Mike Huckabee Wishes All Americans Were 'Forced At Gunpoint' to Hear Radical Evangelist

Fri, 04/01/2011 - 12:21

This video below captures a truly disturbing statement from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a potential frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

David Barton, the man Huckabee praises and believes all Americans should be "forced at gunpoint" to listen to, is an fundamentalist evangelical minister revered by the Religious Right for his attempts to rewrite American history through a Christian lens. His organization, WallBuilders, describes its mission on its website as "(1) educating the nation concerning the Godly foundation of our country; (2) providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values; and (3) encouraging Christians to be involved in the civic arena."

Huckabee's comment starts around the 0:56 mark:

"I just wish that every single young person in America would be able to be under his tutelage and understand something about who we really are as a nation. I almost wish that there would be like a simultaneous telecast, and all Americans would be forced -- forced as gunpoint no less -- to listen to every David Barton message, and I think our country would be better off for it. I wish it would happen."

In the latest nationwide survey, Huckabee polled even with President Obama (46 percent) in a hypothetical 2012 presidential contest.

For more about Barton, check out this essay by SCA Advisory Board member Rob Boston.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 22:22.

Of course Huckabee did not mean it literally, but it is still scary that a presidential candidate would hold an evangelical preacher in such high esteem. To be deeply religious is to qualify things emotionally, not logically, and there are far too many who feel that their beliefs are unassailably good and therefore fit to be pressed on others. This is a driving motive behind the propensity of religion to degrade freedom if allowed. The funny thing is, the same individuals will tout freedom and religion in the same way, again with emotional evaluation. One note - if we too qualify emotionally and get upset about his obvious exaggeration, our credibility will be questioned. We will seem like Fox News.

Submitted by Terry (not verified) on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 04:14.

Even MORE dangerous are the poll numbers that have him and Trump on par with our President? Canada, here I COME!!

Submitted by Terry (not verified) on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 04:11.

Can you hear the conservatives and THIS guy screaming at the top of THEIR lungs if President Obama made a "joke" like this? They'ed be demading for his impeachment and his head on a platter. Oh wait, they've been demanding that for the last 2 years already. My bad.

Submitted by Chris (not verified) on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 05:07.

What a nutter! How on earth can people take this idiot seriously? A very dangerous man!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 16:48.

Joke aside, the statement's content, that an entire nation would be "better off" listening to, and implicitly, to follow, a single "religious" leader is to say that Iran's theocracy is superior to our own system of government; that is what is wrong. Conservatives are not all theocratic. This nation needs children whose heads are not muddled with superstition if we are to survive the coming centuries.

Submitted by Gary Hussey (not verified) on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 14:51.

The guy was making a joke, a pretty stupid one but a joke none the less. How can you suggest that was anything more? This is a stretch at best to find something wrong with a conservative.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 13:15.

The separation of church and state was made to keep the state out of church affairs, not the other way around

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 13:49.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes. -- President Thomas Jefferson: in letter to Alexander von Humboldt, December 6, 1813

Submitted by Nova (not verified) on Sun, 04/10/2011 - 02:34.

How very Christian. Love it when the true colors come out.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 01:56.

If you can be forced to listen to a fundy Christian preacher, you can be forced to read the Koran!

Submitted by Voicedude (not verified) on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 12:00.

One major bit of fact that my Christian brothers always seem to forget: The orginator of separation of church and state? ....Jesus himself! "render Caesar's things to Caesar, and God's things to God". The fusion never works, and undermines BOTH entities...

Submitted by Rhümer Maanger (not verified) on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 11:59.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 01:14.

A wise man once said that “When religion and government ride the same cart nothing can stand in its way ore it will be ran over and destroyed. Right now the Constitution of this nation and the principals this nation was founded on stand in the way of that proverbial cart. Religious fanatics that are willingly allow themselves to be exploited by the conservative right, for secular political goals, in order to push their religious believes on others need only to look to the Middle East to see the truth of this statement.

Submitted by Shana (not verified) on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 20:40.

Oh, that is just total crap right there. I'd rather make him watch Bill Maher at gunpoint. What a tool!

Submitted by guess who? (not verified) on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 19:47.

don't think that that comment represented an actual desire to round up Americans and force them listen to this lunatic at gunnpoint. i think that the comment represented a belief that Christianity is the only viable form of morality and a view that this "minister" is some kind of light in an ideological darkness. generally most religions people misunderstand the purpose government as forcing morals on an immoral society. this is where theological conflict emerges. if group A wants group a's morals to be law. they will obviously have a problem with any other group that believes anything different, either because they want their own morals to be law or because they want to have their own morals and not have to fallow what group a tells them to do. why is the concept of "live and let live" still so elusive to so many people...

Submitted by Rich Wilson (not verified) on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 15:32.

I wish I could convince Mike Huckabee to read "The Greatest Show on Earth". Not at gunpoint, and I doubt it would change his mind, but I'd like to know he at least looked at the evidence.

Submitted by Jud McNamara (not verified) on Fri, 04/01/2011 - 15:09.

Just another evangelical christianity pusher. Force at gun point is really no different than the usual "repent or die": not only the sins comitted in this life, but the sin your were born into.

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Mike Meno

Mike Meno was the communications manager for the Secular Coalition for America from January to August 2011. Before joining SCA, Mike served as communications director and spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project, where he was quoted in media outlets around the nation, including appearances on CNN's "The Situation Room" and NPR's "All Things Considered." He now works for the ACLU of North Carolina.

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