Houston Redux

A quick follow up to my post from a couple of weeks ago on Houston Mayor Annise Parker and the subpoenas served by the City of Houston on five area pastors. While it might be a little premature (and a little overdramatic) to use the headline “Fight For Faith”, Fox News reported that the subpoenas, previously redrafted, have now been withdrawn entirely.

With his usual subtlety, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee had a few words to say on the subject of the issuance of the initial subpoenas:

“They shouldn’t expect the taxpayers to fund their hate-filled, Gestapo-like actions to openly attempt to shut down the free exercise of religion and their attempt to establish a religion of godless secularism.”

It could be argued that Huckabee’s comments slightly mischaracterize the primary reason for the legal action taken by the City of Houston. Reducing the fracas to ‘Godless Lefty Lesbian Mayor vs. The Faith’ certainly turns up the rhetorical heat and makes headlines, but as my original post points out, there’s more to the story than a simplistic assault on the First Amendment rights of believers.

Still, not content with playing the Nazi card, Huckabee brought out the big guns:

“So, I’ve got an idea — if she wants some sermons, here’s my suggestion. I’d like to ask every pastor in America, not just the ones in Houston, send her your sermons. Obviously, she could use a few. So, if you’re a pastor, send them to her. And here’s another thought, everybody watching the show ought to send her a Bible. That’s right, everybody. I hope she gets thousands and thousands of sermons and Bibles.”

Mayor Parker replied, “He’s doing what he can to pump ratings for Fox News.”

An estimated 500 to 1,000 Bibles have so far been received by the mayor’s office. Parker told reporter Joel Eisenbaum these would be donated to local churches.

Huckabee’s solution to the increasingly confident leftist policymaking of governments at every level is to get out the Christian vote. He upbraided believers for their lack of enthusiasm for the democratic process.

He failed, however, to point out that the democratic process only works as well as the mechanism by which votes are counted. On October 28, CBS News Baltimore ran the story that “… there are already accusations that some voting machines are changing Republican votes to Democrat”, which, if true, makes it increasingly difficult for Christians to make any sort of difference to the society in which we currently reside. 

It may seem like a non sequitur, but I am reminded that “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted”.

And I am reminded of Abraham, who looked forward to “the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God”.