{"id":164,"date":"2007-12-11T01:10:10","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T01:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2007\/12\/evangelical-leader-skeptical-o.html"},"modified":"2007-12-11T01:10:10","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T01:10:10","slug":"evangelical-leader-skeptical-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/evangelical-leader-skeptical-o.html","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Leader Skeptical on Huckabee, Praises McCain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"perkins.jpg\"Family Research Council Action, Washington\u2019s premier Christian Right advocacy group, yesterday issued a defense of Mike Huckabee<\/a> in the face of what it called a \u201creverse religious test\u201d sparked by Huckabee\u2019s past statements about AIDS, homosexuality<\/a>, and the need to \u201ctake this nation back for Christ<\/a>.\u201d With Huckabee surging in recent national polls<\/a>, those remarks have generated plenty of controversy.
\nIn an interview last week with Beliefnet, however, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins raised doubts about Huckabee\u2019s viability and noted that Huckabee is the only Republican presidential candidate he has not met with personally since the race got underway. Perkins said that every other candidate, including the socially moderate Rudy Giuliani, had requested such a meeting.
\n\u201cHe may be trying to avoid the leadership [of the Christian Right] and it may be because of other issues,\u201d Perkins said, citing Huckabee\u2019s stances on illegal immigration and taxes, which have been criticized by some conservative groups.
\n.
\nDespite Huckabee\u2019s surge in Iowa\u2014polls showing Huckabee\u2019s dramatic national gains hadn\u2019t been released at the time of the interview last Tuesday\u2014Perkins said there are concerns among evangelical leaders over the Baptist preacher\u2019s ability to excite economic and defense conservatives who fill out the GOP\u2019s base.
\n\u201cHuckabee is certainly good on our issues, but is there enough to bring together a winning coalition?\u201d Perkins asked. \u201cThere are some questions about that.\u201d
\n\u201cSocial conservatives alone cannot elect a president,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have to work within a conservative coalition, so there has been a desire to work together and all agree upon\u201d a candidate to rally around.
\n\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s not a good candidate,\u201d Perkins added. \u201cI like a lot of what I\u2019ve seen of him.\u201d
\nThough Huckabee has picked up endorsements from evangelical activists like the American Family Association\u2019s Don Wildmon and Patrick Henry College chancellor Michael Farris, top-tier Christian Right leaders like Perkins, Focus on the Family\u2019s James Dobson, and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer have declined to be publicly supportive.
\nDuring the same interview, Perkins praised Arizona Senator John McCain, who is viewed with suspicion by much of the Christian Right since he called the movement\u2019s leaders \u201cagents of intolerance\u201d during his 2000 presidential bid and authored 2002’s McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which restricted the political activities of advocacy groups. Perkins said he had met with McCain recently.
\n\u201cHe does have a strong record on the life issue and I think I still see him as a very viable candidate who\u2019s making a comeback, working aggressively, and has staked out the right position on the new Iraq surge policy,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cSo if you\u2019re a \u2018security voter\u2019 concerned with radical Islam, you have more than just the choice of Rudy Giuliani, with all his baggage on social issues.\u201d
\nPerkins said he us unlikely to endorse a candidate in the presidential race. \u201cYou become a trophy on their wall and never hearing from them again,\u201d he said of his past experiences with candidate endorsements.<\/p>\n


\n10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family Research Council Action, Washington\u2019s premier Christian Right advocacy group, yesterday issued a defense of Mike Huckabee in the face of what it called a \u201creverse religious test\u201d sparked by Huckabee\u2019s past statements about AIDS, homosexuality, and the need to \u201ctake this nation back for Christ.\u201d With Huckabee surging in recent national polls, those remarks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-huckabee"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelical Leader Skeptical on Huckabee, Praises McCain - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2007\/12\/evangelical-leader-skeptical-o.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelical Leader Skeptical on Huckabee, Praises McCain - 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