Richard Cohen on Mike Huckabee

(I had every intention of leaving the house after my last post … but I took one last look at my e-mail … sigh …)

From today’s Washington Post, Richard Cohen has a piece about Mike Huckabee.

He calls on Mike Huckabee to make a speech and promise that his faith does not constitute a threat to the rest of the United States, thus demonstrating that the US has come far enough now that being a faithful Christian is somehow deemed dangerous. Wow …

Still, Mr. Cohen has made a very important mistake … Notably, Mike Huckabee has already had to make that speech. Anyone who saw any part of the “interview” (to use the term loosely) with Bill O’Reilly has seen that Gov. Huckabee has already been forced to justify his faith and its relationship with his politics, and has already made the assurances that he is capable of telling the difference between what should and should not be in the public sphere, and that he is not about setting up a theocracy.

Of course, there is also his record. For the record, I think that the same principle applies to Gov. Romney. It would be quite a stretch to say that anything he’s ever done could be interpreted as trying to establish a Mormon theocracy in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Of course, this comes on the heels of the attacks on Governor Sonny Perdue (R-GA) for daring to pray in public.

This is the response that I have e-mailed to Mr. Cohen:

In your recent article, “You First, Governor Huckabee,” you called on Gov. Huckabee to make a speech explaining that his faith is not a threat to the United States.

He has already done this. Gov. Huckabee has been grilled on this subject. He has been interrogated by Bill O’Reilly and by Sean Hannity over his religion, and has already demonstrated over and over again that he has and lives his faith, but that he wants to be President of the United States, not Theologian-in-Chief or Senior Pastor.

Yes, as you note, Governor Huckabee takes his faith seriously, and his faith determines his politics. That’s what men and women do when they have serious beliefs. However, he has never taken steps to establish any kind of theocracy or established religion, and there is no valid reason to expect that he would do so as President.

It is sad that the US is now such a place that we now question more faiths, rather than fewer, about their role in politics.

It is very sad that you’re participating in this kind of thing.