Check out Froma Harrop: Huckabee’s Perilous Perception of Souls in the Providence Journal. Ms. Harrop, a contributing columnist, is right on target with her analysis of Mike Huckabee’s advocacy for the release of convicted rapist Wayne DuMond, and it’s not all anti-Clinton politics…
In 1996, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee reportedly pressured a parole board to release a sexual predator from jail. Wayne DuMond had 25 years left on his sentence for the 1984 rape of a teenager. His claim to have found God apparently helped open the prison doors.
One of the central tenets of evangelical Christianity is redemption. At best, this belief gives people who have fallen into despair a chance to start again. It prompts amazing acts of mercy and forgiveness. At worst, the principle of redemption can be corrupted into an abdication of responsibility for the consequences of our acts. Religion becomes a membership in a club where all that is required is to be ‘one of us’.
That version of redemption is responsible for quite a few prison conversions, as it serves to aid people who are already in denial about the damage they have caused. They are not the same person, they are forgiven. So why the heck are they still in jail? They make their case to a minister who believes, like them, that the past can be wiped away and that past actions can be forgotten. If there are victims, the victims need to learn to forgive. That’s the Christian thing to do, and this kind of Christianity leads with the heart. It can easily lead into believing that what feels right to them is right for everyone. As Froma Harrop says…
The release of a violent offender based on his tale of religious conversion (or in this case, a claim of such by another Baptist minister) — rather than on available evidence — is inexcusable. It speaks of arrogance and laziness. Clergymen, like psychiatrists, often flatter themselves into believing that their magic has turned around the hardest cases. “Faith� becomes a shortcut for researching the reality of things.
The word ‘faith’ has been used way too much for the past seven years to cover up all kinds of crimes, ethical, financial and sexual. There’s nothing wrong with granting pardons, it’s a part of a Governor’s duties, but Ms. Harrop has shown how dangerous it can be to substitute faith for responsibility and to mix church and state. Stop on over at Projo.com and read her whole column. It’s good.
Recurring Nightmare 
It was bad when it seemed like Huckabee pardoned DuMond to get back at Clinton.
However, this is way worse. I mean, let’s face it: revenge on Clinton is limited in time and space. Releasing violent offenders because of supposed conversions offers a never-ending source of later problems.
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I would suggest that a series of significant issues have risen to the surface centered on the issue of religion in the political process. Once introduced,the “Pandora’s Box” of debate has opened (sorry about the introduction of Greco-Roman paganism). When is it appropriate to ask those tough questions and when is it not? Does it matter what a candidate for the Presidency or any other office believes? Of course we live in a country where we can select any belief package that appeals as long as the rights of others to do the same are not infringed. That is all to the good. However, i suggest when someone steps up and wants to occupy public office, it MAY matter what belief package accompanies that person, and this is part of a rational appraisal of that person’s credentials.
If the actor Tom Cruise wanted to be a candidate for President, or local Dog Catcher, his cult of Scientology, that odd creation over lunch by science fiction writers, L. Ron Hubbard and L. Sprague DeCamp, would certainly be examined and discussed. It seems to me that Mr. Romney’s belief package of Mormonism, with its peculiar notions of science and history: Garden of Eden in Missouri, Jesus preaching in the New World, golden tablets and the “con” man Joseph Smith meeting with an angel named Moroni, or that Native Americans are really Jewish folks of the Ten Lost Tribes, and a host of rather racist assertions need to be addressed by Mr. Romney. Either is sees these as peculiarities and non-truths or he finds them to be matters of faith. Those conclusions of his should be part of the discussion and would impact how he would serve as President.
By the same token, Mr. Huckabee seems to be a really good guitar player and very nice guy, personable and glib, able to laugh at himself easily and would be a great friend, I am sure. He must be an able politician since he did well as a Republican in Arkansas and he did not embarass himself or his wife and family as did Mr. Clinton. However, Mr. Huckabee seems to also be an intellectual Neanderthal. He appears to be anti-scientific in an age where a President will need to rely on science and technology. He “questions” evolution as presently understood, strays very close to believing the world is 6000 years old, likes Adam and Eve stories his own belief package has impacted his terms as Governor, admittedly in an environment where that belief structure is the norm and not the exception. A closer examination of how these beliefs would influence a Huckabee Presidency is very much as valid a matter as his ideas about taxation, education, or import laws. Whether we like it or not, these candidates raised the issues and they should be addressed.
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Mr. Kennedy also had to placate forces in his own party, especially Harry Truman, who wondered out lous whether the U.S. was ready for a Catholic President. Mrs. Rosevelt did not use the “Catholic” test too loudly, but she was very much looking at her choice M.Mr. Adali Stevenson. The “Catholic” test was really not a test because Al Smith had long before been a candidate and lost only because of the popularity of FDR. Mr. Stevenson was a gifted man, but ran into “Ike” a candidate no one could beat, ever, and who was offerred the job by both parties. Interestingly, Mr. Stevenson great personal “flaw” never came up in the campaign–Mr. Stevenson,if he had beaten Ike would have been the first divorced President. Mr. Kennedy’s compulsive energetic philandering foibles with movie stars, gangster’s girlfriends and apparently anyone, were not only not discussed at all while he lived, but his being a Catholic was–how ironic.
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