On Friday afternoon, while details of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School were still coming to light, Mike Huckabee appeared on Fox News to complain about school prayer. "We ask why there is violence in our schools but we have systematically removed God from our schools," he said.
Upon further inspection, Huckabee's unfortunate comments didn't make any sense. But instead of backing off, the former Arkansas governor and failed presidential candidate managed to make matters slightly worse over the weekend.
Reflecting on Friday's murders, the Fox News personality argued:
"Christian-owned businesses are told to surrender their values under the edict of government orders to provide tax-funded abortion pills. We carefully and intentionally stop saying things are sinful and we call them disorders. Sometimes, we even say they're normal.
"And to get to where that we have to abandon bedrock moral truths, then we ask, 'Well, where was God?' And I respond that, as I see it, we've escorted Him right out of our culture and we've marched Him off the public square and then we express our surprise that a culture without Him actually reflects what it's become."
So long as Huckabee is going to keep spewing rhetoric like this, we might as well take the time to explain how foolish it is.
First, the government is not forcing businesses to provide "tax-funded abortion pills." As Zack Beauchamp explained, "The Obamacare contraception mandate, which is what Huckabee is likely referring to, does not provide coverage for any abortifacients -- and will actually help reduce abortion rates."
Second, the notion that the United States has a godless culture and a public square devoid of religiosity makes me wonder what country Mike Huckabee lives in. As best as I can tell, in America's public square, we have religious television stations, religious radio stations, religious athletes who pray on the field, religious entertainers who thank God at award ceremonies, religious public officials who emphasize their faith when seeking public office, religious book stores, religious holidays, religious movements, religious references on our currency, and pastors who get their own television shows on cable news networks.
And third, to reiterate a point from the weekend, the fact that Huckabee continues to want to push a bogus culture war in the wake of a national tragedy suggests he just isn't an especially nice guy.
For a guy with a jovial reputation, there’s something rather disturbing about Mike Huckabee’s worldview. Remember, it was earlier this year when he said he wanted to see President Obama's college transcripts "to show whether he got any loans as a foreign student."
Last year, Huckabee falsely claimed President Obama “grew up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.” Soon after, he endorsed “death panel” garbage. By the early summer, Huckabee was equating the national debt with the Nazi Holocaust.
In August 2009, Huckabee argued on his own radio show that Obama’s health care reform plan would have forced Ted Kennedy to commit suicide. Ed Kilgore argued at the time, “This despicable rant should disqualify Mike Huckabee from any further liberal sympathy, no matter how much he tries to joke or rock-n-roll his way back into mainstream acceptability.”
That’s as true now as it was then.
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Always nice to see what Elmer Gantry, er, I mean Mike Schmuckabee has to say about anything, as he continues his lifelong efforts to demonstrate the downside of ten generations of hillbilly incest and what it can create.
Thank you, and you owe me for the soup that came out! OTFLMAO!!!
You're welcome, Z-R. I hope there weren't any big solid pieces. :-)
ts too bad Chris Hitchens is not here to answer this mental moron!I will try in honor too Hitches.
How do you look at yourself in the mirror and propose that God's will killed these children? That he could have saved them and would have if we would just kneel and Pray more? This is why Scripture babble is immoral and not rational ! Because Huckabee, must, as a result of his statements, put these murders of innocents and all murders of innocents on an Imaginary God! By definition this imaginary God is supposed to be loving and protective of children! Huckabee put himself in the boxed Canyon of un-reasoned sillyness!If God does this to children, why would we need a devil ?Huckabee is just another huckster, a drive in preacher bilking the slow witted for money. He has been found out that his collection plate, goes in his personal pocket !!Throw him off the air!
Not to mention the fact that Huckabee's god seems to only be capable of living in the narrow boxes that his narrow non-denominational rigidity puts him in.
Not much of an "all-powerful" being, if you ask me, if, like vampires, this god can only walk over thresholds where he is explicitly invited. Is Huckabee's god also repelled by garlic?
That might explain a lot.
Other religions have a god or gods who are present in every living thing, in the sunshine and the air, masters or mistresses of creation, chaos, erebus, and black night. They can even contend admirably with such philosophical conundrums as the Problem of Evil!
Hindu polytheism seems to permeate creation the most fully with a divine spirit, though perhaps Native American spirituality comes a close second, honoring the divine in all living beings, plants, and inanimate objects, the earth and the air.
Such gods don't live on altars, in places where altar boys and girls must bow down to enter to light the candles. They don't stay captured in Arks or relics or Holiest of Holy places where only priests are allowed.
Omnipresent deities transcend space and time, appeal to tax collectors and prostitutes, even murders on Death Row, and are otherwise occupied in a more democratizing appeal than restricting their access to a narrow class of self-appointed High Priests and tradition-bearers bent on restricting and controlling the the god-like powers by proxy for their own purposes, as an all powerful filter, dictating where and when their god can appear and bless or curse.
So that's what the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are for.
I thought they were given to Google (what Google blesses exists in our world. What it curses is thrown into the Bottomless Pit with much weeping and gnashing of teeth).
Huckabee only WISHES he had that much power.
nickwolf, I will pray for you. Your hateful and inaccurate comments about what Mike Huckaby said on Fox News is pitiful. Someday, when you are about to die and will see the future coming towards you, let's see how cynical you can talk about GOD. Let's just see if you cry out with these words, "God, where are you? Why have you forsaken me?". There are no other words to express my deep sorrow for you and your family sir.
Huckabee is a lieutenant in the Koch empire anti-abortion. (Karl Rove is the 5 star general) So Huckabee has to toe the Koch line which currently runs: contraception is against God's will, therefore we have to protect the Catholic bishops and other "persons of conscience" from having to pay for any contraception, to have them pay is a violation of their religious freedom. Now, I don't want to misrepresent them. Have I got it straight? I think I do.
If that is their argument, then there must be no religious freedom for anyone who believes in contraception and that the bishops should pay and who believes that the decision to bear a child is a matter of choice. In other words, there is only selective religious freedom, call it, religious freedom for the minority only and never for the woman.
But the anti-abortion army is but one of the Koch Empire's armies in its war on America.
Vis-a-vis the Koch Brothers, remember that their wealth is originally inherited, augmented by dabbling in environmental-busting enterprises that need protection from the EPA. (Wait--protection from the Environmental Protection Agency? Yep, that's right.) They have long-standing ties to the John Birch Society. Explains a lot of where they choose to spend their money.
I've noticed how often the GodSquad comes out with patently insincere, smarmy, sanctimony? They could make Uriah Heep* wince.
* The Dickens character, not the rock band.
LOL EntropyRules. How about the Dickens character AND the rock band. Wouldn't that be cool?
Sort of like "A dessert topping AND a floor wax!"
Dating myself, again.
Huckabee is not the voice of the Christian God. He is the antithesis of Christ and the teaching of Jesus. Paul is talking about the Huckabees when he talks about the evil ones. You are the one Paul is asking to put on the armor.
Ephesians 6:10-18
New International Version (NIV)
The Armor of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
The evil Koch empire includes the Roves and the Huckabees and to combat them, each of us must do our part to win this war.
Huckabee needs to come to this vine and read the many posts. Then he would see how wrong he is about this country turning its back on God.
Why do I keep hearing Rod Serling saying "That's the signpost up ahead..."
Dragoon21b,
That signpost was passed long ago.
can we please find a rest stop...I need some air and I want a Slurpee
I'll compromise. Huck doesn't suffer from a disorder. He merely uses the Lord's name in vain, because he is an evil, sinful man.
I just can't believe anyone with half a brain listens to this. What kind of f'ed up G_d slaughters innocent kids because He doesn't like birth control pills????
You see, here's where you make your mistake. You're not supposed to actually THINK about anything he says. Just swallow and regurgitate on demand. You want to talk about War on [fill in the blank]? How about a War on Reason, which is what the Religious Right is all about.
"...the fact that Huckabee continues to want to push a bogus culture war in the wake of a national tragedy suggests he..."
Tells me that he and the other zealots that follow him have NO real understanding of "G-d" and follow false prophets! Can WE have these zealots deported to one of those theocracies , or better yet Mogadishu where they can proselytize all they want to?!
And to get to where that we have to abandon bedrock moral truths, then we ask, 'Well, where was God?' And I respond that, as I see it, we've escorted Him right out of our culture and we've marched Him off the public square and then we express our surprise that a culture without Him actually reflects what it's become.
Help. Help. I'm being oppressed. You can't even unload a couple hundred rounds on a reindeer these days without taking out a publicly-funded and installed "Holiday" tree.
Holiday tree? So you're one of the soldiers in the war on Christmas. Just kidding, you're good people.
Huck can go suck a ball gag.
Oh, I suppose his dominatrix, with the skimpy leather outfit and stiletto heels, uses a ball gag often.
Many many years ago when I was young, we had no prayer in the classroom (other than the ones quickly offered by the individual before a test - just as today!) and there were NO school shootings - at all. What deranged mind comes up with such nonsense??
I don't want to start abrasion, but I must say ask this.
"What do those do who say, 'i have god on my side?"
To me those who claim divine warrant for all of the Certainties, are the ones to be the most afraid of.
The Huckster is a (not very good) snake oil salesman who preys on the fears of the small minded. He offers nothing of substance to the debate.
Way back when Huckabee was running for president in 2008, there were some stories out of Arkansas about what a vicious mo-fo he is behind that folksy mask.
If the rumors are true that he didn't run in 2012 because Bill Clinton among others threatened to reveal some real dirt if he did, I wish that this kind of nastiness out of Huckabee would force that information out.
This makes the exact same amount of sense that some of the comments on this blog do, zero. Huck is no less insane sounding than anyone else defending our gun culture are.
I am personally and deeply thankful that Mr. Huckabee never came anywhere near the office of the president. Perhaps we should keep him in our prayers.
How can someone be so out of touch with reality. His Bible bubble has some thick skin.
Steve -- Thanks. Sometimes it just has to be said. And said again. And again, since he keeps digging himself in deeper.
One thing for sure - after Huckabee dies it won't be Jesus he'll be spending his time with.
So having more God in the school woulda stopped this from happening? How'd that work for all the little boys raped by priests? Maybe there's not enough God in church?
Also, I learned this weekend that the incident happened at a Catholic school, not a "godless" public school.
Keep in mind that he only meant Christian God when he said:
Supposed there are movements that request Allah, Buddha, or Zeus to be put in school prayer, the sound bite will be totally different.
If school violence are happening because God was chased away from school, then what can explain the violence happened in Churches, Temple, or Mosques?
I would like Mr. Huckabee to explain how we can 'escort' or ' remove' god from anywhere. What I learned in Sunday school is that god is everywhere. All these conservatives who complain about god being taken from school would be the loudest critics if their children were told by a teacher to pray to Allah. But other peoples' children who aren't Christian should have those children forced to pray to Mr. Huckabee's god, because he says so. What a flaming hypocrite. As the saying goes, as long as there are tests, there will be prayer in school. Children can pray whenever they want, as long as they are not being a disruption to the class. The teacher can not lead a prayer because she is a representative of the state, and there is separation of church ans state. I know conservatives think it doesn't exist, but it's there as much for their benefit as it is for non Christians.
Yes indeed we all know that if Jesus was here he would own an Uzi!
God help us rid our schools and government of false profits and religious zealots who seem more intent on raising money from the gun lobby than doing good. Damn these far right kooks and their holier than thou act!
The NRA used fear to boost gun sales in Obama's first term and again in his second. The religious kooks have been preaching hate and bigotry inciting their kookiest to arm themselves against America!
It is way past time for us pacifists and liberals to take off the gloves and grab the paddle. End the insanity. Ban handguns and automatics. Jail anyone that fails to keep their guns locked up when not in use. Toss out conservative judges that are pro-gun and pro-theocracy.
Better yet send these kooks to hell now so they see what they get for being so hateful and arrogant! (Okay,I admit I am getting a little arrogant myself. Fight fire with fire?)
Paul -- It's not arrogance, just understandable anger. You forget that we know you, or at least read you in your calmer moments.
Paul,
I'm with you, man! I'm one of those "pacifists and liberals" and I've had a headache for 3+ days now because I have 9 grandchildren (all in school or getting ready to start) and two neighbors who are teachers and I can't figure out what to do to make them safe!
I start with "Let's beat the swords into plowshares". I have no use for guns. But that isn't all. To those who scream about their 2nd amendment rights I scream right back, "What about these victims rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?" YOUR RIGHTS END WHERE MY NOSE BEGINS!!
I feel a little like Sisyphus, but now my resolve is strengthened, not weakened. There HAS to be a solution to this. There HAS to be. I won't quit searching till I find an answer and my head stops hurting.
One more thing: I'm a recovering alcoholic (16+yrs.) Today I passed a couple of co-workers spewing the standard 2nd amendment/gun ownership diatribe, "It's not the guns, it's the person, etc." Blah, blah, blah. It suddenly sounded exactly like the excuses I used to make and that I hear when talking with a practicing alcoholic. "It's not the booze/drugs, it's the wife, kids, boss, cops, etc that just don't understand."
I had a moment of clarity: We are addicted to guns and the gun mystique. We can actually look at an atrosity like this and say, "It's not the guns, it's the Mom/Dad/divorce/whatever. Blah, blah, blah." Hopefully we just hit bottom as a society.
This is thoroughly appalling, but it does make me somewhat less worried about Huckabee as a presidential contender. It sounds like he's decided to continue milking the rubes on right-wing media and is no longer thinking about how his outrageous statments will affect his national political standing.
Religion and politics attract the worst kind of whores.
They also attract evil with money and the means to prevail. The Kochs want to rape America. They want to have smaller government so they can take over. They have many armies doing their bidding and some are religious and some are political. They make the words, religion and politics, seem nasty but we as human can not live without either.
These guys keep saying that God has been forced out of the public square and the left wing keeps saying, "Not true." Well, it kind of is true.
They have been restrained from forcing their god on people that don't want to listen. Sure, you can have god all you want privately, but what they want is to be legally allowed to shove their version of God down the throats of people that aren't interested.
And this infuriates them. And they think it infuriates their petty, petulant god so much that he will destroy children and wipe out cities because of it.
This, more than anything else, made me an atheist.
huckabee isn't evil. he's stupid, ignorant, smug, arrogant, and especially greedy, but not evil. close, but no cigar. i save evil for guys like limbaugh, norquist, and the ceo's of those financial companies who got us into our present mess.
On April 2, 2012 a gunman killed seven people at Oikos University, a small Christian school in California.
God, why did you allow this to happen?
I guess religion isn't protection against the apathy of God.
Huckabee's beliefs have nothing to so with religion and everything to do with money.
Anytime someone starts waving the flag or thumping the Bible, watch your wallets.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."
- Sinclair Lewis
Poor God. God has all these morons trying to define it. God has all these idiots putting words in its mouth. Huckabee has made a stupid, vindictive, hateful God for stupid, vindictive, hateful people. Is it any wonder normal folks don't want this kind of a God in schools?