Mike Huckabee: “Easier to change the Constitution”

So we’ve reached the point where Huckabee’s emergence into “serious contender” territory has officially stopped being entertaining to me, however amusingly much it might annoy certain conservative pundits who pandered to the Christian right when it suited their perception of their interests to do so. 

Here’s one of the reasons I’m not laughing:

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Huckabee often refers to the need to amend the constitution on these grounds, but he has never so specifically called for the Constitution to be brought within "God’s standards," which are themselves debated amongst religious scholars. As a closing statement he asked the room of nearly 500 supporters to "pray and then work hard, and in that order," to help him secure a victory in Tuesday’s GOP primary.  (MSNBC; emphasis added) )

In other words, forget the principles built into the Constitution by the Founding Fathers, forget our country’s tradition of neutrality toward the religious views of individual citizens and principle of noninterference; forget separation of Chuch and State; forget that this is a democracy, not a theocracy.    

As a person with strong Quaker leanings, I get very nervous when one version of Christianity concludes that it knows what God’s standards are and that those standards should therefore become the law for everyone else, including those who see God quite a bit differently. While I am modestly certain that I can muck in with the best when it comes to God-bothering and proficiency in prayer, I don’t force Mike Huckabee to go to my church and I don’t care to go to his. (”Horses for courses,” as my British husband—an atheist—tactfully puts it.) Or, as Christopher Hitchens has said, "Mr. Jefferson, build up that wall!"  It’s the only way to protect Christian denominations from other Christian denominations, not to mention the only way to protect Christians from Christopher Hitchens (and vice-versa, of course).

But Huck does want to build up one wall:  the fence between Mexico and the US.   Next:  the Tower of Babel.  We’re coming for you, Jesus, ready or not! Can I hear you say, "Hallelujah!"?   

Fortunately, my silent prayers that Huckabee fade gently back into state politics have received what a religious person might view as a sort of provisional response. True, it’s not the answer I wanted:  among the Republicans, I definitely prefer McCain to the others by the vague but presumably vast stretch known as a "moonlight mile."  Even so, the Romney predominance in Michigan shows that Huckabee does not in fact have God’s unwavering endorsement, as a few weeks back his supporters seemed to be gleefully assuming.  Perhaps God, like the Founding Fathers, believes in separation of Church and State?

Cross-posted by Damozel at Buck Naked Politics