Mike Huckabee Conflict

Mike Huckabee is a conflicted man.

Huckabee, who is one of the ubiquitous Republican candidates for president and an ordained minister, seems to have both a religious agenda and a political one for wanting to lead the nation. In many ways, Huckabee’s a typical Republican when it comes to domestic issues. However his primary concerns in regards to foreign policy center around the welfare of Israel. Huckabee’s recent comments where he implied that by trusting the Iranians, President Obama would essentially lead the Israeli people to another Holocaust, demonstrates exactly why he is unfit to lead this country. He doesn’t seem to understand that the role of President is to do what is best for the American people, not to use the American people to do what is best for the people of Israel. In this respect, Huckabee and his fellow Christians seem to be hopelessly lost in the Old Testament.

Photo - Gage Skidmore

Perhaps no president in our history had a better grasp or understanding of the will of God than Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln often tempered his comments and writing with biblical quotations. However, Lincoln’s belief in God, which guided him in many of his most difficult decisions, seemed to be a very personal one, not one he attempted to enforce upon the country. His primary focus was on using his faith in God to lead the republic, rather than using his office to lead the republic to a faith in God.

The issue of the presidency and religion has evolved dramatically over the years. In the presidential elections of 1960, conservative Christians of Huckabee’s ilk, led by the late Reverend Norman Vincent Peal, were terrified that a Catholic president would allow the Vatican to annex the White House. That fear was completely irrational and unfounded. Although Democratic candidate John Kennedy was a practicing Catholic, he was not openly demonstrative or vocal about his faith. As president, like Lincoln, he relied on his faith to temper his actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy understood the risks to humanity of armed aggression with Soviet-backed Cuba and felt the weight of the consequences of his decisions. Although his military advisers, Congress, and most of his administration favored an invasion of Cuba, Kennedy knew that such an action would very well lead to a nuclear confrontation with the Soviets. His desire to negotiate allowed Khrushchev the opportunity to back down while saving face.

Today’s Republican candidates have no such concerns. Listening to comments about bombing countries back to the stone-age and taking out regimes, demonstrates a lack of understanding of the complexity of these decisions and the end results of their actions. We must never forget that we killed and vaporized more than a quarter of a million Japanese people, most of them innocent citizens when we dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a horrific example of how powerful and destructive nuclear weapons are. At that time, we were the only country on the earth that possessed that capability. Today, we cannot be sure exactly who is nuclear armed or more importantly, who is controlling those arsenals. A wrong decision by our commander in chief could set off a nuclear chain reaction that would have catastrophic consequences.

With public comments by Huckabee and others that they are going to take back the country for Christ, today the Christian Right that seems committed to obliterating the Constitutional mandate of separation of Church and state. The question is, does Huckabee want to lead the country or lead the country to Jesus? Anyone aspiring to the office of President who doesn’t have the complete and best interest of the American people as his or her primary concern, should not ascend to that office. Huckabee’s public concern for the welfare of Israel seems to be heavily rooted in his Christian faith which, I believe, ultimately obscures his ability to look at the situation with Iran objectively. In this respect, Huckabee is conflicted because his religious beliefs are in diametric opposition to his desire to be a political leader. The Bible warns that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James, 1:8 NIV). Another verse says that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” (Matthew 12:25 NKJV). Having a political leader who is also a religious leader is precisely why Iran is in the position that they are in now, and why we are faced with the difficult dilemma of how to deal with them.

Ultimately, the global roll of the United States should be that of a fair-minded moderator who only uses its military might as a last resort. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration’s unprovoked invasion of Iraq has had dire consequences as it destabilized the entire region that was held in check by a paper-tiger dictator. By deposing Saddam Hussein, we opened the flood gates allowing insurgents with all kinds of agendas to rise up and threaten not only the region, but the entire world.

If Mike Huckabee really wants to help this country, he should withdraw himself from consideration for public office, and use his considerable speaking skills and voice to help modulate public policy, as the Reverend Martin Luther King did fifty years ago. His continuing comments disparaging the performance and character of President Obama, only serves to lessen the impact of anything meaningful that he can add to the discussion. His constant criticisms of our foreign policy also tend to fly in the face of the teaching of Jesus who refrained from interjecting himself into political activities while admonishing us to respect our leaders and pay our taxes.

Christ’s most powerful messages were ones where he told us what we needed to hear instead of what we wanted to hear. It’s time for Reverend Huckabee to realize that he should return to the pulpit and do the same. Constantly telling the conservative Right what they want to hear, only serves to divide this country against its leadership and ultimately undermines its authority.