The Tragedy of Compassion

David C. Innes
Assistant Professor of Politics at The King's College in New York City writes:

"Mike Huckabee is offering himself as a superior candidate for the office of President. He is doing this partly, and perhaps mostly, on the basis of his Christian faith and Christian character. His decisions, unlike those of his competitors, will be guided by compassion, as they were when he was the governor of Arkansas. Gov. Huckabee appears to have heapin' helps of compassion, but is somewhat deficient in wisdom. Consider the following:

Under pressure from then governor Huckabee, the Arkansas parole board released rapist Wayne Dumond from prison on condition that he leave the state. Shortly thereafter he raped and killed a Missouri woman. Dumond's vigilante castration just after his arrest in 1985 as well as his Christian profession of faith appears to have influenced the governor's heart.
Candidate Huckabee would perhaps make a good pastor. But he lacks characteristics that are essential for wise and effective political leadership.

The Values Voter

In the Autumn 2007 issue of The Wilson Quarterly, Jon A. Shields in his essay "In Praise of the Values Voter," writes that a great political irony is how successful the Christian Right has been "at fulfilling liberal thinkers' hope for American democracy." Compared to the organizations built by Liberals (e.g. Common Cause, Environmental Defense, NARAL Pro-Choice America), those built by the Christian Right (e.g. Operation Rescue, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women of America) have been more than checkbook activists; they have been engaged in civil action.

Some political scientists have argued "that religious groups 'distort' American politics by focusing on abortion rather than 'the least advantaged.' While this may strike some as a perfectly reasonable argument, it assumes that the human embryo has no moral status. If this assumption is wrong, if the fetus does have a claim to protection, it is precisely 'the least advantaged' that the right-to-life movement is defending."

Shields goes on to state that most Americans falsely believe that Roe vs. Wade is more restrictive of abortion than it actually is. He writes that 80% of Americans think abortion is not available during all nine months of pregnancy. This 'mass legal illiteracy' causes Americans to support keeping Roe vs. Wade intact.

He also verifies that most conservative Christians who are activists "quietly labor to engage those who disagree with them in a civil and reasonable way" and are trying to overcome the "long shadow of fundamentalists such as Jerry Falwell and Randy Terry..."

A Price to Pay for Politics from the Pulpit

The Evangelical Crackup

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: October 28, 2007

After the 2004 election, evangelical Christians looked like one of the most powerful and cohesive voting blocs in America. Three years later their leadership is split along generational and theological lines. How did it all come apart?