Opinion of Evangelicals after Hucakbee

[reformer]

I've been lurking on this site for years, just dropping in to ask a question, especially of the more liberal people here:

I'm not asking whether you necessarily like Huckabee, or would ever vote for him, etc. But- has your opinion of the religious right improved or been hurt by Huckabee? Do you think Huckabee is a better leader for evangelicals then say Falwell or Robertson? Or is he just radical politics as usual. . .

[memphis]

Huckabee is definately a lot more personable than Robertson or Falwell.  My opinion of evangelicals is not really defined by media types given that I live in a community with plenty of them. Like any group, some are better people than other. In general, they are very well intentioned and trusting people, so much so that they often don't question the motives of their leaders. I don't care much for the ideology but most evangelicals I've met have been exceedingly decent people.

[Beet]

I like Huckabee as a person, and despite the rather heated political rhetoric, evangelicals have never been people to personally demonize with me. Sure there are many who are deeply hypocritical, but there are many who are drawn to evangelism out of genuine commitment and politics is only second-tier to them. I've met a few of these people when I attended church groups years ago.

[Aizen]

The same. Several of them are still horrible, hypocritical people and detrimental to society. Huckabee is a nice guy but people who think the world is 5000 years old, don't believe in evolution, gravity etc are not fit to be president. I suppose a political analyst on Fox News is an appropriate place for someone like Huckabee.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I like Huckabee, but it doesn't change how I view Evangelicals at all.

[The Mikado]

I usually don't like pigeonholing large groups of people (though, like everyone, am prone to it occasionally).  I know some really great evangelicals, many of whom are deeply involved in the community and have a self-sacrificing sense toward community service that I can't match.  I don't agree with their religious affiliation.

I, as I have expressed multiple times, really like Mike Huckabee.  He is genuine, charming, and gives off the air that he actually cares about the people at the bottom of our society, people who the Republicans have historically paid lip service to with social issues during campaigns and subsequently ignored while in office.  That being said, he holds a number of opinions that, frankly, terrify me.  He's a good face for the movement because if I was upset when he lost the GOP primary, there were probably a good number of other people unsympathetic to evangelical politics who were charmed by Mike Huckabee's backwoods wit and humor.  He's far more likable than Pat Robertson, and doesn't have the same hateful edge that the late Reverend Falwell (who I'll readily admit was charming in his own way) possessed.

[Smid]

As an evangelical conservative, I have at times been disappointed with some people who have been 'spokespeople' for evangelical conservatives. Not that I'm perfect or anything (or necessarily any better than them), but I must admit that Huckabee has regularly made me go "at last, an evangelical conservative in the public eye who isn't doing stupid things that will give us a bad name." I think Huckabee has good values, while at the same time a strong sense of grace (to avoid any possible confusion, I am referring to grace as being non-judgemental, as in Ephesians 2:8&9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.")

Anyway, this isn't a religious arguments thread, and I don't want to hijack it and make it one, so I'll leave it at that, except to say that whereas some of us (meaning evangelical conservatives) forget the "not from yourselves... no one can boast" part, Huckabee strikes me as a humble and genuine man.

[reformer]

I really see this group as a pretty tolerant- though very opinionated- bunch. As a Christian, I have been very upset in the past by how the left views Evangelicals, but I think that's partly because the leaders of the movement have just not been good reppresentatives of what Evangelicals are actually like. If nothing else, I really hope Huckabee may be healing some wounds between different religions and classes, similar to though not to the same extent how Obama has been overcoming racial differences.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Huckabee is personally nice but his political beliefs are utterly terrible.

[Sbane]

Evangelicals have crazy beliefs but then again which religious group doesn't. They do tend to be more vocal about their beliefs and of course take everything literally. That being said like many religious groups they do a lot for the poor and I do think they are poorly represented by people like Dobson, Robertson and Falwell. Huckabee just showed us that evangelicals are basically normal people. That is the vibe I get from Huckabee, of being a normal guy. Fox news is a good resting place for him.

[Albus Dumbledore]

I wouldn't care about evangelicals if they'd just get out of politics. The whole render unto god what is god's and render unto caeser what is caeser's thing.

[Hash]

The same. Several of them are still horrible, hypocritical people and detrimental to society. Huckabee is a nice guy but people who think the world is 5000 years old, don't believe in evolution, gravity etc are not fit to be president. I suppose a political analyst on Fox News is an appropriate place for someone like Huckabee.

Sums it up for me.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I think Huckabee is a decent, friendly and charismatic guy.

If by evangelicals you mean social arch-conservatives, then it doesn't matter who fronts it, ok I consider Robertson to be one of the most vile people on the planet.... put it this way, Huckabee's presence could not have lowered my opinion of that strand of evangelicalism.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

As many of you have stated previously, Mike Huckabee seems like a very decent and friendly person. Despite my personal views towards Mike Huckabee, it does not change my views of the Religious Right and that is quite low, very low.

Although Huckabee "humanised" the face of the Religious Right during his 2008 Presidential campaign by playing down the role of nutters in the faction, the Religious Right, at least in my mind is still best remembered for Pat Robertson's Presidential campaign of 1988 and Jerry Falwell's close connections with the Reagan Administration, which is still vivid in the minds of many. Thus, it is my belief that despite Huckabee's humanisation of the faction during his 2008 Presidential run did nothing to change people's assumptions about it.

[JSojourner]

I really see this group as a pretty tolerant- though very opinionated- bunch. As a Christian, I have been very upset in the past by how the left views Evangelicals, but I think that's partly because the leaders of the movement have just not been good reppresentatives of what Evangelicals are actually like. If nothing else, I really hope Huckabee may be healing some wounds between different religions and classes, similar to though not to the same extent how Obama has been overcoming racial differences.

Excellent post.  Speaking as a Christian, and a former Evangelical (my wife and my Bishop insist I am *still* Evangelical because I take the Nicene Creed literally), I think the entire movement would be better represented by the few Evangelical intellectuals and progressives who have made a mark in the last 10 or 15 years...

Tony Campolo, Ron Sider, Steve Brown, Jim Wallis, Roberta Hestenes, Dick Mouw, Mark Noll, Katherine Clark-Kroeger, Lee Strobel, Phillip Yancey, Marva Dawn, N. T. Wright, Brian McClaren, Stan Haeurwas and folks like that.  Many are still pretty conservative, some liberal...but none define themselves or their faith on the basis of who and what they hate...or on the basis of who are the saints and who are the ain'ts.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The same. Several of them are still horrible, hypocritical people and detrimental to society. Huckabee is a nice guy but people who think the world is 5000 years old, don't believe in evolution, gravity etc are not fit to be president. I suppose a political analyst on Fox News is an appropriate place for someone like Huckabee.

Sums it up for me.

     Same here.

     Though to add to Aizen's list of why Huckabee shouldn't be president, he has a disturbing tendency of talking to convicts & then fighting for them to be released. That & he also shielded his dog-killing son from criminal charges.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

OK....STOP THE TRAIN!

Excellent post.  Speaking as a Christian, and a former Evangelical (my wife and my Bishop insist I am *still* Evangelical because I take the Nicene Creed literally),

your wife? 

i am so confused!  who are you?  I thought you were gay

[angus]

I've been lurking on this site for years, just dropping in to ask a question, especially of the more liberal people here:

I'm not asking whether you necessarily like Huckabee, or would ever vote for him, etc. But- has your opinion of the religious right improved or been hurt by Huckabee? Do you think Huckabee is a better leader for evangelicals then say Falwell or Robertson? Or is he just radical politics as usual. . .

I like huckabee about a billion times better than McCain.  Although I don't agree with him about many things, I might have voted for Huckabee for US president.  I can't imagine voting for McCain under any circumstances.  My opinion of the religious right has not changed in any way because of his candidacy.  The religious right, like any demographic, are generally exploited by their leaders.  They were exploited by George Bush; they were exploited by Ronald Reagan; they will continue to be exploited by the leaders they elect.  Much like black people, for example, were exploited by Bill Clinton.  Huckabee may or may not have exploited the religious right the way Bush and Reagan did--although I get the feeling that he would not have--but I still think he's basically a more decent guy than the one the Republicans ended up nominating.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

I've been lurking on this site for years, just dropping in to ask a question, especially of the more liberal people here:

I'm not asking whether you necessarily like Huckabee, or would ever vote for him, etc. But- has your opinion of the religious right improved or been hurt by Huckabee? Do you think Huckabee is a better leader for evangelicals then say Falwell or Robertson? Or is he just radical politics as usual. . .

Personally, I like Huckabee (but due to his positions would never vote for him) .... but still hate the religious right. 

[useful idiot]

He seems like a fun guy to be around, as a lot of evangelicals are. However, once you start talking about religion or politics they start to glaze over and repeat lines that have been brainwashed into their heads. And then I start to wonder why they're quoting Bible verses to me during a discussion over global warming or the second amendment....

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

I hope that most peoples will do like most did on Atlas. I mean that in the future they will be able to make the difference between the fact that someone is maybe a nice guy and what he politically proposes.

But, personally, in this more and more basic and emotional epoch, I fear that it is going to be more and more likely the opposite. Well, never know, maybe the future will surprise me...