Huckabee Stands Strong on Religious Questions.

Huckabee Stands Strong on Religious Questions
When asked recently on MSNBC's "Hardball", why he and other GOP candidates keep expounding their views on religion, his answer was simple: Because journalists keep asking about them. (Read More Below)



Huckabee Won’t Be Baited on Religion
FROM NEWSMAX
Dec 9, 07

When Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee was asked why he and other GOP candidates keep expounding their views on religion, his answer was simple: Because journalists keep asking about them.

During a Huckabee appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews asked the ordained Baptist minister: “Why are you Republican candidates submitting to religious vetting about your belief in the literal nature of the Bible? Why put up with those … questions?”

Huckabee responded: “Well, Chris, when guys like you quit asking it, we’ll quit answering it. But the fact is, we get asked these questions in the debates, and if we evade them, if we act like we’re not going to answer them, then we’re going to get hammered for being unwilling to address the questions that are put to us.”

Matthews pressed on: “But these are religious test questions. They’re not about public policy.”

Referring to the most recent GOP debate, Huckabee shot back: “I would love for us to be asked questions about education and healthcare and energy independence. Unfortunately, those were the questions that nobody did ask us…

“I didn’t get to pick the questions. If I did, I promise I’d have picked some different questions for me and for the other candidates as well.”

Huckabee also told Matthews there should be no “religious test” for public office or even a requirement that a person has to be religious at all.

“I’d rather have a person serving in Congress who’s an avowed atheist, who’s honest about it,” he said, “than a person who tries to pretend he’s a Christian when he doesn’t live like it and he’s filled with hate and venom and anger toward people.”