "the least of us."

Our nation was birthed in a spirit of faith - not a prescriptive one telling us whether to believe, but one acknowledging that a providence pervades our world."

=========================================================================================

It doesn't matter if someone belives in thier Faith, Lives by their faith, where its wrong is when they push their faith and thier views on others. Here was his response yesturday on Fox News Sunday:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316253,00.html

"WALLACE: Mitt Romney talked about his faith this week, and conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote a column this week under the title "Huckabee plays the religion card."

He accused you of seeming to take the high road of tolerance by refusing to declare Mormonism a cult; indeed, declaring himself above the issue, yet clearly playing to that prejudice by leaving the question ambiguous while making sure everyone knows that he, for one, is a Christian leader.

Governor, Krauthammer says that you're exploiting religious differences for political gain.

HUCKABEE: You know, Charles is probably one of my very favorite columnists. I don't know of anybody who I love to read more than him, and I love almost every column he writes except the ones he writes about me.

In this case, he's just mistaken. I've not tried to say anything about Mitt Romney or anybody else. In fact, I've done everything I can to say I'll be happy to talk about my faith. I'm not going to evaluate someone else's.

In fact, if people will look through the entire record of my comments, they'll see me defending Hillary Clinton and her faith in this campaign. Several months ago when asked to sort of make a comment when she had talked about her Methodist faith, I defended her.

I said I have no reason to doubt her sincerity. In fact, I said that, you know, her faith may be practiced a little different in the Methodist church than mine is in a more almost charismatic Baptist church where I attend. But I said just because some people eat their soup louder than other people doesn't mean the soup tastes better.

Now, if I had defended Hillary Clinton and said let her defend her religion, let me defend mine � I've done the same thing with Mitt Romney and the same thing I've done with any other candidate.

I think it's my responsibility to answer questions when they're posed to me if they're reasonable and in a context of being president. But I'm not going to go out there and start taking apart every other candidate's faith and trying to evaluate their theology.

WALLACE: I want to come at this a slightly different way, because this raises the whole question of prejudice and, as Krauthammer seemed to be saying, that you were playing the religion card.

Do you think it's intolerant � do you think it's prejudice � for voters � I'm not asking you; for voters to consider the tenets of Mormonism in judging Mitt Romney?

HUCKABEE: I do think that's inappropriate. I think people should judge Mitt Romney on his record. Is he consistent? Does he say and believe the things now that he said and believed before? That's what ought to be the criteria.

I don't think his Mormonism ought to be a factor in it. And I wouldn't vote for or against somebody because they were Mormon. It simply wouldn't be that big of an issue for me.

If it is for others, they'll have to explain that. It isn't for me, and it shouldn't be for anyone."

===========================================================================================

Everyone of us look for guidance, some from family, some from friends, from parents, from God. He looks for his answers in prayer. It is our responsibility to find the answers to our problems and he is looking for guidance. Thier is nothing wrong with that.

[bucfan11]

Religion is for churches to be enjoyed by people of its faith-- not for Government to for or against the People.  There are many religions in this country - how would it be decided which was is most appropriate for government, anyway... Besides, it has not helped anyone in the last two presidential terms.    Historically, in the world, religion in government has been bad news for liberty and freedom.

[John Galt?]

Yep, this is the guy I want for president.  I can see it now:

National Sec. Advisor: President Huckabee, North Korea has launched mislles at Japan.
The Huckster: Well, the japs should have taken Christ into their hearts.

Advisor: Mr. President, terrorists have seized an airliner and it's headed to NYC.
The Huckster: Call the mayor and ask him if he has taken Christ into his heart.

FEMA Director: Mr. President, a massive earthquake has devestated LA, thousands may die.
The Huckster: No need to worry, as soon as they take Christ into their hearts, the ground will stop shaking.

[cyberdude557]

Huckabee is a moron. He also said back in the 90s that people with HIV should be quarantined and that being gay was a "public health crisis."

[BucsBullsBolts]

Yep, this is the guy I want for president.  I can see it now:

National Sec. Advisor: President Huckabee, North Korea has launched mislles at Japan.
The Huckster: Well, the japs should have taken Christ into their hearts.

Advisor: Mr. President, terrorists have seized an airliner and it's headed to NYC.
The Huckster: Call the mayor and ask him if he has taken Christ into his heart.

FEMA Director: Mr. President, a massive earthquake has devestated LA, thousands may die.
The Huckster: No need to worry, as soon as they take Christ into their hearts, the ground will stop shaking.

That would be hilarious ........ if it wasn't so freaking scary.

[Swolf]

Huckabee is a moron. He also said back in the 90s that people with HIV should be quarantined and that being gay was a "public health crisis."

Thats not what he stated, he stated in the above link:

WALLACE: As you rise in the polls, I don't have to tell you that your past is becoming more of an issue.

It now turns out that when you ran for the Senate back in 1992, you called for quarantining AIDS patients, you opposed increased federal funding to find a cure, and you also said that homosexuality was a, quote, "sinful lifestyle that could pose a dangerous health risk."

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Do you stand by any of that now, Governor?

HUCKABEE: Chris, I didn't say that we should quarantine. I said it was the first time in public health protocols that when we had an infectious disease and we didn't really know just how extensive and how dramatic it could be and the impact of it, that we didn't isolate the carrier.

Now, the headlines yesterday started saying that I called for quarantines, which if you'll go back and read my comments, I did not.

I had simply made the point, and I still believe this today, that in the late '80s and early '90s, when we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness than we were about the normal public health protocols that we would have acted � as we have recently, for example, with avian flu, which � I spent hours and hours, and months, in fact, as a governor dealing with a pandemic plan that we were looking at which called for isolating carriers if they contracted that disease.

WALLACE: But, Governor, forgive me. I don't think that's right. All the way back in 1985, this wasn't political correctness. The Centers for Disease Control back in '85, seven years before you made your statement, said that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.

HUCKABEE: There was also the case of Kimberly Bergalis, who testified before Congress in 1991. She had contracted AIDS from her dentist.

We didn't think that there was a casual transmission. There were studies that showed that. But there were other concerns being voiced by public health officials.

Now, would I say things a little differently in 2007? Probably so. But I'm not going to recant or retract from the statement that I did make because, again, the point was not saying we ought to lock people up who have HIV/AIDS.

I knew people who had AIDS. I had a close friend who died of it in the 1980s. He was a hemophiliac. He contracted it through a blood transfusion. I had other friends of mine, one of whom passed away � he was, in fact, homosexual.

But my point is that I was trying to talk about the different public health protocols that we were dealing with. I think what it really does show, though, is that when people are digging back into everything I've ever said and done � and I understand that, it's part of the political process.

But what I'm not going to do is to go back and now try to change every story I've ever had. I'm going to simply say that that was exactly what I said. I don't run from it, don't recant from it.

Would I say it a little differently today? Sure, in light of 15 years of additional knowledge and understanding, I would.

[cyberdude557]

Anyone that says this sounds like a nut...
"The reason we have so much government is because we have so much broken humanity. And the reason we have so much broken humanity is because sin reigns in the hearts and lives of human beings instead of the Savior."

The only reason he is surging in the polls is because the Jesus freaks are rallying in favor of him. I still dont think he has much chance of winning. If he does, he'll be destroyed by Hillary. The religious right still has not figured out that not everyone lives by the bible nor wants to. Yet they feel as if it is their duty to shove their beliefs and morals down the throats of their neighbors. There are more than 6 billion people in this world and only a 1/3rd are Christians. I guess that means according to Huckabee and the rest of the far-right that 2/3rds of humanity is going to hell? 66% of the world rejects the bible's teachings.

[spartan]

I find it amazing the hatred some people have for anything or anyone Christian. They call them bigoted, closed mind and condescending yet use bigoted, closed minded and condescending terms when they refer to them. It is painfully obvious to me that after the opening statements in this thread the possibility of having anything that resembles an honest and open discussion is just below the zero mark.

All it indicates to me is that you seem to know nothing about which you are commenting.

I must say I am quite surprised at you Joe. I thought you had a bit of intelligence. To make no attempt what so ever to even attempt to understand what he was saying, as you say at a Pastors convention shows remarkably little insight.

[cyberdude557]

Well what do you think he was saying? He's saying that Americans no longer have enough faith in god and that's why America is failing. That's about as stupid as Jerry Fallwall saying that the 9/11 attacks were a punishment from god because we allow homosexuality and feminism in our society.

You actually think banning gay marriage and abortion and forcing religion down everyone's throat is going to make us a better country? The only thing that will make this a better country is balancing the budget, securing our borders, and getting the CIA off their lazy asses and start getting some accurate intelligence for a change.

And dont go for that spin with the AIDS quote. It was known for 6 years that AIDS cannot be passed through casual contact. The Surgeon General and the CDC came out in 1986 and said that HIV cannot be spread through casual contact. That didn't stop the right wing from targetting it as a gay-man's disease. Part of that propaganda is what lead to the current crisis because people were lead to the belief that you can only get it through gay sex. So it started to spread like crazy in the late 80s and early 90s.

[Big_MAC_Buc]

Huckabee is a moron. He also said back in the 90s that people with HIV should be quarantined and that being gay was a "public health crisis."

Thats not what he stated, he stated in the above link:

The definition of quarantine is: a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease.

What Huckabee stated was on a questionnaire 1992 Senate candidates filled out.

His response to:

Question 220:                                AIDS

If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we
need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.

It sure sounds like he was talking quarantine.

The best that can be said for him is that he was caught in a lie and then he began parsing words like any good politician.

The lie he is having the most difficulty with now is the one he tells about the born-again serial rapist he helped to get paroled so he could rape and kill again. Of course, he did not want the guy to rape and kill again, but it just goes to show how so many born-again Christians can be blinded by the certainty of their faith and their hatred for everything Clinton. If it were not for his faith he would be better informed about the world and be in a better position to lead rather than engage us in more religious skulduggery.

[alldaway]

If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we
need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague

The problem is the word isolation could be interpreted in a variety of ways with the way it is used in that sentence.

If read from a different perspective it does not indicate that he was talking about quarantine IMVHO.

[Big_MAC_Buc]

If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we
need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague

The problem is the word isolation could be interpreted in a variety of ways with the way it is used in that sentence.

If read from a different perspective it does not indicate that he was talking about quarantine IMVHO.

Yes, it can have different meanings, but in this instance one would need to bend over very, very far backward to change the perspective given it by Huckabee IMVHO.

More from 1992:

The Southern Baptist preacher has also appealed to Christian conservatives for his vocal opposition to gay marriage and other stances.

But in the 1992 survey, Huckabee suggested several bizarre proposals. To one question, he suggested Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague," Huckabee wrote.

"It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316228,00.html

[bucpimpin]

Some of you act like Christian presidents started with Bush. Like it or not Christianity will always play a role in your leaders decision making and thought process.. Always has and forever will. No self proclaimed athiest will ever be president as being president means believing in someone or something greater than man itself.