Bob Novak: Southern Baptists Not Supporting Huckabee

Forgive me for linking to yet another Bob Novak article! However, in his latest piece, Novak argues that the lack of support for Huckabee from prominent Southern Baptists such as Richard Land and Paul Pressler should cause conservative evangelicals to be concerned.

When Mike Huckabee went to Houston on Tuesday to raise funds for his fast-rising, money-starved presidential candidacy, a luncheon for the ordained Baptist minister was arranged by evangelical Christians. On hand was Judge Paul Pressler, a hero to Southern Baptist Convention reformers. But he was a nonpaying guest who supports Fred Thompson for president.

Huckabee greeted Pressler warmly. That contrasted with Huckabee's anger two months ago when they encountered each other in California. The former governor of Arkansas took issue then with comments by Pressler, a former Texas appeals court judge, that Huckabee had been a slacker in the war against secularists within the Baptist church.

The War Against Secularists Within The Baptist Church?!? First Bob, the "moderates" during the Takeover can hardly be painted as "secularists." Even fans of Pressler like this Southern Baptist blogger would concur. Second, I know you converted to Catholicism ten years ago and may not understand Baptist polity but there is no such thing as "The Baptist Church." Such a description implies a hierarchy. We have no hierarchy in Baptist life. Our local churches are autonomous.

‘More than personality explains why not all his Baptist brethren have signed on the dotted line for Huckabee. He did not join the “conservative resurgence” that successfully rebelled against liberals in the Southern Baptist Convention a generation ago. . . Because no Republican candidate since Pat Robertson in 1988 has depended so much on support from evangelicals, opposition by Huckabee’s fellow Southern Baptists is significant. . . [Pressler] did not go so far as endorsing Huckabee for president, and that sends a strong message to conservative evangelicals.’

I suspect Huckabee will do just fine without the support of Land (who as head of the ERLC shouldn't be supporting candidates anyways) and the increasingly irrelevant Pressler.

What was more bothersome is the fact that Huckabee held his fundraiser at the home of Steven Hotze whom Novak describes as a "a leader in the highly conservative Christian Reconstruction movement." More on Hotze here. Novak has really gone to great lengths to discredit Huckabee. In the same article, Novak implies that Huckabee is not-a-real-conservative yet he has the support of a prominent Christian Reconstructionist!

Novak's friend Ann Coulter critiques Huck here.