(hughhewitt.com April 1, 2025)
Yesterday, https://hughhewitt.com/of-toxic-democrats I excoriated Democrats for the lying liars they have become – saying one thing and doing another. I stated that Trump’s most obvious appeal was his transparency. His flaws, and his strengths, are obvious. There is no deception there. That is the key to future electoral success for Republicans. But I am afraid, things may be turning south already.
I cut my blogging teeth at a site call “Article 6 Blog” – dedicated to the role Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith played in his two runs for the presidency in 2008 and 2012. In 2008 his Mormon faith played a major role. It was widely discussed. Everyone had an opinion, many of them deeply ignorant – especially of Mormonism. One of my many arguments was that a theology quiz given to an array of average pew sitters in a “normal” Christian church and a similar array in a Mormon church would produce very similar results. While Mormons are liturgically and theological quite distinct, practically speaking there is little difference. Further the average congregant in either expression could not articulate the differences.
The most fundamental difference between Mormons and traditional Christianity is their view of the Godhead. Mormons claims to be trinitarian, but from a scholarly standpoint their official statement of the composition of the Trinity and how it works does not come up to traditional Christian standards. This is really esoteric stuff, and as I say the average pew sitter could not describe the difference anyway. New data is out proving my point. The fight between Mormons and more traditional expressions of Christianity are, in the end territorial disputes between professional religious leaders and have little to do with living a good Christian life in the day-to-day world.
But that did not keep some people from capitalizing on those disputes in a presidential race – most visibly Mike Huckabee. Well, the same Mike Huckabee underwent his confirmation hearing to be Ambassador to Israel this past week. In his hearing:
Responding to a question from Curtis [ed note: Senator John Curtis R-Utah) about his feelings toward LDS, Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist minister, said, “The respect that I have for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is extraordinary because I respect very much the commitment to family, to moral righteousness, to a sense of right and wrong.”
Wait just a minute, back up the truck here! That same article points out:
Huckabee’s response to Curtis’ question was in stark contrast to his response to a similar line of questioning during the 2008 presidential campaign when Huckabee asked former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
Doesn’t sound like respect to me. The article also notes that Huckabee later apologized to Romney, contending that his comment was taken out of context, but it fails to get the details just right or to note how convenient was the timing and prominence of both the comment and the apology. It is, actually 2007 in the build-up to the early January Iowa caucuses. Huckabee, with his Evangelical credential, is surging in the Republican race and as such was interviewed by the New York Times, which still mattered then. His comment was made in response to a question from the NYT reporter and was widely publicized just before the Christmas break and made a big and lasting impression right before everyone quit paying attention. The apology came later, after much negative comment from my blog and a whole lot of other places, during the depths of the holiday somnambulance when no one was paying attention. Huckabee scored the political points he needed to score with the people he needed to score them with in Iowa. As lawyers like to say, “The bell was rung, and you can’t unring it.”
Look, I have no beef with Mike Huckabee as our ambassador to Israel, I am sure he will do a good job. But, to simply testify to the Senate that he “respects” Mormonism without acknowledging his previous potshots at it is not all that dissimilar to people telling us that Biden was “just fine” in the White House. A simple, “In the past I might have said some uncomplimentary things about Mormonism – that was a mistake. I respect…,” is all that was necessary.
Trump has recast the political game – transparency – warts, missteps, mistakes, and failures need to be in plain view. Otherwise, you are a Democrat, disguising, deceiving, dissembling and denying.
No comments:
Post a Comment