Separated at birth: On the left, the actor
Gregory Itzen playing corrupt President Charles Logan from the TV series 24; on the (far) right Arkansas Governor and presidential aspirant Michael Huckabee.There's a lot I'd like to write on this guy, but Salon's done a favor by writing two excellent articles on the Dominionist Christians backing him for his presidential run. Truly frightening stuff. The winner is George Grant, a former executive director of Coral Ridge Ministries, who cowrote the book with Michael Huckabee, "Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence," and who also wrote another book, "The Changing of the Guard: The Vital Role Christians Play in America's Cultural Drama," which includes this famous passage:
'...Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less...
Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ...'
What's been interesting over the past few months is watching the different aspects of contemporary American Christian theology play out in Governor Huckabee's campaign. On one had is the dominionist aspect, basically a Christian vision of the Taliban and Sharia law; on the other is recognition that Christian theology is more than just a collection of 'thou shall nots,' but also 'thou shalls.' So in addition to favoring rewriting the Constitution to be more in line with (his vision of) God's word, he also has a history of raising taxes in his home state to fund anti-poverty initiatives. Watching this battle in his campaign between the different factions of politically involved right wing Christians is more interesting to me than watching the similar battle going on in the Republican party itself, between Governor Romney (the money wing, and the one I predict will win), Senator McCain (the neo-con wing), and Governor Huckabee (the social conservative wing).
And to top it off there are recipes!:
