Q: Well, I'm a little curious how your experience as a pastor is helping you on the campaign trail as you seek the presidency?
A: I think it's a great background in part because there's not any social pathology that exists today that I couldn't put a name and a face to. Doesn't matter whether it's a teen girl who's pregnant, hasn't told her parents, or an elderly couple dealing with one of them being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Those are real people to me. Those are the people I dealt with every single day. So that period of my life where I was literally touching people's lives from the cradle to grave is probably the best way I could have ever been prepared to deal with the job that ultimately is about dealing with people and understanding the incredible frailties and complexities of life.
Q: How does your faith inform your politics?
A: The best way is to say that as a Christian for me the essence of Christian faith is that you treat others as if you wish to be treated. That was the ultimate commandment of Jesus -- to love God with your whole heart, to love others as you would love yourself, and to treat others as you would wish to be treated. That's really the heart of the Gospel. So if a person is in public office your ultimate question is not how should this affect me, but if I were that person how would I want someone to deal with this issue in such a way as to best benefit that person? I think it gets easier for me. Public policy is pretty easy when you ask, you know, what would I have them do unto me?
Q: What role does prayer play in your decision-making process?
A: Prayer's important, not just as some kind of a metaphysical exercise, but I think it's a way to refresh one's own mind and motive. If you're praying, you're really looking beyond your own personal thoughts and the pressures that are around you. You're trying to get a focus on a perspective that's higher than your earthly one. You're trying to see things that are bigger than you, that are more important than you. You remind yourself that, you know, there was a world here before I came along, and there will be one after I leave. I'm not that important, but the decision I make may be, so I need to make the right one.
Q: Does it affect, though, how you come down? I mean, do you think that prayer has an impact on where you ultimately come down on your decision?
A: Oh, I would hope so. I would hope that prayer certainly lets me see things not so much from a selfish perspective. That's the main thing, to take it away from my own nature, which is that of every person, to look at things from one's own personal perspective as if the world's about me. Prayer reminds me it's not just about me. It's about all the people with whom I share this planet, and all of whom God has created, and all of whom he cares just as much about as he cares about me. He loves me no more than he does anybody else. He loves them no less than he does me. So if I'm a person of prayer, I'm going to be reminded of that because that ultimately is what prayer does. It just takes us to a level of higher thought than our own personal selfishness.
Q: What do you say to people who believe that a minister shouldn't -- a former minister -- shouldn't be president? How do you reach out to potential voters who say, "I can never see myself voting for a former Southern Baptist pastor"?
A: I can't imagine that there's still that much bigotry in this country as it relates to religion. I would hope not. It would be like saying Martin Luther King should have kept his mouth shut 'cause, after all, he should have stayed in the church and not preached justice and righteousness. Do we really say that about him? I've never heard it said. Interestingly, most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were ministers or were very active in their church, but many of them were actual ministers in their church. For us to somehow act like that people of faith are disenfranchised from being in the public square, again, I would find that disturbing, as if there is sort of a unspoken bigotry toward people of faith. And, furthermore, if that's the case then, you know, if I'm not going to be exempted from having to pay taxes and living in the real world like everybody else, then don't shove me to the side. In the case of my particular candidacy, it's not like I've just stepped from the pulpit to run for president. I was a lieutenant governor three years. I was a governor ten and a half. Among the Republicans, I actually have more executive government experience than any other single candidate running for president. Mayor Giuliani sometimes talks about his executive experience. He was a mayor eight years. I was in public office as an elected official for eleven and half, ten and a half of which was the chief executive of my state.
Q: How have you learned as a politician, or what guidelines do you try to employ in your language when you speak about religion so as to include or not alienate people who don't share your particular beliefs?
A: I understand that there's somewhat of an anxiety with certain people because I have an outspoken view on faith. I think I try to disarm people on the front side rather than wait on them to ask the question "how does it affect you?" And sometimes I'll begin speeches in front of audiences that I can sense the tension by just sort of getting it out of the way and talking about look, don't let this be something that you fear, and I'll explain why it's not to be feared, and that is, is because like every other person I'm being honest and open about my faith and how it impacts and how it affects me. I don't worry about people who talk about their faith. I worry about people who say they have it but they refuse to say that it affects them. To me that's disingenuous, or it's somehow indicative of a person who's almost ashamed of his or her faith. If it's real faith it's a part of our lives. We should be comfortable talking about it, just like I'd be comfortable talking about my allegiance to the Arkansas Razorback football team. That's not difficult for me. Why should religion be so difficult for me to talk about? It doesn't bother me if the person says, "I just don't find it important to me. I'm running for office, but I'm an atheist." You know what? I would rather a person be honest and be an atheist than claim to be a Christian but then act like they can't talk about it 'cause they're almost embarrassed to bring it up. That's troubling. If a person says here's a part of my life, it's fundamental to every breath I take, that really defines my world view, and yet I'm uncomfortable discussing it with anybody, I'd worry about a person whose faith is so shallow or so insignificant that they can compartmentalize their entire faith as if it doesn't matter to them.
Q: There actually has been a lot of God talk this campaign season. We're hearing a lot from the Democrats who in the recent past have been a little maybe skittish about dealing with issues of faith. How do you assess the role religion's been playing in this campaign, especially maybe compared to, you know, others in recent history?
A: I think it's healthy. I'm glad to see that Democrats are talking openly about faith, and I don't think it's dishonest or disingenuous. I think it's, frankly, refreshing. In the past it seems the Democrats were afraid to talk about faith from a personal perspective, and I don't know why. I would think that it's something, again, that helps people to get to know you. And whether a person says, "Look, here's my faith and here's what I believe and here's how it affects me" or even to say, "I don't really have much of a faith, so it's not a big issue for me," I think what people look for is candor out of their candidates. They just want somebody to be honest with them. So if a Democrat has faith, and they really personally practice prayer, and they're regular church goers, why shouldn't they tell us that? I think they should, and not a matter of that we ought to vote for them because of that, but just so that we get to know them a little bit. But I welcome it. I think it's a healthy part of the discourse in this campaign.
Q: Does it -- is there a danger that it might hurt some of the Republican base of religious voters?
A: I don't think so, and if it does, it does. It's still a good thing. You know, I was asked early on when there was a discussion that Hillary Clinton had about her faith, and someone asked me about that and did I think it was genuine and I said why wouldn't I think that? She was candid enough to discuss it. I think it plays a very important part of her life, and I respect that and, you know, her faith is practiced in a Methodist Church and mine is in a more contemporary Baptist congregation where we're in some ways more charismatic. But, as I said, some people eat their soup louder than others. It doesn't mean that the soup tastes any better. It's just a matter of how we approach it. That's why I think sometimes it's important for us to talk about it openly. Let people see that there are different, maybe, viewpoints and theologies and worship styles. The key thing, though, is being refreshingly candid so that we can let people look in on us, and if they decide that that makes us a nut because we believe there's a God, so be it. Let them believe that. I'm more than willing to be laughed at for my faith if that's what people wish to do. I've been laughed at before. But what I would, I guess, be more pained by would not be to be laughed at for my faith, but would be to be ignored for it.
Q: What do you -- what does learning about a politician's faith teach the voters? You know, why is that important information for a voter?
A: Mostly to let them know what their value system is. Where do they get their values? Is it from the latest opinion poll? Is it from an academic study which would change with every few years in terms of a new academic study? Or are there some things in a person's life that they believe are inherently right, or things that are inherently wrong? And if so, why are they right or wrong? And what's the basis of believing that? You know, if a person doesn't have some type of sense of moral absolutes and everything is relative, that's a signal to a potential voter that here's a person that no matter what he tells you, just remember that he's willing to adjust as culture and society adjust. If a person has a God-centered view of the world and believes that we really do have accountability ultimately not just to each other but to a Creator God who was here before us and will be here after us, then that does shape, in fact, how we look at life, and I think that's important for voters to know.
Q: Why do you think religious conservatives haven't rallied around you stronger than they have, given that you share so much of what they believe?
A: I think that in some ways the Christian conservative movement has maybe gotten off the track. I think that some of them, frankly, are more intoxicated with power than principle, and I know that's a pretty outrageous if not rather bold statement to make, but I think it's the truth. Some have become so acquainted now with power and have been so close to it that they forget that the purpose for which they got involved in politics was not to be close to power; it was to speak the truth to power. It was to hold those in power, to hold their feet to the fire over issues they said got them involved and motivated. Now I hear some of the so-called Christian leaders say, "Well, we love Huckabee. He really agrees with us, and he's one of us in terms of views. But, you know, we're looking for somebody that we're confident is going to win." Well, two things. First, a lot of these people if they would get behind me I'd be winning right now, and I think I will ultimately without them. But secondly, if they really are principled, it's not about who might win, it's about who stands with us. And, frankly, it's a little disturbing, if not frightening, that some have forgotten the essence of what Jesus taught, and that is if you gain the whole world but lose your soul what does it profit you? And, frankly, some who would say, "Well, the presidency is so important." You know, well, so what? The presidency is not as important as are your values and as are your deep principles from the heart. And I worry about people who have come to this sort of "it's about winning." No. It's about standing for your convictions. And if it's not about that, then I'm afraid that many people got involved for all the wrong reasons.
Q: Are you able to get to church very often on a campaign trail? How do you try to do that?
