Posted: January 17, 2008 5:07 PM
Huckabee Courts Evangelical Christian Voters in S.C.
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South Carolina voters head to the polls Saturday, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is using every minute before the contest to show Evangelical Christian voters across the state that he’s their candidate.
The former Baptist minister spoke Wednesday at North Greenville University, an evangelical Baptist college and faced tough questions from the school’s dean: “Are you a Christian? And can you tell us about your salvation experience?”
Huckabee went on to describe his experience at the Vatican Bible School in Hope, Ark., and how he “came to Christ” on his tenth birthday, Newsweek reporter Andrew Romano said.
A recent poll from the Pew Research Center shows Arizona Sen. John McCain with 29 percent support and Huckabee trailing him with 20 percent. Despite the senator’s lead, “it’s McCain, not Huckabee, who’s fighting the uphill battle this week,” Romano writes.
McCain has been riding an increase in popularity in the Palmetto State since his big win in New Hampshire last week.
McCain’s supporters will face off against Huckabee’s conservative backers, but not all evangelicals are convinced of Huckabee’s qualifications, as evident from “mysterious fliers” that have been appearing across the state, accusing him of being too liberal.
On Wednesday, the fliers were left on “nearly one hundred car windshields outside of Hampton Park Baptist Church in Greenville, CNN reported.
“Under the banner, ‘Mike Huckabee - a ‘True’ Conservative’ the printout hammers Huckabee on immigration and taxes,” said CNN. “It quotes a 2005 Arkansas News article that paraphrased Huckabee as saying, ‘Arkansas needs to make the transition from a traditional Southern state to one that recognizes and cherishes diversity and culture.’”
The fliers are signed by “Lynchburg Christian Students for the Truth” and haven’t been affiliated with another candidate or political party.
Huckabee has not responded to the fliers but is getting attention for a recent interview with Belief Net, in which he talked about proposed changes to the U.S. Constitution.
In the interview, Huckabee was asked whether he would “bring the Constitution into strict conformity with the Bible.” The former governor responded that it’s not “a radical view to say we’re going to affirm marriage.”
“I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and an animal,” Huckabee said. “Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again.”
-- By , NewsHour with Jim Lehrer | Comments | Link
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I graduated from Furman University several decades ago, about 10 miles below North Greenville.
Furman a leading school in its size in the Southeast, broke with Southern Baptists in the early 90's because of the fundamentalism Huckabee is loosely associated with.
I met Huckabee in person the Sunday after Thanksgiving; found him personally to be warm and disarming.
Even so I think the national media is missing a larger story, maybe even larger than Huckabee's candidacy; and that is the character of the Southern Baptist Convention as it has evolved over the last 30 years that has made HBee's success so far possible.
Jim Evans of FBC, Auburn, Alabama has written an oped at the site ethicsdaily.com about that very subject just today. And it is taking traction under the rubric of the Memphis Declaration at a progressive baptist discussion board, www.baptistlife.com/forums
Evans makes a strong case the election for the next president of the SBC may be a stronger indicator about the character of our national life; equal or more significant than Huckabee's bid for USA President.
Click on Faith and Practice there.