Analysis: Can Huckabee Broaden Appeal?
http://www.newsmax.com/politics/huckabee_electablity/2008/01/13/63977.html
MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. -- This much is known: Mike Huckabee, a one-time Southern Baptist preacher, attracts fellow Christian evangelicals in droves.
Still a question is whether can he appeal to a broader scope of the GOP electorate and swing voters the Republican Party needs to beat Democrats in November.
The answer could come Tuesday when Michigan votes.
Demographically, the Midwestern state looks more like the country than Iowa and New Hampshire. Independents and Democrats also can vote in the Republican primary. That makes Michigan a test of whether Huckabee's populist pitch can pull in GOP moderates and others uneasy with his hard-right stances on cultural issues, outward emphasis on faith and mixed record on economic issues.
"People are coming to us who have never voted for a Republican before, in many cases haven't ever voted before, because America realizes that what we have had isn't working," the former Arkansas governor told a boisterous crowd Saturday in Grand Rapids, sending the message that all are welcome _ and trying to counter the notion that he's a one-constituency candidate.
"If we're going to win in November," he added, "we'd better elect somebody who can attract folks that aren't necessarily hard-core Republicans or hard-core Democrats, but that are hard-core Americans who love this country."
Nevermind that he, so far, hasn't proven he's such a candidate.
For all his effort to broaden his reach, Huckabee is still almost exclusively an evangelical Christian candidate. Exit polls from Iowa and New Hampshire show that most of his support comes from that voting group; he holds little appeal among more moderate Republicans and independents compared with his GOP rivals.
Complicating the task in Michigan is John McCain. The Arizona senator has the momentum from his win in New Hampshire, he won Michigan during his bid for president in 2000 and Democrats and independents who like McCain can vote Tuesday in the GOP primary.
Privately, some party strategists grumble that having Huckabee on the ticket in November could spell disaster for Republican candidates for Congress in swing districts. They fear that Huckabee wouldn't be able to get more than 40 percent of the vote, and question whether the GOP would end up ceding critical states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania to the Democrats.
"All his talk about God and faith could reinforce the view of moderate voters that there's too much co-mingling between religion and politics. But he's got this populist appeal that could attract them," said G. Terry Madonna, a pollster at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. "We don't know yet whether his populism trumps the religious side of his campaign. But either way you cut it, I don't think Huckabee is a candidate who will do well in swing states."
Steve Mitchell, a Republican pollster in East Lansing who is unaligned in the race, counters with Huckabee's elections in Arkansas.
"It's not an easy state for a Republican to win in," Mitchell noted.
That's Huckabee's argument for those who question his reach. He preemptively reminds audiences that he twice was elected governor of Arkansas, one of only a few Republicans to do so in 150 years, and battled a Democratic-controlled Legislature.
As he runs for president, he puts his faith at the forefront of his campaign, and that leads some Republicans to wonder whether there's still too much of the preacher in the politician. They get queasy about a candidate who, for example, raised his hand when GOP debaters were asked who didn't believe in evolution, or one who once expressed a need to "take this nation back for Christ."
"There is a concern on the part of some Republicans that the Southern Baptist thing will be a definite liability in a general election," said Susan MacManus, a former chairwoman of the Florida Election Commission who now teaches politics at the University of South Florida in Tampa. "Republican moderates already are worried about the perception that evangelicals have captured the party."
It's not just Huckabee's religious emphasis that gives some in the party pause. There's his economic record. As governor, he supported fuel and sales tax increases. Other taxes went up as Arkansas changed its property tax system and improved its schools.
These days, Huckabee promotes the idea of a "fair tax," which would replace the current tax system with a 23 percent sales tax. Both liberal and conservative economists caution that such a plan could mean the poor would pay more in taxes than they currently do.
Reed Galen, a moderate Republican strategist in California who has worked for President Bush and McCain, said he, for one, could look past his differences with Bush on social issues because the president also offered a proven low-tax, strong-on-defense record.
"The problem that I see with Huckabee is that he has not demonstrated from an economic perspective anything that I've seen as fiscal conservatism," Galen said. "I don't know that the moderate Republican could vote for Hillary (Rodham) Clinton. I'm not necessarily sure they come out and vote for Mike Huckabee though."
Islamic Jesus Hits Iranian Movie Screens
http://www.newsmax.com/entertainment/Islamic_Jesus_iran/2008/01/13/63996.html
Note from Angel Rage: The title of this news story should be "Iranian Blasphemes Against Christianity In New Movie". For more info concerning the authenticity of Jesus as the Messiah, watch the following videos:
The Christianity Test (part 1) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6171850250814933726&hl=en
The Christianity Test (part 2) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4650257081488421181&hl=en
The Christianity Test (part 3) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6366282875242063359&hl=en
The Christianity Test (part 4) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6239687051704403587&hl=en
The Christianity Test (part 5) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6419862169896412045&hl=en
The Christianity Test (part 6) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4772579969291689020&hl=en
TEHRAN -- A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the 'common ground' between Muslims and Christians.
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, 'Jesus, the Spirit of God,' as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster 'The Passion of the Christ,' which he praised as admirable but quite simply 'wrong'.
'Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that,' he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson's mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. 'But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it,' though the Iranian never heard back.
Even in Iran, 'Jesus, The Spirit of God' had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.
Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ's final hours on earth.
'It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus,' Talebzadeh told AFP.
'By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity,' he said.
The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose 'return' to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency.
Talebzadeh made his name making documentaries about Iran's 1980-1988 war against Iraq, an important genre in the country's post-revolutionary cinema.
But such weighty themes, and his latest film on Jesus, compete with domestic gangster thrillers and sugary boy-meets-girl love stories, the movies that continue to draw the biggest audiences in the Islamic Republic.
The bulk of 'Jesus, the Spirit of God', which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims.
But in Talebzadeh's movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.
'It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus' but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.
Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets -- others being Noah, Moses and Abraham -- sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus' followers as 'people of the book'.
Iran has tens of thousands of its own Christians who are guaranteed religious freedoms under the constitution -- mainly Armenians, though their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Every Christmas, Ahmadinejad and other officials lose no time in sending greetings to Christian leaders including the pope on what they describe as the 'auspicious birthday of Jesus Christ, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH).'
In this year's message, Ahmadinejad said that 'peace, friendship and justice will be attained wherever the guidelines of Jesus Christ (PBUH) are realised in the world.'
Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world.
And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi -- whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten.
Shiites believe the Mahdi's reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
'We Muslims pray for the 'Return' (of Imam Mahdi) and Jesus is part of the return and the end of time,' Talebzadeh said.
'Should we, as artists, stand idle until that time? Don't we have to make an effort?'
Orissa violence 'worst ever in India's history'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/orissa.violence.worst.ever.in.indias.history/16157.htm
Violence against Christians in the eastern India state of Orissa is the worst ever to occur, claims a report from the All India Christian Council (AICC).
Two reports published by the AICC asserts, Dalits – formerly known as ‘Untouchables’ – were the main group to be affected by the violence.
AICC sent four of their leaders to the area on a fact-finding mission and says more than 95 churches were either vandalised or destroyed, 730 homes belonging to Christians being burned down.
The team revealed that the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) instigated the attacks and carefully targeted Christians throughout Kandhamal District, Orissa
“We are saddened to acknowledge the violence in Orissa will go into the history books as an unprecedented attack on Christians in India. The tragedy is deepened by proof that the violence was avoidable if the authorities had enforced the rule of law,” said Dr Joseph D’souza, AICC President.
“Many have expressed outrage with the authorities and Hindutva extremists whose actions hurt innocent people during Christmas – a season of peace across the world.
"But we must express our anger and frustration in a peaceful manner," said D’souza.
National church bodies in India have demanded access to the troubled Kandhamal region of Orissa state to distribute relief and visit the families affected.
House church leader sends open letter to Chinese president persecution
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/house.church.leader.sends.open.letter.to.chinese.president.persecution/16160.htm
China Aid Association (CAA) has learned that several orphan children and their caretakers were forced to spend the night in a hotel room after having been evicted from their orphanage by local police officials on Christmas day.
The orphanage's caretakers, Ming Xuan Zhang along with his two sons, had prepared to celebrate Christmas with the children, but were in no way prepared to deal with the situation that unfolded that morning.
After presenting an eviction notice, officials then proceeded to beat the caretakers and the children until they were forced onto the street.
The Director of Security order of the Village of Sanhe, along with other government officials from the Religious Bureau and United Work Front Department, had threatened the landlord to stop renting land to Zhang and the children or face imprisonment.
Left with little choice, the landlord was forced to evict Zhang after five years of occupancy. The children slept in a hotel room as Zhang searched for space to rent for the orphanage.
Unfortunately, Government officials did not limit the Christmas Day eviction to a single affair. On three separate occasions, landlords were scared into not to renting space to Zhang and the orphans by threats of criminal charges and prison time.
Government officials continue to persecute Ming Xuan Zhang for his leadership role in the Chinese House Church. Affectionately known as "Bike", Ming Xuan Zhang has experienced severe persecution and has been imprisoned 12 times by Government officials, who are trying to isolate him from the Chinese house church alliance.
In 2006, US President George W Bush requested a meeting with Ming Zhang during his visit to China, but was denied by Communist Party officials. Zhang and his son were kidnapped at a train station after CPC officials discovered he had been invited to meet the President.
Zhang has written a second open letter to President Hu Jintao, in hopes of receiving relief from persecution. No response has been issued.
In his letter, he writes, "President Hu, the Land belongs to the Nation, but the district tells us arrogantly that it is his.
"They intimidate the populace, which brings great crimes to the Party, our Nation and the People, and destroys the great blueprint of building a peaceful society."
CAA said, "Government officials continue to hinder Zhang from renting space for his orphanage by threatening landlords who offer to lease to him. Zhang and the children continue to remain homeless as they search for permanent living space.
"We implore the international community and those involved to take action against the crimes committed against Ming Zhang and his orphanage.
"The eviction and closure of an orphanage on Christmas day, due to the religious persecution of its caretaker is behaviour that can not be tolerated of any Government or nation."
SC Faithful Still Seeking GOP Candidate
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/303043.aspx
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The faithful in South Carolina are still looking for the Republican presidential candidate who is the answer to their prayers.
Churchgoers on Sunday at the Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville to those who attended services at the First Baptist Church in Columbia gave high marks to the four GOP candidates who have spent the most time in the state - Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, would seem like a lock for South Carolina's religious voters. The former Arkansas governor, who talks openly about his faith and its tenets, won the Iowa caucuses based on strong support from evangelicals - eight of 10 who described themselves as evangelical Christians backed Huckabee, according to an Associated Press entrance poll in Iowa.
In South Carolina, where the GOP votes on Jan. 19, white evangelicals account for 53 percent of the state's likely Republican voters, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Yet, churchgoers remain divided over their choices.
"This is a hard one. None of them are real statesmen," Barbara Richey, 65, said after Sunday morning services at First Presbyterian Church.
"I'd be comfortable with four of the six of them," said Steve Folks, 56. He considers former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani too liberal on social issues and said he "just hasn't connected with" former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon.
The latest poll showed McCain with a clear lead over Huckabee, who had been the front-runner in most of the surveys until McCain won the New Hampshire primary.
Many churchgoers said they support Huckabee, in part because he seems likable. They also cited his willingness to talk about religion. Even those who said they didn't plan to vote for him said they expect him to do well in South Carolina.
"Finally, there's somebody who stands for family values we can trust. And he's a Baptist," said Amy Dillon, 60, as she headed into First Baptist Church, which seats about 4,000 people and broadcasts its services statewide. Huckabee is her first choice, but she said she likes McCain too.
Lou Stirrat, 79, said she supports McCain because of his military experience but also likes Huckabee because the candidate emphasizes his Christianity. "We need to bring this country back to square one," she said.
It's tougher for Charlie Moss. He said he's still deciding between Huckabee, Thompson and Romney, someone Moss likes because of his leadership in business. Romney is a former venture capitalist. Moss said he won't vote for McCain because he backed an immigration bill that would have created a pathway to citizenship for most illegal immigrants.
"That took me out of his camp," said Moss, 61.
In Greenville, a city in the northern, more conservative part of the state, members of some megachurches were just as divided.
Bonnie and Wayne Crandell, who traveled to Greenville from nearby Fountain Inn for services at the 4,000-member Christ Church Episcopal, said they think McCain and Romney should be on the same ticket, but they're split on who should be president. He favors McCain; she likes Romney.
"I think he has the sophistication to do the job," Bonnie Crandell, 60, said of Romney. "I think his background in family politics and his business acumen will serve him well in the White House. And he's very diplomatic."
Debbie Perini, of Greenville, said Huckabee piques her interest, but her husband says he's not conservative enough fiscally or militarily. For now, she favors McCain.
"He's articulate. He knows Washington. He's conservative and I believe he's pro-life," said Perini, who in her late 50s takes care of her handicapped daughter and her retired husband.
Perini attends Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, which boasts 13,000 members and an electronic message board touting a 24-hour prayer hot line. High-definition televisions in the lobby broadcast sermons, and the typically fired-up service lasts more than two hours. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke there a few months ago.
Mark Beck, who also attends Redemption World, said he hasn't decided between Huckabee and Thompson and plans to do some research to help him make a final decision. Thompson, he said, has a slight edge because of his tough talk on illegal immigration.
"Thompson is more straight up about immigration and about smaller government," said Beck, of Greer.
Huckabee eschews politics for preaching
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_el_pr/huckabee;_ylt=Aqb0XosvoeUqgKdULJEjyces0NUE
Republican Mike Huckabee spoke from the pulpit Sunday, not as a politician but as the preacher he used to be, delivering a sermon on how merely being good isn't enough to get into heaven.
Huckabee is vying for support from the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, which chooses a Republican presidential nominee on Saturday. A former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, Huckabee is competing for their votes with fellow southerner Fred Thompson.
As in Iowa, where he won the Jan. 3 caucuses, Huckabee is rousing pastors to marshal their flocks for him. He pitches himself as someone who not only shares their views against abortion and gay marriage but who actually comes from their ranks.
On Sunday in South Carolina, Huckabee avoided politics entirely, instead preaching about humility and trusting in Jesus to open the gates of heaven.
"The criteria to get into heaven is you have to be not good, but perfect. That's the real challenge in it," he said at First Baptist North Spartanburg, a megachurch with 2,500 members.
"On that day, when I pull up, I'll be asked, `Do you have what it takes to get in?'" Huckabee said. "And if I ask, `Well, what does it take to get in?' 'Gotta be perfect.'"
"Well, I'm afraid I don't have that, but you know what, I won't be there alone that day. Somebody is going to be with me. His name is Jesus, and he's promised that he would never leave me or forsake me," he said.
Asked by reporters later if he thinks only Christians will go to heaven, Huckabee refused to say. He often says that as a minister, he joked that he doesn't even believe all Baptists are going to heaven.
"I'm going to stick to the things that make it critical for me to be president of the United States," Huckabee said Sunday. "I have deep convictions about who goes and who doesn't, but as far as who makes that decision, it isn't me, it's God. I'm going to leave that up to him."
He argued that the Constitution forbids a political candidate from being subjected to a religious litmus test. And he claimed to be the only candidate who gets asked about specific tenets of his faith.
However, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has also been asked about his Mormon faith. In fact, Romney got questions about his faith after Huckabee, in The New York Times, asked whether Mormons believe Jesus and the devil were brothers. Huckabee quickly apologized to Romney and said the quotes were taken out of context.
In South Carolina, Huckabee didn't ask for votes or discuss the campaign, but senior pastor Michael S. Hamlet encouraged the congregation to vote according to how they try to live their lives, by the principles of Bible scripture.
"I'm going to tell you something, when you go vote, you ought to follow those principles," Hamlet said.
But Huckabee did wade into politics Sunday evening in Michigan, telling members of the Apostolic Church of Auburn Hills about his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and expressing his concern about job losses in the state. He played bass guitar in the praise band and, before he spoke, the organist played a few notes of "Hail to the Chief."
Huckabee's shoestring campaign has relied on pastors to encourage their flocks to vote.
"They can't mobilize for example, from the pulpit, get up and say to everybody, 'The bus leaves the church at 8 a.m. on Saturday.' It's a matter of urging them to use the influence they have to get their people out to vote, and I hope they will. Why wouldn't they?" Huckabee said.
Huckabee also is hoping to win over the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in Michigan, which votes Tuesday. He emphasized his opposition to abortion during a meeting with about 100 pastors in Grand Rapids on Saturday, urging them to use their address books and e-mail lists to mobilize others.
Polls there have shown him running in third place, behind Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, winner of the New Hampshire primary last week.
In contrast to Huckabee, Thompson held no public events Sunday in South Carolina, where Huckabee has the edge following his Iowa caucus win.
Concerning the "Islamic Jesus" movie (what a sick title), I fear for those who mislead people to follow gods other than the Most High God (Jehovah, El, Elohim, Yahweh...).
ReplyDeleteAllah is a sick joke created by a frustrated muhammad (yes, the lower-case "m" was placed there on purpose) when his teaching was rejected by the Christians and Jews.