Posted on 02/04/2008 9:06:16 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
By far, the most significant story of the 2008 Republican primaries has been the unlikely candidacy of Mike Huckabee and his_single-handed_resuscitation of Christian conservatives as a force to be reckoned with in the Republican_Party. Yet, regardless of how he fares on Super_Tuesday_and_beyond, Mr. Huckabee will perhaps be best remembered as the man who, however unintentionally, helped persuade evangelicals to vote a Democrat into the White House in 2008 – and possibly in future races, as well.
Since the 1970s, conventional_wisdom has held that evangelicals are driven by a single-minded_concern with defending "moral values," while mainline Protestants focus on issues of social and economic justice. Huckabee has helped crack that old chestnut – and suddenly, the GOP is having a harder time standing for "God's Own Party."
While an orthodox Republican on "gays, guns, and God," Huckabee made his mark by presenting himself as a different type of Christian conservative. His campaign website devotes as much space to arguing for the need to increase funding for the arts, protect the environment, fight poverty, and reform healthcare as it does to the fight against abortion and gay marriage. And though he was forced to toughen his stand on immigration_and government spending, his record as governor of Arkansas, where he raised taxes and granted in-state tuition rates to the children of illegal immigrants, speaks for itself.
For such temerity, Huckabee has been slammed by his GOP colleagues as "liberal." Rush Limbaugh accused him of engaging in "class_warfare"; The Wall Street Journal said it's fair to call him a tribune of the "religious left." But in breaking from the conservative mold, Huckabee is following tracks laid by the National Association of Evangelicals, which last year incited a civil war among evangelical leaders by broadening its political agenda to include issues such as climate change.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
And you call Romney a flip flopper?
Their number is legion, I’m sure.
And you people are worried Romney will betray you?
Whenever Mitt Romney has run for office, his public positions on the issues of the day have been in general agreement with the voter base whose approval he was seeking. In Massachusetts he was pro-choice, then pro-life, then pro-choice, then pro-life again. He was even more pro-gay rights than Ted Kennedy, for strict gun-control laws, for affirmative action, against the Boy Scouts’ policy on homosexual scoutmasters, for what he now calls “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, and against the Bush tax cuts. How can he have changed his mind on all of those issues and others so soon after deciding to run for the Republican presidential nomination? Link
This 'different type' of conservative is commonly know as 'non-conservative.
It has been interesting to watch his increasingly bizarre and nasty attacks on Mitt and the conservatives who are supporting him. The last two days would raise a serious question about Huckabee's mental stability - especially his attack on Sean Hannity, in which every single factual allegation he made was false.
Have you listened to him speak? I have and there was no reason to cringe. However some of the posts here attacking him are foul mouthed, uncouth, petty and what else...oh yeah arrogant and I have cringed.
No, I'm dead certain comfortable that Mitt will betray. It's not even a issue.
The author is nuts. Evangelicals are not going to run into the arms of the abortionists party. Not now, not ever.
Boy won't that be a great team. Next International Crises McCain will form a commission headed by Huckabee who will apologies for the USA existing then organize our surrender!
Pretty high price to pay simply because some of you are hysterically afraid of a Mormon. Well better a Mormon then a moron in the White House. Right now those are our only two choices.
I need another drink.
“LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"® is a registered Trademark of Michael Buffer, all rights reserved.
1,500,000,000 rounds of posts, arguments, insults, cheesy graphics, name calling, and ad hominem personal attacks that pass as debate for the FUTURE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!
"Introducing first, to my right, fighting out of the red corner, wearing their Sunday best with a gold crucifix...weighing in at 810 and 1/4 pounds...the social conservatives, the religious right, the champions of family values...from the Southern States...The Evangelicals!" (wild applause)
"And in the blue corner, wearing an off the rack suit, Goldwater ’64 lapel pin and a belt 2 sizes too small...weighing in at 141 pounds soaking wet...the fiscal conservatives, the last champions of limited government...from the Western States...The Libertarians!" (wild applause)
The Christian Science Monitor ???
Scientology ???
You listening to Tom Cruise now ???
I cringed.
I heard the after-debate interview in which he said he thought it a good possibility that the WMD of Iraq are being secretly held by the (generally pro-American) King of Jordan. Very wierd. Very ignorant.
I wonder how many thinking Baptists cringe every time that foul mouthed, uncouth, petty, arrogant little man opens his mouth?
__________________________________________
Probably about the same percentage of thinking mormons who cringe every time that foul mouthed, uncouth, petty, arrogant little man, RINO Romney, opens his mouth
... No, but we - Social-Conservatives of all kinds, religious and non-religious - should consider a separate block, if not a third party, just like Blacks do...
The DemoCrapas made a choice to be the party of evil and inmoratlity, so that is not an option. On the Republican side, many of our 'fiscal/Economic' conservatives have a viceral anthypaty of anything that has to do with religion or social values, as we have seen with all their venun toward Huck... So why not just serparate?... Many countries have many parties... and I can see why. What is the point of kidding ourselves we all belong together?
Wow. If conservatives and Evangelicals both desert the party, what is John going to do?
# 19
Christain Science and Scientology ARE NOT the same thing in any way, shape or form! Google both words and see for yourself.
Is Christian Science, Evangalical ???
Paging Bob Dole - email needed.
Guys it won’t work. Remember how in 2006 we were threatened that if we didn’t vote as we were told it would be a vote for Hillary. We’ve been vaccinated. Threats don’t work any more. We will vote our conscious and watch the chips fall where they may.
It’s Romney’s campaign that threatens to have me voting democrat. If he get’s the nomination, I will definitely vote democrat against him.
I am unaware of any such "conventional wisdom". In fact, I think the author just made this up. He's just very liberal and thus likes to think of himself as a "mainline Protestant."
I did listen to him. He grosses me out. He is petty, vindictive, a hypocrite, a bigot, unscrupulous, a panderer, classless, class warfare mongering, and to quote Andrew Levy, “if he had been born a hundred years ago would have been the best snake oil salesman the world has ever seen”.
Nothing personal intended to you, but you asked.
Well, maybe the combination of 2006 and 2008 will open some eyes to realize that they are just fine with a Democrat in there. They disagree over which spending gets the highest priority, but either way, they are spending your money and mine.
If you were caught by a couple of ogres who argued over whether to boil you or roast you on a spit, it doesn't matter which one wins or loses--you lose. Same here, as long as we play their game.
And then you throw in the Social(ist) Conservatives, and it's like the little goblin jumping around nearby begging for your scraps. (Of course, they are totally oblivious to the fact that the ogres are just taunting them, too.)
More of the same in Mitt...No thanks.
LOL. I can take it that he won’t get your vote? Why do you hate him so much?
Wow she never answered. I wonder why?
Regards
Did I miss something? President Bush has been a consistent social conservative his entire time in office. It’s other issues, like immigration and government spending that have upset so many Republicans.
The Church of Christ, Scientist
http://www.tfccs.com/index.jhtml;jsessionid=5QECI5BROHDOLKGL4L2SFEQ
Because you would never win. The countries with “many parties” have a system of proportional representation. Countries with single-member districts (like the US) tend to have 2 dominant parties for a reason.
Ping!
When "YOUR" guy changes his positions (name me one politician who hasn't), he's a flip-flopper.
When "MY" guy does it, he's "grown" or "is responsive to the will of the people".
Simple, huh? :D
Is’nt that waht our elected representatives are supposed to do? Represent the majority who put them in office?
He does have better hair though...
So, you want republicans fragmented, whereas the demorats keep all factions under the big tent and become the permanent majority like they were for 40 years?
Brilliant suggestion!
Here’s who Huckabee is involved with:
NY Times
Friday 11 March 2005
“.. Mr. Cizik said he had a “conversion” on climate change so profound in Oxford that he likened it to an “altar call,” when nonbelievers accept Jesus as their savior. Mr. Cizik recently bought a Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle. “ http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9554
Oct. 2006
“..Cizik dates his “conversion” to 2002, when evangelical left activist Jim Ball of the “What Would Jesus Drive” anti-SUV campaign “dragged” him to Oxford, England, for a global warming summit featuring scientist and Christian thinker John Houghton. “I had, as John Wesley would say, a ‘warming of my heart,’ Cizik recalls. “A conversion to a cause which I believe every Christian should be committed to.”
After his Oxford conversion, Cizik returned home, sold his gas guzzler, bought a Prius, and renewed his interest in recycling. He notes that evangelicals comprise 40-50 percent of the “Republican base” and Republican politicians, who “have stymied action on climate change, will “have to listen” if evangelicals become as passionate as Cizik is about climate change.
Promoters of The Great Warming are hoping that other evangelicals will have dramatic conversions to the global warming cause.like Cizik. No doubt, many of these new enthusiasts for the planet are full of passionate sincerity. But some seem to see acceptance of disastrous scenarios of global warming, fueled exclusively by human activity, as almost an article of faith, transcending need for logical argument. For them, it has become intrinsically a struggle between noble friends of the earth and wicked allies of the fossil fuels industry. They have adopted climate activism as a new crusade.
Evangelicals are more famous, or notorious, for preaching about the impending End Times. At least that old kind of preaching pointed listeners towards repentance...and God. This new mode of climate revivalism points evangelicals towards a very differently kind of imagined apocalypse, in which the solution is not divine intervention but increased government regulation, reduced standards of living, diminished national sovereignty, and enhanced powers for international bureaucracies. That Old Time Religion now looks more appealing, because it involves God.
Frontpagemag.com. http://vacoalblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/boo-just-in-time-for-halloween-folks.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1964460/posts?page=13#13
*
Here’s the guy who herded the gullible “religious leaders” together to hear him preach his “sermon” which got the latest round of “crisis mongering” started:
The “Reverend” Sir John Houghton, former head of the UK Meteorological Office, Publisher of Al Gore’s book on GW and Former Co-Chair of the IPCC:
“Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen”
Some call that, “Lying for Jesus”. I would agree.
*
Public radio interview with the Reverend Richard Cizik [a trained political scientist and vice president in Washington for the National Association of Evangelicals]
Key excerpt:
Ms. Tippett: You have become quite a spokesman for Evangelical Christian concern about the environment. And, you know, I wonder if that’s something that surprises you. Is that something that’s on your agenda, that’s on the Evangelical Christian agenda that you would not have imagined there 25 years ago or even…
Rev. Cizik: I would have never imagined it. I just would have to say I had a conversion.
Ms. Tippett: Well, tell me about that.
Rev. Cizik: Not just to Christ, you see, many, many years ago. But in 2002, I had a conversion to the science of climate change. ....
Ms. Tippett: Well, tell me about your conversion experience in 2002. ...
Rev. Cizik: First of all, I met great men of science who, like Sir John Houghton, knighted by the queen, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who came forward and said to me, “You can believe in the science and be a faithful biblical Christian, and I am,’ he said. And so in a humble way, not arrogantly, admitting the questions that still exist, John Houghton and many others, for three days, walked some of us that were there in Oxford, England, through all the science, through our biblical teaching and responsibility, and all I can say is, in a John Wesley kind of fashion, my heart was warmed. My heart, you know, was changed...”
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/evangelicalevolution/transcript.shtml
*
“This is going to be an issue which evangelicals are going to look at when they cast their ballots,” Cizik said. ..” But only Republican former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas otherwise considered among the more conservative candidates in the race has explicitly aligned himself with the creation care movement. ..” [The Reverend Richard Cizik ] Much more: “God is Green”
11/06/2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21656644/
*
From Gribbit: “The conclusions of the IPCC Summary Report were determined before the study even began. The idea was to make it the “Final Word” on global climate change. The reason for making it the “Final Word” was that by using that terminology, they had hoped that the public would take their bait hook, line, and sinker and they could get the political changes that they want. Yes I said political changes.” See more Gribbit Tidbits
http://www.gribbitonline.com/2007/02/15/why-you-shouldnt-believe-the-global-warming-scare/
*
“The evolution of the scientific debate about anthropogenic climate change illustrates both the value of skepticism and the pitfalls of partisanship.”.. Scientists ... reputation for impartiality is severely compromised by the shocking lack of political diversity among American academics, who suffer from the kind of group-think that develops in cloistered cultures. Until this profound and well documented intellectual homogeneity changes, scientists will be suspected of constituting a leftistthink-tank.” “On the left, an argument emerged urging fellow scientists to deliberately exaggerate their findings so as to galvanize an apathetic public...” ~ Kerry Emmanuel - MIT
*
“No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits…climate change provides the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world” Christine Stewart, former Canadian Environment Minister bttt
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1964460/posts?page=5#5
We aren’t suppose to actually think about any thing! No now we Conservatives are simply suppose to emote our love for this our that candidate and scream hate at every other candidate! So you stop that thinking right now!
Ok, how about an FR-SC? (FR for social conservatives only) LOL
Third pary, block, is not important to me - the exact distiction - is the idea of a group large enough - no diluted - Blacks are teh best example I can think of - can exert more pressure on political matters affecting them.
I could see a huge group, of all religions - even 'Catholics' (kidding:)... joining together with non-religious people, who care for our values/principles. I happen to like LOU DOBBS from cnn... is that bad? LOL
Who are Social-Conservatives? 'Conservatives' who care about money yes!... and other conservative principles in different degress but, who ALSO HAPPEN TO CARE about our culture and values. In other words, it's more than just MONEY!
Research by Barna and the Nehemiah Institute indicate that only 10% of those who call themselves Christians have a Biblical worldview. Only 51% of Pastors have a Biblical worldview.
We in the Evangelical community have to admit that we have allowed the 'world' with all its lusts and desires to creep in to the church, the home, our marriages (and thus our divorces), our child-rearing (we have no problem letting those of the world - and mandated by currently wrong interpreted law to be anti-Christian - to disciple our kids), our eyes and hands, and even how to interpret the Word of God and how much authority it has.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see many so-called 'Evangelicals' vote for the abortionists, since many believe in moral relativism.
Less than 10% of Americans who call themselves Christian possesses a Biblical worldview.
More than 90% of Americans who call themselves Christian do not possess a Biblical worldview.
2/3 of Born Again Christians assert that there are no absolute moral truths.
4 out of 10 say they are “absolutely committed to the faith”.
44% of churched youths agree with this statement: “Humans are capable of grasping the meaning of truth”.
85% of churched youth agree with this statement: “What is right for a person in a certain situation may not be right for another person in the same situation”. (Relativism and situational ethics)
62% of churched youth agree that: “Nothing can be known for certain except that which is experienced in your life”.
Click Here To Learn More About Biblical Worldview and Test Yourself
Well at least you answered and I can respect that.
Regards
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.