This reminds me of how things are in the current Conservative Party of Canada. We have a party of MP’s that don’t say a word without permission for fear of swift reprisal and it’s made for one of the sorriest sessions of parliament I’ve ever seen. A 200 page guide book for Conservatives fell into the hands of National Post writer Don Martin last week. Martin doesn’t say if it came from a Conservative, but the party has recalled the book from it’s MP’s in hopes of seeing who is missing one.
The opposition parties are calling for the Harper government to table the manual in the House of Commons. Let’s hope Canadians are tired of the federal Conservative control issues and tactics. It is logical to believe all parties have rule books, but even the few key points Martin pulled for his column go beyond the pale.
Mike Huckabee is a Republican presidential hopeful (former governor of Arkansas) and an Southern Baptist Convention pastor. He had been invited and accepted the invitation to speak at a meeting of world wide Baptists in January. Now he’s backed off, citing what Jimmy Carter said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The audio and text of the Carter interview is online and people can make their own decisions on what he has said and what he is criticizing.
Hucakbee said: “While I continue to have great respect for President Carter as a fellow Christian believer and Baptist, I’m deeply disappointed by the unusually harsh comments made in my state this past weekend regarding President Bush, and feel that it represents an unprecedented personal attack on a sitting president by a former president which is unbecoming the office as well as unbecoming to one whose conference is supposed to be about civility and bringing people together.”
Carter: ” ‘If you look at the exchange, it was a comparison between (President) Nixon’s foreign policy and President Bush’s foreign policy, and I did compare favorably toward what Nixon did in international affairs, there’s no question about that,’ Carter told reporters in St. Bernard Parish, La., where he was helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity.” Carter added: “I should have avoided the question or been more careful.”
The January meeting has nothing to do with politics, which has been strongly stressed by organizers and SBC bloggers who have been briefed - but if Huckabee speaks at the January event, the SBC leadership can and will make his political life a living hell.
If you are a public member of the Southern Baptists, you toe the Republican line or pay the consequences. The message is sent - dialogue with others that aren’t ‘us’ at your peril, and while the World Baptist Alliance is sincerely attempting to reach out to the denomination, I think Marty Duren (one of the SBC bloggers invited to meet with Jimmy Carter last week to help the denomination understand politics were not part of the program) is being realistic.
I suspect any opportunity to find a way out of talking and being seen with American and International Baptists is too big a threat for SBC leadership used to controlling their message at the highest levels. It’s too bad.
Duren at SBC Outpost:
Ultimately, if the Southern Baptist Convention does not have a presence, it does not mean that Southern Baptists cannot have a presence. I’ll keep a close eye on the proceedings, but I want to be hopeful rather than doubtful. I don’t have to agree with everyone who is there to find commonality with some and that might be worth the effort after all.
Huckabee:
Had I spoken [at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration] they would have heard a very conservative message which would be unapologetically pro-life, pro-family and by some definitions, fundamentalist in theology. But I’m a conservative who’s not mad at anyone else and would not want to knowingly participate in a program if the focus was to tear down others instead of to lift Christ up.”
He was invited, he accepted. Others in the SBC have been invited, if they aren’t there that’s their choice. Huckabees fellow Baptists can handle his conservative message, they invited him knowing his background and positions well and offered him a place at the table.
This is a most disingenuous statement and shows a sorry lack of stoutheartedness. Senator Chuck Grassley (R) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R) have also been invited to speak in January, now that Huckabee and his handlers spinned this and bolted, how long it will take the senators to disengage?
Will the internal denominational pressure on the SBC minister/bloggers invited and willing to go be too much for them also?
original post here
Published 1 year, 7 months ago
Search
Subscribe 
You are currently browsing the Bene Diction Blogs On weblog archives.
Related Entries
- Michael Savage (Savage Nation) drops law suit
- Binary thinking and the US election
- Operation Save America disrupts US senate
- What if Cdn bloggers used the lolcat meme for spoofing election ads?
- Indymedia
- From the 'you can't make this stuff up' department
- OhMyNews
- Focus on Fred
- Liberal leadership
- Fidelity and Influence
For blog design, Wordpress or MovableType coding or blog consulting, see cre8d design.
I’m not sure if it was Southern Baptist strongarming but simply not wanting to share a platform with the politically-radioactive Carter; I’d have second thoughts if I were in his shoes. Huckabee has been known to be off the conservative reservation on taxes and immigration, so he’s not a Republican puppet.
The Southern Baptists are big on taking the Bible at face value and frown upon folks who don’t; that’s going to make them less-than-ecumenical in pan-Baptists efforts that include less Bibliocentric groups.
It’s more a conservative-application-of-the-Bible line than a Republican line. I just got done interviewing at a Southern Baptist college and saw part of the critter up close; it would be failing to go along with those right-side-of-evangelical-thought principals that would get you in trouble, not being against Republicans per se.
It is so difficult to ‘hear’ where politics end and belief starts. You are correct, although Huckabee cited Carter as his first concern he also said:
“… the roster of speakers “does seem to tilt left,” which gave him concern about participating.”
However, Huckabee sees this as political. He:
“…tentatively” agreed to participate in the Baptist meeting “with the understanding that it was a celebration of faith and not a political convocation. In light of the program and roster of speakers, as well as the very harsh comments toward our president this weekend, I feel it would be best for me to decline the invitation and to not appear to be giving approval to what could be a political, rather than spiritual agenda.”
I’m having a difficult time not seeing Huckabee making this political. And this:
“Huckabee cited the involvement of the “very, very liberal” Marian Wright Edelman.”
One statement is very political, the second has the nauces of faith, so I grant you the latitude and say it’s both. Seems to me when it comes to the SBC it’s always both.
I understand he is running as a Presidential hopeful, he is under no obligation to lend his time or effort to anything that offends him, but this level of prickliness is merely adding fuel to the fire.
I dunno Mark, maybe it’s a good move politically for Hucakbee, but when I look at this hyperbole of react I find myself wondering how competent this man is for higher office, the vocabulary of engagement isn’t even there. But far more than that, this excuse/reason to disengage is glaringly symptomatic of why this conference was put together in the first place.
On one hand I hope that US Baptists can show the world they are more than the SBC, (long overdue) on the other hand I despair.
Still, in reaching out to the SBC, I think grace prevails for the greater good. Organizers know their cousins well, and chose to take the flack.
We’ll never know if SBC leadership strong armed, neither one of us is naive. I grant you they may not have had too, Huckabee is what he is.
Carter is so not radio-active outside the US, his approval ratings at the end of his term were lower than the current President, so he has earned the right to speak.
His humanitartian and diplomatic efforts world wide since leaving office may annoy the SBC, but on a world wide scale he has represented your country to the rest of us with honour and dignity Mike Huckabee would to well to learn some lessons from.