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The FundamentaList (No. 15)Sarah Posner1. The Meaning of HuckmasThe last Sunday before the caucuses, Mike Huckabee backed off from giving a scheduled sermon at an Iowa church, saying he wanted to worship instead of speak. But on the previous Sunday, just two days before Christmas, in front of a packed crowd at John Hagee's 5,000-seat Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, Huckabee equated real believers in Christ with the lowly shepherds who heralded the arrival of the newborn king, and selfish nonbelievers with Herod, King of Judea, who felt so threatened by Jesus' arrival that he ordered all baby boys to be murdered. Believers, he maintained, are unselfish and want to serve Jesus; the nonbelievers, like Herod, want power and money all to themselves and refuse to worship the son of God. Although Huckabee has insisted that he didn't replace the Arkansas capitol dome with a steeple and that his comments in religious settings shouldn't be misconstrued as theocratic, it was hard for this Jew in the pew (in the church that claims to love the Jews, after all!) not to interpret his sermon otherwise. Arrogant and exclusionary, it left me wondering, what happened to all that peace on earth and good will business? Huckabee's claim that "there's a time for political things, and this isn't one of them" was typical of his disingenuous "who, me?" routine when he does something blatantly and cynically political while pretending to be "doing the right thing." (A more recent case in point was his press conference stunt of yanking his anti-Romney ad off the air, while getting free airtime by showing it to assembled reporters. For other examples in religious settings, see FundamentaList 8:3 and 11:3 .) His appearance at Hagee's church, he maintained, was to discuss the meaning of Christmas. But he of course could not resist an allusion to the campaign -- one with which the audience seemed well familiar. Read the rest of this piece here. |
 
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