Comments on: Link It or It Never Happened: Lee Harris on Huckabee and “Attacking” Christian Fundamentalism

by: iowan

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:28:21 +0000

Well, I’m a Christian and I am very concerned about the attacks on Huckabee, and by extension, Christians.
You’ll note that there is what, 17% of Americans who would not vote for an evangelical Christian? Can you guess the demographics of someone who would say that? Yes, I think that some are trying to paint Huckabee as “symbol of hatred” (notice some are comparing him to Pat Buchanan…then Howard Dean…then Ross Perot…then Jerry Falwell…then Pat Robertson)
And that Huckabee is a Baptist I think is as much an issue with some people as Romney being a Mormon. I remember the first time I mentioned the southern Baptists to a well-educated Catholic doctor I know, and the first thing he thought of was ‘those who bomb churches in the South.’ (of course, the churches that were attacked in the South were *Baptist* churches).
Sure, Christian-themed attacks on Huckabee are more common on leftwing sites (huffington post). And since many Romney supporters are Mormon, in the context of Huckabee-Romney, there are religious attacks on the Baptists online. So to be perfectly honest, there are many people who don’t want a Mormon as President, just as there are people who don’t want a Baptist.

by: Anwyn

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:10:35 +0000

What is going unsaid here, and that you may be unaware of, John, is that I’m also a Christian. I’m just frustrated in the extreme, not to say flabbergasted, to see people apparently ready to cast a primary vote based on that facet alone of the candidate. You want to talk about party suicide–that definitely seems the fastest way to it at this point.

Glad to see on your blog we agree on Fred, however.

by: Anwyn

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:07:24 +0000

That’s pretty bad.

Note what I say at the very end, though, and that is that if people are going to use Christianity as justification for voting for Huckabee, they needn’t be shocked and put out when Christianity comes under scrutiny as a motive for voting.

I say it’s both not as widespread as Harris says it is and also not as unwarranted as he says, either.

And back to my mantra, that if they have other reasons for voting for Huckabee, they’re clearly in the wrong party anyway.

by: John

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:54:52 +0000

From the same article:

Yet the worship of sales and marketing is not exactly unknown among the numerous evangelicals who promiscuously deride Mormonism as some kind of weird, even dangerous, sect but who themselves gather weekly to–well, what? Sing their country-rockified, feel-good, self-help-book ballads, lovingly serviced with the Word of the Therapeutic God by blow-dried yet humble, down-home yet suburban preachers whose cavernous mega-churches resemble nothing so much as the Wal-Mart of the soul on sale.

Is that generalized enough that you’ll concede Huckabee’s faith is being attacked by at least some people on the Republican side?

by: Anwyn

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:45:16 +0000

And thanks, Dusty. :)

by: Anwyn

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:36:53 +0000

Again, it seems to me that that is disapproval of the way Huckabee invokes his faith in the race, less than attacking the faith itself.

by: John

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:19:09 +0000

Arwyn,

It’s remembering my info too. Seems to work fine, though I’d love it if you’d add some buttons for links and the like.

So here’s a piece by a conservative, Republican slamming Huckabee (and Romney) for their faith. From the Weekly Standard. A sample:

Is it not evangelical Christianity, rather, with its lack of hierarchical authority and discipline, constituted of individual charismatic preachers vying for the fickle attention of crowds, that is today most susceptible to the charge of cults of personality, at least living ones? And is its leading contender at this moment not one Huckabee of Little Rock, who enthralls the crowds with his musings that he is favored of Providence? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth that I should worship his servant Huckabee and offer him my vote?

And here’s Ann Althouse referring to it as an “excellent piece.”

I’ll grant that most of the treatment so far has been substantive, but Harris only said that things were turning in a bad direction. He didn’t claim we’d hit bottom yet, though I think Ron Paul puts us pretty close.

Slublog,

When people like Harris make their threats…

If you read what he wrote, his tone is almost the opposite. He’s saying “try to understand how this will come across.” The exact phrase he uses is “self-immolation.” In other words, he’s not threatening he’s saying please don’t commit suicide here guys.

by: Dusty

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:52:14 +0000

A very nice retort, Anwyn.

by: Thomas the Wraith

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:34:18 +0000

Slublog - Well no, evangelicals can’t elect a president by themselves. (not yet). But if they switched parties the Dems would win by a landslide. Few if any other groups in the Republican party can say that. Of course this is unlikely to happen. But if many of the evangelicals stayed home the Republicans would be in trouble in several key states. Again, few other groups can say that, much less do it. They simple lack the organizational capacity.

by: Thomas the Wraith

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:26:16 +0000

Anwyn - “The issue here is why Republican primary voters are supporting Huckabee when so many of his policies are at odds with core conservative values.”

Well, I’ll take a stab at it. How about because it turns out that lots of evangelical voters aren’t all that conservative on other issues. Lots of evangelicals are suspicious of free-trade, for example. Lots probably wouldn’t mind higher taxes on wealthier people. Lots are probably skeptical of the so-called ‘freedom agenda.’ The Republican party ain’t monolithic after all.