{"id":266,"date":"2008-01-20T22:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-20T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/01\/hucks-beliefnet-interview.html"},"modified":"2008-01-20T22:41:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-20T22:41:00","slug":"hucks-beliefnet-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/01\/hucks-beliefnet-interview.html","title":{"rendered":"Huck’s Beliefnet Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"huckabee18.jpg\"If you haven’t already, check out Beliefnet’s interview last week with Mike Huckabee<\/a>. God-o-Meter meant to flag it earlier, but the week got away from it. The most interesting exchange, in God-o-Meter’s view, was over Huckabee’s recent remark that “what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards<\/a>.” Huckabee was given an opportunity to dial it back and, eventually, after considerable prodding, he did–at least a little bit:
\nOne of the comments you\u2019ve made that\u2019s getting a lot of discussion in the press is the point you made in the last day or so that we might need to amend the Constitution to have it apply more to God\u2019s standards. Do you want to elaborate on that? In particular the question of people who might hear that and think, \u201cWell, that\u2019s a conversation stopper,\u201d people who might agree with you on policy but feel that the constitution is secular document and should be driven by secular concerns rather than aligning it with God\u2019s word.<\/strong>
\nWell, I probably said it awkwardly, but the point I was trying to make\u2013 and I\u2019ve said it better in the past \u2013 is that people sometimes say we shouldn\u2019t have a human life amendment or a marriage amendment because the Constitution is far too sacred to change, and my point is, the Constitution was created as a document that could be changed. That\u2019s the genius of it. The Bible, however, was not created to be amended and altered with each passing culture. If we have a definition of marriage, that we don\u2019t change that definition, that we affirm that definition. And that the sanctity of human life is not just a religious issue. It\u2019s an issue that goes to the very heart of our civilization of all people being equal, endowed by their creator with alienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That was the point. The Bible was not written to be amended. The Constitution was. Without amendments to the Constitution, women couldn\u2019t vote, African-Americans wouldn\u2019t be considered people. We have had to historically go back and to clarify, because there\u2019ve been injustices made because the Constitution wasn\u2019t as clear as it needed to be, and that\u2019s the point.
\nJust to follow up on that question, according to that standard, if the Constitution and its amendments are subject to biblical interpretations, doesn\u2019t that mean it would be subject to biblical argument over what the proper interpretation is? And where does that leave, say, nonbelievers or members of other faiths in a proudly pluralistic like our own when amendments to the Constitution are subject to a biblical interpretation?<\/strong>
\nI think that whether someone is a Christian or not, the idea that a human life has dignity and intrinsic worth should be clear enough. I don\u2019t think a person has to be a person of faith to say that once you redefine a human life and say there is a life not worth living, and that we have a right to terminate a human life because of its inconvenience to others in the society. That\u2019s the real issue. That\u2019s the heart of it. It\u2019s not just about being against abortion. It\u2019s really about, Is there is a point at which a human life, because it\u2019s become a burden or inconvenience to others, is an expendable life. And once we\u2019ve made a decision that there is such a time \u2013 whether it\u2019s the termination of an unborn child in the womb or whether it\u2019s the termination of an 80-year-old comatose patient — we\u2019ve already crossed that line. And then the question is, How far and how quickly do we move past that line?
\nAnd the same thing would be true of marriage. Marriage has historically, as long as there\u2019s been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?
\nIs it your goal to bring the Constitution into strict conformity with the Bible? Some people would consider that a kind of dangerous undertaking, particularly given the variety of biblical interpretations.<\/strong>
\nWell, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a radical view to say we\u2019re going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we\u2019re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal. Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again. I think the radical position is to make a change in what\u2019s been historic.
\nDo you think that on issues other than marriage and the life of the unborn that the Constitution should be brought into conformity with the Bible, which is what that quote seemed to suggest?<\/strong>
\nNo, I was specifically talking about those two issues. Those were the only two issues I spoke about in the speech, and that was the point. I\u2019m not suggesting that we say, \u201cOkay, the Bible says you should tithe, so now in the Constitution we\u2019re going to amend it to say everyone tithes.\u201d
\nThose were the two issues that I felt like are talked about in the political realm. I support both the human rights amendment and a marriage amendment, and the reason that I do is because I think we need to codify in our Constitution that which has been acceptable and accepted view of what life and what marriage means. Frankly, if it weren\u2019t being challenged, it wouldn\u2019t be necessary. But it is being challenged. Now you have states that are passing same-sex marriage laws or civil union laws.
\nAnd you also have states that not only practice abortion, but if Roe v. Wade is overturned, we haven\u2019t won the battle. All we\u2019ve done is now we\u2019ve created the logic of the Civil War, which says that the right to the human life is geographical, not moral. I think that\u2019s very problematic. That\u2019s why I think that people like Fred Thompson are dead wrong when he says just leave that up to the states. Well, that\u2019s again the logic of the Civil War \u2013 that slavery could be okay in Georgia but not okay in Massachusetts. Obviously we\u2019d today say, \u201cWell, that\u2019s nonsense. Slavery is wrong, period.\u201d It can\u2019t be right somewhere and wrong somewhere else. Same with abortion.<\/p>\n


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

If you haven’t already, check out Beliefnet’s interview last week with Mike Huckabee. God-o-Meter meant to flag it earlier, but the week got away from it. The most interesting exchange, in God-o-Meter’s view, was over Huckabee’s recent remark that “what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather…<\/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-266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-huckabee"],"yoast_head":"\nHuck's Beliefnet Interview - 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\/2008\/01\/hucks-beliefnet-interview.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Huck's Beliefnet Interview - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven’t already, check out Beliefnet’s interview last week with Mike Huckabee. 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