Guest Editorial by Frank Schaeffer
Mike Huckabee broke his silence on Monday and defended his decision to give clemency to a convict said to be responsible for the ambush murder of four Seattle police officers. I have an odd connection to Huckabee. He told Katie Couric, during the 2007 primary race, that my Religious Right leader father’s (Francis Schaeffer) book, How Should We Then Live?, was his favorite book. The book is credited (along with others my father wrote) for starting the evangelical wing of the anti-abortion movement.
In Huckabee’s more than 1000 pardons of criminals that prosecutors and victims objected to in Arkansas Huckabee most often cited his belief in “redemption” as his “reason.” This belief was a result of Huckabee’s extreme and literal born-again fundamentalist views about people’s path to God. His religious views obviously trumped common sense. And this was a direct result of a theology known as “Dominionism” (or “Reconstructionism”) where believers want to not just believe their religion privately but “take back America for God” in other words rule on the basis not of American law but the Bible. I explain this trend in my book Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism)
Huckabee freely mixes his ideas about church and state and how religion should shape policy. That brings up a question: should any religious fundamentalists ever be elected President by Americans who want them to do a good, sensible, moderate job, not use their office for expression of their pet religious fanaticism? And another: wasn’t one already more than enough?…
It seems to me that Huckabee’s absurd record of unwarranted pardons of dangerous criminals including killers and rapists is just another example proving that the heart of the Republican Party is now in the hands of religious extremists. (Jeff Sharlet makes the same point in his excellent book The Family, as does Max Blumenthal in his book Republican Gomorrah).
We have heard Sarah Palin saying that health care reform will lead to “death panels.” We had George W. Bush saying that he felt God was leading him to go to war in Iraq. We have Christian Zionists like Rev. John Hagee rooting for Armageddon in the Middle East so Jesus will return all the sooner and then endorsing figures like John McCain — who until called out on Hagee’s crazy anti-Catholicism — accepted the endorsement!
And now four police officers are dead because Huckabee (the not-so-covert Reconstructionist) takes every word of the Bible more seriously than the advice of prosecutors and victim rights groups.
As today’s New York Times noted in “Old Clemency May Be Issue for Huckabee”:
In a decade as governor beginning in 1996, Mr. Huckabee did so twice as many times as his three predecessors combined. He typically gave little explanation for individual pardons. But he spoke often of his belief in redemption, based on a strong religious belief…
The commutation of Mr. Clemmons’s [the alleged Seattle cop killer] sentence was routine enough that it failed to make a list of Mr. Huckabee’s 10 “most publicized” prison commutations compiled by an Arkansas newspaper in August 2004… Within six months, Mr. Clemmons violated the conditions of his parole, returning to prison in July 2001 for aggravated robbery…
Mr. Huckabee, who rode a brand of prairie populism to finish second in the Republican presidential primaries in 2008, granted more than 1,000 pardons or clemency requests as governor. As his reputation for granting clemency spread, more convicts applied…in several, he followed recommendations for clemency from Baptist preachers who had been longtime supporters.
Prosecutors told him he was ignoring his responsibility to explain to citizens why he was setting free convicted murderers and rapists…
Robert Herzfeld, then the prosecuting attorney of Saline County, wrote a letter to Governor Huckabee in January 2004, saying his policy on clemency was “fatally flawed”…. Mr. Huckabee’s chief aide on clemency wrote back: “The governor read your letter and laughed out loud. He wanted me to respond to you. I wish you success as you cut down on your caffeine consumption.”
It is clear that Huckabee is unfit for any national office and was unfit to ever be a governor. It is also clear that his record of insane irresponsibility was well known by the evangelicals that supported him for theological reasons in the 2007 primaries leading up to the ’08 race.
Clearly the evangelical crowd that gave us 8 years of George W. Bush doesn’t vote on the basis of facts. They vote for “correct” theology and damn the real world consequences.
Four thousand Americans were needlessly killed in Iraq because the born-again, born again’s president was in control. More that 50,000 were wounded because of the way Bush thought he heard God’s voice. Four officers in Seattle are dead today because of Huckabee’s allegiance to his interpretation of the Bible rather than to the U.S. Constitution.
How many more godly goofs can this country afford?
Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back
His previous articles at The BRAD BLOG can be read here…
That should be “Former AR Governor.”
[Ed Note: My bad. Thanks, Vann. Typo fixed. – BF]
Thanks for publishing Mr. Schaeffer’s article because he was one of the original members/founders of this movement. I appreciate him for realizing the harm it has done to this country and for speaking out, and I appreciate you, Brad, for having the courage to always seek the truth because it is the only way our democracy can survive. With people like ex-Governor Huckabee and former president George W. Bush in contol, the country always suffers because they ignore their constituents as they pretend to get their orders from God. I’ve been a Christian all of my life, and I don’t buy it for one minute because they do not behave toward their fellow man the way that one would expect a Christian to. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing, misleading and misusing the gullible. Sarah Palin is only the next chapter in this farce. In reality, all they really want is to be worshiped and to wield power over others, the worst reasons for seeking public office.
Thanks to Mr. Schaeffer for again standing up for what is wrong with the so called christians today.
It takes courage to admit that you were wrong and even more courage to defnd your thoughts and feelings in the way that Mr. Schaeffer has.
Please, keep writing!
you forgot the extreme religious fanatics in and out and in our govt: wolfowitz, perle, joe lieberman, feith, libby, emmanuel, shumer. just a few. the list of jewish extremist lunatics is very long. but you are only interested in the “christian” variety.
From The New York Times:
“Blind spot” precisely describes the problem with those who make sectarian, faith-based decisions pertaining to secular, public issues that require separation of church and state.
I’m wondering if somebody will ever do a statistical analysis of the Huckabee clemency grants to determine if the victims were black or women or non-Christians in a higher ratio than could be explained by coincidence.
My guess is that rapists were granted clemency because he doesn’t really believe rape is a crime and that he granted clmency when the victims seemed “bad” to him (i.e. ethnic non-whites, women, or non-Christians).
Hopefully, in spite of the execution-without-trial of the alleged shooter, this will put his 2012 hopes to rest.
Could you imagine what the right would be saying, if Obama pardoned a guy who then killed 4 cops? What would Breitbart the Grouch be saying?
obama = bush
tonight’s speech just proves it. Say what you want about huck – obama isn’t giving us any change either.
Just to clarify, they weren’t Seattle Cops, they were from the Lakewood PD. Lakewood is an unincorporated suburb of Tacoma (about 35-40 miles south of Seattle), where I grew up and went to HS. It is not a big metropolitan area like Seattle, it is a smallish suburban community than until just a few years ago did not even have their own police force. I drove past where they were shot every single day on my way to school.
They got the guy last night, but I’m sure everyone knows that by now.
I too was influenced by a Schaeffer book to defend the unborn: Frank “Franky” Schaeffer’s “A Time for Anger: The Myth of Neutrality”. That guy made more sense than other writer in his day. Too bad he died and became the supporter of all causes God-hating.
Huckabee didn’t issue a pardon as you suggested, but only a commutation, after a recommendation from the parole board. As Huckabee left him, he still had 37 years to go.
Maybe had the cop-killer been killed in the womb in advance by his mother this wouldn’t have happened it, would it? The old Franky recognized how wrong cop-killing and child-killing was, whatever happened to that guy, anyway? Now he is angry at God!
David Shedlock @10
No.
From where I sit Mr. Schaeffer seems to have been enlightened and not angry at all anymore. It’s the so-called Christians who are angry and bitter and vindictive.
I won’t speak to Mr. Schaeffer’s belief in “god” or not. But him exposing Evangelicals for what they’ve done to this country isn’t being angry at “god”…hell I don’t sense much anger at all. Unless of course you equate criticism with anger.
Seems you may be projecting your anger onto Mr. Schaeffer.
Four police officers are dead in Washington State today because:
1) When Clemmons returned to prison in Arkansas after violating parole – where Huckabee left him –Arkansas prosecutors failed to file the proper paperwork in the case for the 3 YEARS, causing all charges to be dropped and freeing him.
2)A ridiculous bail system in Washington State allowed Clemmons to bail himself out of jail without even having to see a judge – EVEN AFTER he’s threatened the police, saying ‘I’ll kill all you bitches.”
3)On his next arrest, this one for child rape and 7 other felonies, two Washington State judges set bail amounts so low – over prosecutors’ objections – that Clemmons was able to walk away from jail again JUST 6 DAYS before the killings.
Those are the facts, you sorry excuse for a journalist. Where is your article lambasting these inept clowns who really let this happen?
BRS you are wrong. You must have gotten your information off of Fox, no surprise that they got it all wrong. I live about an hour away from where these police officers were murdered and have been reading the local papers and news. Please get your facts straight before spreading it around.
Mike Huckabee is responsible for turning this animal loose in our state.
Grieving in Washington
Frank Schaeffer misses the significance of Huckabee during the primaries last year. Huckabee made sure the Evangelical vote was divided which was one of the reasons Obama got elected.
Colored Opinions @Comment @14
You’re kidding right ?
Give me a FREAKING break.
Huckabee approved parole of a young black man who had been given 95 FREAKING years for a series of robberies and bringing a gun onto school grounds. No one was hurt in any of his crimes. Yes, a young thug, but 95 years??? And, he served 11 years at the point Huckabee paroled him. This was a break that gave him another chance at life – a break he quickly blew.
The people that are responsible are the ones in both Arkansas and Washington that saw his later patterns of criminal behavior and mental instability AFTER he was given a second chance and either allowed parole AGAIN (in the case of Arkansas) or allowed him out on bail (in the case of Washington). Huckabee’s mistake was MINOR compared to them!!
Note; I couldn’t disagree more with Huckabee politically but I”m not in favor of giving the Willie Horton treatment to anyone, even a conserative.
isnt huckabee chuck norris’ boy? is he running again next election?
I never heard that Huckabee pardoned people so much. Good or bad it shows the liberal and right media are both selective about what they report. Huckabee might be masking a potential loon underneath a facade – who knows? But I give kudos to someone who takes big personal risk following through with well-intentioned beliefs that get him no personal benefit. Makes a change from sh1theads like Lieberman who triangulate the payoff for every next vowel and consonant.
And Huckabee would defend to the death the right of the shooter to carry a gun.
Colored Opinions said
Huckabee made sure the Evangelical vote was divided which was one of the reasons Obama got elected.
______________________________
Ding ding ding! Anybody home?
Huckabee did not run against McCain & Obama in the general election. He came in second in the Republican primaries; lost the “Republican nomination” to McCain who selected Palin in order to appeal to that obnoxious, know-nothing minority you refer to as the “Evangelical vote.”
To suggest that all Evangelicals voted for Mccain is incorrect. Many either stayed home or voted for Obama.
What a dilemma for Christian politicians. It must be difficult to belong to a religion initiated by a man/god who forgave the people who killed him–I cannot say that I am a Christian as I still hate my enemies but I know that I should move in that direction and I am trying. I would not want to be in the justice system these days as I guess no one will ever again be pardoned in this “Christian” nation. I don’t see that this nation has ever forgiven anyone for any injustice real or imagined. We have executed and imprisoned many innocent people however and are very quick to go to war with any country that sits on top of oil or pipeline routes. I only hope that humanity is more forgiving of the U.S. than we are of our fellow men.