Posted on 01/13/2008 9:36:30 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — Republican Mike Huckabee spoke from the pulpit Sunday, not as a politician but as the preacher he used to be, and delivered a sermon on how merely being good isn't enough to get into heaven.
Huckabee is vying for support from the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, which on Saturday chooses a Republican presidential nominee. A former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, Huckabee is competing for their votes with fellow southerner Fred Thompson.
As in Iowa, where Huckabee won the Jan. 3 caucuses, Huckabee is rousing pastors to marshal their flocks for him. He pitches himself as someone who not only shares their views against abortion and gay marriage but who actually comes from their ranks.
On Sunday, Huckabee avoided politics entirely, instead preaching about humility and trusting in Jesus to open the gates of heaven.
"The criteria to get into heaven is you have to be not good, but perfect. That's the real challenge in it," he said at First Baptist North Spartanburg, a megachurch with 6,000 members.
"On that day, when I pull up, I'll be asked, `Do you have what it takes to get in?'" Huckabee said. "And if I ask, `Well, what does it take to get in?' 'Gotta be perfect.'"
"Well, I'm afraid I don't have that, but you know what, I won't be there alone that day. Somebody is going to be with me. His name is Jesus, and he's promised that he would never leave me or forsake me," he said.
Huckabee didn't ask for votes or discuss the campaign, but senior pastor Michael S. Hamlet encouraged the congregation to vote according to how they try to live their lives, by the principles of Bible scripture.
"I'm going to tell you something, when you go vote, you ought to follow those principles," Hamlet said.
In contrast to Huckabee, Thompson held no public events Sunday in South Carolina. Huckabee has the edge following his Iowa caucus win.
Huckabee also is hoping for a majority of the Christian conservative vote in Michigan, where the primary is Tuesday. He emphasized his opposition to abortion there during a meeting with about 100 pastors in Grand Rapids on Saturday, urging them to use their address books and e-mail lists to mobilize others.
He was to return to Michigan later Sunday. Polls there have shown him in third place, behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, winner of the New Hampshire primary last week.
Wow. The more things change the more they stay the same..
Thanks for the quote from Goldwater. It’s apt:)
btt
Huckabee didn't eschew campaigning. He turned his time in the pulpit into a photo op.
From the AP:
In this image from video provided by the Huckabee for President campaign, Republican presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, speaks during the sermon at First Baptist North Spartanburg Church during a campaign stop in Spartanburg, S.C. Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008.
Wait til you see this:
Huckabee: Evangelical Christians Now Have a Chance to Lead GOP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/12/AR2008011202718.html
I wondered how he could do it, too.
Then I asked myself if
Huckabee: Evangelical Christians [like me] Now Have a Chance to Lead GOP, [as long as they are willing to lie].
ping to 27
Good find - thanks for posting it. Levin is a National Treasure!
LOL! I don’t know.
This is what bothers me about this guy. I know that Democraats use the church as a place to campaign, but Republicans have not done so...at least until now.
His courting of the evangelical vote is over the top
Good point...he is doing things that will get covered by the press AND he doesn’t have to pay.Smart political move BUT it will come back to bite him if he gets the nomination
Huckabee can get away with this, since he’s really not a republican, only democrats can use churches.
Jesus is not recorded (in the Gospels) as ever saying that. "Active Sinner" sounds too much like a bogey man invented to keep folks in line. Sorry, that's my take on it.
Luther, not intentionely, is credited with starting the Reformation. I'm not pushing any religious movement, just mentioning history.
"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes"
Thomas Jefferson, In a letter to Horatio Spafford in 1814
(George Seldes, The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey Citadel Press, 1983, p. 371).
Luther, not intentionely, is credited with starting the Reformation. I'm not pushing any religious movement, just mentioning history.
Oh, that Luther.
My point, however, is not history but marketing.
When you are running for national public office, you cannot afford to alienate entire chunks of the national demographics.
A candidate's personal views on the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, Iconoclasm, the infallibility of the Pope when he "speaks ex cathedra" or justification by works or faith is totally irrelevant to the job of POTUS.
Joe Lieberman will never get elected saying that only Jews are Chosen by God, a Kennedy will never get elected saying that the Catholic Church is the One True Church and Huckabee is not going to get elected saying that Luther said that anybody that does not believe in Jesus is not getting into Heaven.
You will not get elected President of the United States by telling a significant percentage of the American electorate, "Hey, I know you don't share my beliefs regarding Jesus and you will fry in Hell for all Eternity for that but, just the same, I would really like to have your vote next November!"
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's"
That's obvious. What I suspect is that much of Huckabee's support in the primaries is coming from those who would never in a million years vote for him or anyone similar in the general election.
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