Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is expected to announce a run for president today, launching his campaign from his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Although most pundits list him as a long shot, he will likely play a pivotal role in the GOP primary, mainly because of his popularity with a key Republican constituency: conservative Christians.
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, often roots his various policy positions in a particular understanding of Christianity, regularly quoting Bible passages to shore up right-wing opinions on a number of issues. But while his spiritual tropes will likely play well with some evangelical voters this year, his claims — both theologically and politically — can be dubious at best.
Here are a few examples.
1. Huckabee has repeatedly cited the Bible to justify his opposition to same-sex marriage, even though tens of millions of Christians think his argument is bunk.
For years, Huckabee has cherry-picked a few scriptural passages to bolster his opposition to LGBT equality, telling CNN that same-sex marriage “is not a political issue … It is a biblical issue,” and saying he will maintain his position “unless I get a new version of the Scriptures.” He also responded to the 2013 Supreme Court case striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage by tweeting “Jesus wept,” and recently condemned marriage equality to a group of Hispanic evangelicals by declaring “when it comes to the sanctity of marriage, the court cannot change what God has created.”
Unfortunately for Huckabee, a growing cadre of theologians are challenging the idea that the Bible demonizes homosexuality, arguing passages typically used to condemn LGBT people have been taken out of context. This is partly why multiple Christian denominations now formally embrace marriage equality, and why the majority of most major American Christian groups favor same-sex marriage — even if their hierarchy disagrees. Despite the best efforts of Huckabee and the Religious Right, the brand of Christianity that is narrowly focused on LGBT exclusion is a dying breed in the United States.
2. He once argued that Jesus would oppose the minimum wage.
During a 2011 appearance on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Huckabee defended a peculiar interpretation of Matthew 20:1–16 described by historian David Barton, who claimed that Jesus Christ would have opposed the minimum wage. Huckabee explained the “parable of the workers in the vineyard” was an indictment of people who want to be paid more money than they originally agreed to, which he extended to modern workers who ask for higher wages.
But Huckabee and Barton represent the radical minority here, as most theologians have traditionally interpreted this passage as a metaphor for God’s grace, not a blueprint for monetary policy. Even those who do see the parable as an economic model usually come to the opposite conclusion: famed theologian William Sloane Coffin once preached that the story was really about guaranteeing workers a living wage, which is often estimated to be higher than any minimum wage increase currently being discussed on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, every major religious group in America — including white evangelical Protestants — supports raising the minimum wage.
3. He tried to explain away faith-based objections to his stance on immigrant children and immigration reform.
During last year’s border crisis, when tens of thousands of men, women, and children fled horrific violence in Central America to seek refuge in the United States, Huckabee reportedly was asked what a proper Christian response would be. The question was especially pressing for Christians on the border, as many were opening their sanctuaries to assist the weary migrants. In addition, more than 3,800 people of faith signed a petition calling on Congress and President Barack Obama to muster emergency funds to help the unaccompanied children.
Huckabee, however, published a Facebook post last July blasting government support for immigrants, saying, “Let’s be clear — there is a Christian thing and there’s a government thing … Helping the poor and aiding the homeless and the helpless is indeed the duty of the church. But the duty of the government is to protect us — not provide for us.”
Huckabee’s response ignored the fact that faith-based charities who provide direct assistance to the poor and needy are often partially funded by state, local, and federal grants. In fact, Catholic Charities — one of the main groups who dedicated substantial resources to assist during the crisis — gets over half of its operating budget from federal funds, and faith groups such as the Baptist Child and Family Services were actually contracted by the federal government to provide housing for the thousands of immigrant children.
Furthermore, his uneven opposition to the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration is out-of-step with most American Christians. Evangelical leaders — including representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention, Huckabee’s own denomination — advocated passionately for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, and polls show the majority of evangelical Christians support a viable pathway to citizenship for the undocumented.
4. He has openly doubted the theory of evolution, and hinted that creationism should be taught in public schools.
Huckabee challenged Darwinism in 2004, expressing support for teaching children creationism and telling the Arkansas Times, “I do not necessarily buy into the traditional Darwinian theory.”
This belief is increasingly fringe, as the majority of American Christians say humans evolved with or without God’s help. Most white evangelical Protestants share Huckabee’s perspective, yet its influence is waning within the broader spectrum of American Christianity: Only 15 percent of white mainline Protestants believe that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a 2013 Pew survey. The same study also found that a substantial majority of American Catholics support evolution, which makes sense when one realizes the Vatican has been open to evolution since 1950. In most cases, Christians who support evolution simply don’t see a belief in God as a reason to doubt evolution; Reading the Bible is always an exercise in interpretation to begin with (including Genesis), and there is no reason to doubt God’s power to work through an evolutionary process.
5. Huckabee claimed that Jesus supported the death penalty “on the cross.”
Recent years have seen him dodge questions about capital punishment, but Huckabee addressed the issue in 1997 during a taping of his show on the Arkansas Educational Television Network. When asked by a caller how he, a committed Christian, could support the death penalty, Huckabee argued that if Jesus opposed capital punishment, he would have said so during his crucifixion.
“Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, ‘This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency,’” Huckabee quipped.
Although the majority of American Christians support the death penalty, that number is rapidly shrinking, and Huckabee’s reasoning would appall theologians such as Martin Luther King, Jr., who said “I do not think that God approves the death penalty for any crime, rape and murder included.” It would also frustrate the Catholic Church, which opposes capital punishment outright.
And if Huckabee’s position is that things Jesus didn’t say are permissible by omission, then he might also need to rethink his position on, say, same-sex marriage. After all, Jesus never mentioned homosexuality in the scriptural account of his ministry.
6. Huckabee believes he would have “God’s blessing” if he won the the 2016 election, because he wants to remake America as a “God-centered nation.”
The former Governor has implied that, since he loves God, God would — by extension — ordain his presidency. To be fair, he’s not the first leader to invoke this sort of spiritual power, as European monarchs long claimed unmitigated authority by citing the “divine right of kings.” They, similar to Huckabee, insisted their leadership was ordained by God, and thus not beholden to earthy complaints.
Yet centuries of theologians have dismantled this claim, as does the Bible itself. The Old Testament is littered with examples of kings who came into power loving God, only to disappoint the Almighty. King Solomon, for example, was punished for his sins, and King Saul was rejected by God for his disobedience. To claim to be more righteous than these Biblical exemplars requires quite a bit of hubris, and the God of the Old Testament wasn’t a huge fan of self-righteous leadership.