It doesn’t morph into your version of a topic either. I’m sure everyone here has a personal opinion on gender roles in marriage, but you yourself have also chosen tp comment on Huckabee’s “cynical need’ to affirm his views publicly, “as if this belief makes him a better candidate for president,” so it’s not like I’m changing the subject. Indeed, the definition of “servant leadership” kindly provided above by others seems like an obvious nexus for Huckabee. You may believe his views on the subject shouldn’t matter, but I hardly get the impression that Huckabee thinks so.

The topic here, however, is his purposefully public religious belief about how husbands and wives should relate to each other. Could his ostentatious remarriage really be anybody’s idea of a personal religious ceremony? Huckabee is the one who seems to have a problem with the separation here.

JM Hanes on December 12, 2007 at 3:18 AM

The topic doesn’t magically morph into what you wish it to be. The husband-wife relationship is the topic and it is personal between the two, your above judgment of the sincerity on this topic notwithstanding. That judgment is irrelevant, as is that of the rest of us.

But beyond that, isn’t restoring civility long been articulated as a conservative goal? And aren’t we civil for both other people’s happiness and our own?

Peace be with you.

thuja on December 12, 2007 at 9:15 AM

Thank you for your civility.

It may be some conservatives’ goal, but it isn’t necessarily my individual goal in all cases.

Have a good day.

We must elect a president that has integrity, morals, willing to fulfill his oath of office to the American people, and follow the Constitution as written.

Compare and contrast.WASHINGTON – Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers? The article, to be published in Sunday…

This is not my favorite post to write, as I find myself in disagreement with a number of bloggers that I respect and enjoy reading, but it seems the Republican primary is taking an ugly turn with the aid of…

As a pastor, I’ve heard the wishes and pleas of many women… who are longing for a husband who will sacrificially lead her and the family rather than play the goof and leaving her with the grown-up responsibilities, while he plays with his Wii.

All too often men prove the stupid, slothful, stereotype in just about every sit-com on tv.

I have rarely met a woman who wouldn’t gladly submit graciously to a man who will take some responsibility, lead her and love her like Christ.

hashman on December 11, 2007 at 9:03 PM

Well then pastor I’d love to meet the women you know, because I’ve never met a woman who would let a man lead. In fact every woman I’ve ever met under the age of 50 end up rejecting any type of leadership a husband would give, and usually end up cheating.

But yeah lets paint whole groups with a single brush…

The husband is the spiritual head of the household. While we believe in personal accountability before God, we believe that God holds the husband additionally responsible for the spiritual and moral well-being of his wife and children. Therefore, he is put in a position of moral and spiritual leadership. Another words he is a steward of his family. The word ’servant’ in “servant leadership” is aimed at the husband, not the wife. He is to model his leadership after Christ.

You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

Christ demonstrated servant leadership when he washed the feet of the disciples. The husband, although steward of his family, figuratively serves his family in a similiar manner. Therfore the husband is actually held to a higher standard of selflessness than is the wife. Even to the point of being ready to die for his wife and children. Rather than being in contentious competition she responds graciously.

If this be ’sharia law’ then make the most of it.

Any fear that Huckabee would attempt to force this doctrine on the country is both paranoid and absurd.

and baldilocks, who are you to be asking this question?

If a question [sic}is capable of scoring rhetorical points, then isn’t even more important that a good answer be given?

thuja on December 11, 2007 at 11:07 PM

I mean this most sincerely: STFU.

baldilocks on December 11, 2007 at 11:12 PM

I saw you apologized in a limited way. I do agree that we shouldn’t flame because it makes Hotair look bad. But beyond that, isn’t restoring civility long been articulated as a conservative goal? And aren’t we civil for both other people’s happiness and our own?

Peace be with you.

So are these the times that call for naievete???

Well, Carter always wanted a second term; looks like he finally has a shot at it.

* He was a sitting governor when he signed this document. If that’s not blurring the lines between church and state — and wielding one’s influence as an elected official in an inappropriate way — I don’t know what is.

* Dude has been formally accused about a dozen times (actually, 13, if I’m not mistaken) of serious ethical violations while in office. Hey, where there’s that much smoke… If he walked the walk, Biblically speaking, I could admire him even if I disagreed with him. Unfortunately, he only talks the talk.

* He is so lying about Dumond. The reason — the one and ONLY reason — he brought all his influence to bear on the parole board to release that scumbag was that Dumond’s supporters convinced Huckabee the convict had been ’saved’. Think about it. The man is so ignorant that a simple statement that “I repent — I have seen the light” from a convicted serial rapist compelled him to ignore all those desperate, pleading women whose lives had been destroyed and work to overturn the righteous decision of a jury of Dumond’s peers.

So are these the times that call for naievete??? That demand compassion for those who break the law and seek to destroy us? That should inspire our leaders to undermine the criminal justice system? That cry out for us to ‘turn the other cheek’? My Bible also calls for ‘an eye for an eye’. So does Mike Huckabee’s, but he ignores that part because he’s reading it selectively.

I am the farthest thing in the world from a feminist. However, this is one of the few times I believe they ought to be standing up and screaming bloody murder. And this should be their Exit Question: What does it say about a presidential candidate when he ignored 3 women who lost their souls cause he just felt so damn sorry for one guy who lost his balls?

There’s no need for feminism.

Entelechy on December 11, 2007 at 9:40 PM

Are you f*cking kidding me?

“I just don’t want all Christian candidates tossed out because of him, and that’s a serious possibility here.”

Hardly! Are there even any non-Christians running? Obama is not exactly reserved about his faith, and it sure doesn’t look like he’ll be out on his ear anytime soon. If I recall correctly, we also knew Bush was born again when we elected him — twice. I think we can safely say this is a Huckabee problem, not a Christian problem.

baldilocks:

“But I couldn’t care less about his personal religious belief about how a husband and wife relate to each other.”

The topic here, however, is his purposefully public religious belief about how husbands and wives should relate to each other. Could his ostentatious remarriage really be anybody’s idea of a personal religious ceremony? Huckabee is the one who seems to have a problem with the separation here.

“He believes that a husband should be the head of the household. Big deal. Household does not equal government.”

Tell that to Huckabee. He apparently believes that countries are like people, so I wonder what basis you have for assuming he doesn’t think of governments as a households. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to hear that he’s made that analogy already, would you? After all, “servant leadership” is what he’s selling, isn’t it?

I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I figure it’s just a matter of time before someone steps up to the mic and flat out says Huckabee was busily granting clemancy to folks who found Jesus.

Shoot, the comments from his Arkansas prosecutors are like a road map that nobody’s reading. It explains his bizarre choices a whole lot better than the criteria he floated publicly do. Jack Tapper reports that Prosecutor Lona McCastlain scoped out how to get Huckabee to change his mind in the case of Glen Green, a guy who gives DuMond a serious run for heinous:

She prepared documentation to keep the brutal killer in prison. “The governor came from a religious background, so I tried to appeal to him in the way that I thought he looked at clemency,” she said. She attacked the sincerity of Green’s repentance.
It worked. Huckabee did not commute Green’s sentence; he remains in prison.

If Green’s “repentence” never included any expression of “remorse for his actions” (per Tommy Oliver), what sort of bona fides do we think Huckabee was looking for in the first place? Is it just a fluke that Green’s advocate was a Baptist pastor?

Doubling down here: Is it mere coinicidence that one of Huckabee’s fellow signatories above is Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson?

baldilocks on December 11, 2007 at 11:14 PM

Way to ruin a perfectly good cat-fight. Sigh…

… the concept is thousands of years older than this. Chanakya or Kautilya, the famous strategic thinker from ancient India, wrote about servant leadership in his 4th century B.C. book Arthashastra:

“the king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]”

“the king [leader] is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people”.

The concept of servant leadership in the west can be traced back, at least partly, to Jesus, who taught his disciples that

“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

It’s in there alright, but people would do well to read the whole passage in question.

23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

“…just as Christ game himself up for her.” That’s a reference to Christ’s crucifixion. The idea there is to promote selfless love within marriage to the point that both husband and wife are putting the other’s needs before their own, and the husband is willing to give up his life for his wife. So, no, this doesn’t parallel the male-dominated brutality that’s written in the Koran, and it’s not a passage that promotes kingly behavior on the part of the husband. The mutual selflessness promoted in Ephesians is downright revolutionary today.

But yeah, it’ll be taken entirely the wrong way and dog Huckabee for as long as he’s in the race unless he’s very very very good at explaining things. He’s good, but probably not that good.

Bryan on December 11, 2007 at 7:00 PM

I’m actually surprised it took as long as it did for someone to make clear the issue in question (or at least its context). And for Bryan to at that. Usually we have someone quick to the punch. But Bryan’s right and this is how my wife and I work in our marriage and it has helped us aplenty. Course I must constantly show I am worthy of that respect just as I have to continually show I was worth marrying. The last thing I should do after reading that verse is sit on my ass and expect my wife to do what I say.

Of the top 5 GOP candidates, only Thompson appears not to be faking it.

Coolness. Let’s hope all Christian women, and also all non-Christians, agree.

Spoken like a true, skirt-chasing bachelor. :-)

I would wager that what Huckabee uttered would be implicitly taken as indisputable by the vast majority of humanity across a broad sweep of history.

Besides, just because Ephesians Chapter 5 is rejected by today’s elites will hardly deter Christian voters in fly-over country.

On the other hand, regarding non-Christians, I will concede that you have a point.

P.S. Get back to us on this issue after you have been married 20+ years.