When the idea for a proclamation declaring Christian Heritage Week came up in 1994, Jim Guy Tucker, the Democratic governor of Arkansas, would not sign it. His aides said he did not think it was appropriate to honor a particular faith.
But when Tucker went out of town for a week and Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee became the acting chief executive, the Baptist minister enthusiastically signed the proclamation, declaring at a later celebration that he was taking a stand against “Christophobia.”
“It’s a new word. I just made it up,” Huckabee said, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Some people talk about homophobia; I’ve been hearing Christophobia.”
Other executives have signed similar proclamations, but in Huckabee’s case his aggressive, in-your-face efforts for the symbolic cause exemplify the central role his religious beliefs played in setting policy in Arkansas, first as lieutenant governor and then as governor.
Huckabee’s moral certainty revealed a public official quite different from the affable, folksy campaigner who describes himself as a conservative, but one who is “not angry about it.” His decisions have opened him to criticism from the left and the right, as liberals and conservatives have complained that his religious devotion has clouded good judgment.
His detractors point to a governor who became indignant at criticism of his personal behavior, particularly after it was disclosed that he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from supporters. And they say his views resulted in petty conflicts over matters such as Christian Heritage Week or his refusal to sign a disaster relief bill until legislators removed the words “acts of God” to describe tornadoes because Huckabee argued that God was protecting people from tornadoes, not causing them.
To his admirers, both liberal and conservative, his religious views have been an asset. Supporters have seen Huckabee’s strong opposition to abortion, his push to get health insurance for lower-income children and an unsuccessful initiative to allow the children of illegal immigrants to get college tuition breaks as expressions of the compassion he has drawn from his faith.
What about the story, if true, of Huckabee’s son, who with friends hung a dog, tortured it and killed it? Huckabee did his best to insure that his sone would not be prosecuted. Does this in any way reflect on Huckabee himself? Maybe so, maybe not.