Mike Huckabee at the CNN-YouTube Debate
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.
US diplomat, lawyer, orator, & politician (1782 - 1852)
Mike Huckabee’s recent victory in the Iowa Caucuses thrusts to the center stage the question of what role faith should play in the politics of a presidential election. Huckabee has made no secret of his Christian faith, and I believe has used his faith effectively as a tool in his rising campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee. Yet, it is interesting to note one of the most important parts of his response to the question in the linked debate clip: questions of faith should not be criteria for deciding who should be president of the United States.
I am unambiguously a Christian, and I will be the first person to say that it makes me feel good that a principled, Christian man is running for president. At least superficially, it seems like Christian Americans can claim him as a candidate that represents their point of view. The problem with that reaction is that it runs afoul of one of the deepest convictions our Christian American forbearers held very dear: we cannot vote for candidates in the hope that they will legislate, or in this case execute, our beliefs from their position of power.
I agree that Mike Huckabee’s unambiguous public profession of his faith is refreshing to me as a Christian. However, I am also aware of the fact that, beyond Huckabee’s sharing some elements of the faith that I have, he actually stands for very little of what I otherwise stand for as a voter. In fact, other than his positions on abortion and the sanctity of marriage, Huckabee looks a lot like a Democrat to me.
As Christian, I share the hope of many Christians that our nation to return to its Christian past, and I grant that our past includes principled Christian leaders. The difference between then and now is that those leaders held power in a Christian nation. When they made decisions as Christian leaders, they did so in an entirely different society and culture than exists today.
We cannot hope to reclaim that legacy by electing leaders who believe what we believe in a nation that predominately does not believe what we believe. Instead of hoping to “moralize” our nation with leaders who will make change by the force of government, as Christians, we should be focusing our energy on saving our nation through the preaching of the Gospel.
And that belief and reasoning is why I will not vote for Mike Huckabee in the primary. Frankly put, he is not the best candidate for a constitutionalist, conservative, libertarian Christian voter like myself living in a world at the beginning of the long War against Fundamentalist Islam. As a Christian, of course I want the right to have faith and to express that faith as I choose, however I do not want that that liberty at the expense of anyone else to do the same. I believe that we need a president who will defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic so that Americans are able to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the way each of them choose.
In our times, that means having a president who will focus on the threat at hand by maintaining America’s strength and security. If we do not have a president who believes in maintaining a strong and secure nation, why does it matter what the president believes? Without strength and security, the other pressing issues of our time become irrelevant because they are supplanted by never-ending threat and fear.
Our enemies are waiting for us to make exactly the kind of decision we seem poised to make in 2008: to take our eyes off them and turn in on ourselves. That is exactly what we were doing on September 10th, 2001, and we should all know that history.
This post was also posted on Dennis L Hitzeman’s Worldview Weblog
Posts
1 comment:
The day I vote for Huckabee is the day I'm fitted with a toe tag.
Post a Comment