Mike Huckabee is drunk. Wait, I take that back. He's a Southern Baptist and good Southern Baptists don't drink. But you can understand my confusion. The former AK AR Governor and 2008 Republican Party candidate called the economic recovery plan passed by Congress “anti-religious,” according to the good folks at Politico.com. Here's what the online journal reported:
The former Republican presidential candidate pointed to a provision in both the House and Senate versions banning higher education funds in the bill from being used on a “school or department of divinity.”
“You would think the ACLU drafted this bill,” Huckabee said. “For all of the talk about bipartisanship, this Congress is blatantly liberal.”
“Emily’s List, radical environmental groups, etc. all have a seat at the decision making table in Washington these days,” he continued. “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are in charge and they are working with an equally ‘progressive’ President Obama (remember his voting record is more liberal than Ted Kennedy!).”
Nothing Huckabee said sounded even a little bit anti-religious, but I'm just an seminary-trained ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh wait! Maybe I do have something to say on this.
Rev. Gov.Mr. Huckabee, here is what is anti-religious about the age in which we live.
- Growing numbers of people are becoming homeless.
- Growing numbers of children are going hungry.
- People are watching their retirement benefits slip away.
- Economic policies embraced by you and your party for a generation have driven a deep wedge between those who are poor and those who are rich.
- The policies you've supported have left deficits that our children will be forced to pay.
In short, you've left behind the least of these in favor of the rich and powerful. Who was it in the Bible who said we shouldn't act like that? Oh, that's right: Jesus.
You can see now why I thought you might have been drinking when you said the economic recovery plan was anti-religious because to say such a thing - and thereby attempt to further divide the American people along religious and economic lines - you'd either have to be a mean drunk or just a truly awful person who has put his own political ambitions ahead of Amercia's needs during a time of crisis.
Because what you said just wasn't true. The plan isn't going to build the Kingdom for us but it hopefully will move us in a direction as a nation where taking care of the least of these in times of crisis is seen not as charity to be done on the side but as a central role of the people's government.
