QuietER, But Far From Quiet in NH, Prophecy, and more…
THEY CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES . . .
Evangelical Division . . .
I guess you cannot stop a preacher from preaching. Mike Huckabee stepped into a New Hampshire pulpit this past weekend. Of course, candidates have stood in pulpits as long as there has been this nation, but Huckabee is unique in his appearances – he is PREACHING, not making a political speech:
“When we become believers, it’s as if we have signed up to be part of God’s Army, to be soldiers for Christ,” Huckabee told the enthusiastic audience.
[...]
Huckabee’s campaign did not allow cameras into the church, and the candidate did not make an appeal for votes as part of his sermon. But a church official invited members to attend an event a mile away, where Huckabee held a rally with actor Chuck Norris and where free clam chowder was served.
I cannot help but think the IRS is going to be all over this pretty soon. Of course, far less under the radar has been that Obama has had a number of events in churches, but he is usually not in attendance and he certainly does not take to the pulpit.
The Religion News Service looks at what Huckabee can accomplish if he unites all Evangelicals. My guess is he can acomplish their irrelevancy in national politics . . .
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Huckabee claimed God’s hand in his rise? (Here’s the video.) John Ponder of the Pensito Review says it all:
He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword . . . I am sorely tempted to go deeply theological here, but shall resist the temptation.
Mormon Division . . .
We were bombarded with a press release yesterday concerning a new book claiming Mormons really do want to take over the country, based on something called the “White Horse Prophecy.” Reuters even picked up the release. Regular readers of this blog know we have been down this road many times, and there is no there there, but I leave the details up to Lowell.
Lowell: I’ll take my cue. We covered White Horse in some depth over a year ago. Whatever else might be said about that bit of LDS folklore, it certainly is appropriately named: It’s a favorite hobby horse for cranks.
A blogger out of the Netherlands commented:
Man, oh man.
What a bunch of nonsense. It’s sad to think that the author actually spent a lot of time writing this book. And it’s even more sad that he found a publisher willing to publish it.
But once an actual journalist got a hold of it (Mary Ann Akers of WaPo) it did not stand the light of day very well:
For all the talk about dirty tricks this season, one of the more questionable (and curious) came at a news conference Monday far from the campaign trail. At a news conference at the sleepy National Press Club in Washington, a no-name college classmate of Mitt Romney hawked his “open letter” to Romney titled “Mitt, Set Our People Free!”
A lapsed Mormon, Michael Moody mocked his former religion (in very nasty terms) and declared Romney unfit for the presidency because of what he sees as the Mormon former Massachusetts governor’s biggest conflict: his “blood oath” to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
[...]
Moody claims he has “no affiliation” with any other GOP presidential candidate and hasn’t decided who he’ll support for president. An eight-page summary of “Mitt, Set Our People Free!” mentions former GOP Arkansas Mike Huckabee’s name twice, and defends the Huckster for catching “flack” for asking Romney whether Mormons believe Jesus and Lucifer were brothers.
Hmmmm . . . .
Looking Left and Right…
On the right…
The news service of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the school run by Al Mohler, looks at the Romney campaign and manages not to sound like they are pulling teeth when they say reasonable things.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he believes Mormonism falls outside the boundaries of orthodox Christianity but that Romney addressed evangelicals’ main concerns.
[...]
Some people, Romney said, believe that his ties to his religion “will sink my candidacy.”
“If they are right, so be it,” he said. “But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.”
You know, Lowell and I met Dr. Land at The Speech and he professed to being quite impressed. Further, we have had the opportunity to see some advance copies of a forthcoming movie called Article VI – Faith * Politics * America which features Dr. Land quite prominently.
Land’s comments are increasingly open to the Romney candidacy and the fact that this story comes out of Mohler’s organization is also quite significant.
You would think these guys would be naturals for Huckabee, but then they tend to be pretty smart.
On the left…
“You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”
That quote is fascinating for two reasons. For one, it illustrates who the real enemy is and secondly it illustrates how trying to distinguish religions from each other as more or less rational just does not carry much weight. That, frankly, is why the discussion of religion in the public square is limited, it is, on some levels rationally indefensible my religion, Lowell’s religion, even my Hindu, Jewish, and Shinto clients.
We limit our public discussion to the rational. This, by the way, is why when we as religious people take a stand on an issue, we need to learn how to make our case on other than religious grounds.
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CarlH on 08 Jan 2008 at 10:16 am #
The Michael Moody hatchet job has longer legs than it deserves. It is astounding to see what supposedly serious journalists are willing to lap up. The Centre [County Pennsylvania] Daily Times picks up the story for its business section (!) and links it to Noah Feldman’s NY Times article from the weekend, under a nice, neutral head and sub-head:
With the double reference to Huckabee (notwithstanding the disclaimer of any relation to any candidate), this couldn’t be evidence of Ed Rollins’ “going negative” as promised, could it?
4thnephite on 08 Jan 2008 at 11:59 am #
Why do the faith-less fear the faithful.
JLFuller on 08 Jan 2008 at 2:10 pm #
Senator McCain, since you were first elected, is Washington better or worse?
OK, let’s see if I have this right. You have been in Washington for how many decades? Two or is this your third? Is Washington better today or is it worse? Let me see if I can remember what your accomplishments are:
1. Something with Ted Kennedy I seem to remember. Was it a conservative thing or does Ted Kennedy’s presence really tell us all we need to know about that?
2. You did something with another hugely liberal Democrat I think. Was it Russ Finegold? Yeah, I think that is it. The presence of another liberal Democrat’s name on your work tells us a lot about where your heart is there too.
3. Now you did something with another Democrat in Joe Lieberman, albeit one we kind of like I will admit, at least on defense issues.
4. You jumped on General Petraeus’ surge idea fairly early. I have to give you credit for that although it wasn’t your idea. But you did the right thing there. That’s ONE. I will give you credit for it even though it was someone else’s’ idea.
5. What else? You seem to get along well the Clinton’s and you speak highly of Barack Obama. I have to admit I do kind of like Obama’s wife. I would hire her to get me out of a legal jam. I don’t know what he has ever done though that is worthy of comment.
But I am still at a loss to find something you did for Republicans. You did a lot for Democrats but nothing for conservatives except propose to make it easier for illegal aliens to get into the US and stay here. Oh wait – that is another Democrat thing.
So I guess I am still at a loss to find anything you did for Republicans. Maybe somebody can help me out here.
kgbudge on 08 Jan 2008 at 5:29 pm #
There’s no mystery who is behind this. Joe Carter, who was with the Huckabee campaign until recently, posted a long rambling reminiscence in which he indicated that he knew this book was coming out.
Now he’s deleted that section of his post, with a vague explanation that hides his insider knowledge.
Draw your own conclusions.
CarlH on 09 Jan 2008 at 9:53 am #
The E-mail campaign, the Press conference and the [supposed] Book
At the risk of giving too much credence to something that doesn’t deserve it, here’s a a little more on the highly flacked “exposé” that turned into a press release for a book–indeed a book the actual existence of is still in doubt.
Well, there is now a listing on Amazon for the book, but it looks as suspicious as the press conference and press release.
For what it’s worth (not much), the book is listed as “temporarily out of stock.”
The “Reviews” are pretty hilarious. The first by “Precision Political Reviews” (Google search comes up empty!) is pretty much a rehash of the press release. The second by “Barry Jobe” (Google search comes up with lots of references to a Nashville vocalist/backup singer! as well as a prior Amazon “customer review”–of a vanity press book!–noting he is the “author of SF stories Plowshare and Mothership”) is just plain nonsensical spin.
The supposed website for “Revelation Press” still doesn’t work. I guess it could be all those conspiracy-theorists and Ron Paul supporters (I suppose I am repeating myself there) crashing the site in their rush to buy this important book!
The two “contact” individuals listed in the press release, Daryl Toor of Attention Group and Ned Barnett of BarnettMarCom, are both internet marketing types who build “buzz” and “get the word out”–mostly for businesses, which appears to be the reason that this is getting picked up by all sorts of investor-related webnews trackers.
There might be a smidgen of “something” here, but the something looks mostly like a political hack job–and a pretty pathetic one at that.
Greta Van Susteren lashed out at the pre-press conference e-mail attempts to create a buzz, that seemed mostly to have taken hold only among Ron Paul supporting blogsites.