07 January 2008

Just because he's an ordained minister

Josue Sierra sums up the proper attitude to take towards Huckabee:

If you're going to vote for Huckabee, just make sure you know what you're voting for--don't make assumptions about his candidacy just because he's a ordained minister.
One would like to believe that no one, not even a Christian, would think Huckabee is a viable candidate just because he's a minister. But we know better. I've heard too many callers (Christians, of course) to talk shows laud Huckabee precisely because (and in some cases only because) he's first of all a Christian and secondly because he's an ordainded minister.

One of these, when confronted with Huckabee's obvious liberalism admitted that it was true, Huckabee is (at least for all practical purposes) a liberal. But more important to this caller was sanctity of life. The fundamental obligation of government is to protect human life, so Huckabee (according to this caller) is correct on the most fundamental issue, human life.

Never mind that the President has no authority to do anything about abortion, not even signing into law legistlation which would outlaw it.

Sierra was commenting on this column by George Will. In this column Will comments on Huckabee's and Edwards' lament about the declining middle class. It is true: the middle class is declining. But to listen to Edwards and Huckabee, one would think that the decline is due to members of the middle class dropping into the lower class. In fact, that isn't the case.

Economist Stephen Rose, defining the middle class as households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $100,000, says a smaller percentage of Americans are in that category than in 1979 -- because the percentage of Americans earning more than $100,000 has doubled from 12 to 24, while the percentage earning less than $30,000 is unchanged. "So," Rose says, "the entire 'decline' of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder." Even as housing values declined in 2007, the net worth of households increased. (Emphasis mine.)
As people in a particular class increase their income, the membership in that particular class could decrease. It's a circle of life kind of thing.

Apparently, neither Edwards nor Huckabee can be bothered to find out why something like a decline in the middle class is happening. I wonder if Huckabee is familiar with the proverb which affirms the glory of people who search out a matter thoroughly (see Proverbs 25.2). Or a passage in one of the gospels in which Jesus tells a crowd not to judge by appearances, but rather with righteous judgment (see John 7.23-25).

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James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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