Understanding the Gospel According to Huckabee

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

If you heard Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's victory speech on Super Tuesday, you may have noticed him speaking in what is almost a separate dialect. Some listeners have even asked us what he was talking about. So NPR headed off to the National Mall in search of people who understood Huckabee's biblical allusions.

It proved almost as hard as getting a camel through the eye of a needle.

We started by recounting this story: In November, as Huckabee surged in the polls, a student at Liberty University asked him what was driving his startling success. Huckabee responded, "It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people."

We played the tape for Leitha Anthony, who was waiting to go into the Washington Monument. Did she know what he was talking about?

"That's when Moses ... had to feed all the people, the multitude of people that left Egypt," Anthony hazarded. "That's what it was?"

Anthony, who is from Mississippi, was close — the Bible story did involve food — but it was Jesus feeding the hungry crowd. Most of the other people we talked to near the Washington Monument got it wrong, too.

For the next quiz question, we played a clip from Huckabee's Super Tuesday victory speech:

"Sometimes," the former Arkansas governor told his supporters, "one small smooth stone is even more effective than a whole lot of armor."

"Maybe something to do with the war," guessed Dan Booth, who was visiting from Alabama.

"He's talking about peace, the resolution of peace?" ventured his friend Mike Allen.

Actually, Huckabee was comparing himself to the shepherd boy David, who slayed the giant Goliath with one smooth stone right in the forehead.

Only one person knew that one — a disconcerting record as we moved into advanced "Huckabese." The next clip also came from Tuesday night's speech:

"We've also seen that the widow's mite has more effectiveness than all the gold in the world."

We asked Daria Teutonico and Richard Pettit about the widow's mite as they walked to lunch on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I have no clue," was Teutonico's answer. "I thought a mite was a bug."

"Is it a spider?" Pettit added. They both laughed.

The widow's mite actually refers to a poor woman Jesus observed giving a small coin to God. It was all she had.

Like every person we stopped, Teutonico and Pettit were raised in Christian households and had attended Sunday school. But Boston University professor Stephen Prothero says they're not alone in being mystified by Huckabee's rhetoric.

"Half of Americans can't name any of the four Gospels, and that includes the Christians," Prothero says. "And half don't know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible. Those are much easier questions than things like, you know, 'What's the loaves and the fishes story?'"

Prothero, who wrote the book Religious Literacy, says Huckabee may think he's scoring points with his base.

"You could imagine that ... this is his secret code way that he could speak to evangelicals without alienating more secular people," Prothero says. "But the faulty part of that strategy is the evangelicals don't even necessarily know these stories."

Finally, we happened upon Vicky Frey. She attends a megachurch of 2,500 people in Omaha, Neb. She got every question right. So she was asked about one more Huckabee quote for the bonus round:

"It's almost like when the prophet was looking for a king. He came down, looked through all of Jesse's sons, went through a whole bunch of them, and said, 'Is this all you got?'"

Before the question was finished, Frey was nodding and smiling.

"And that would be Samuel the prophet came down and went through all of the sons — I think there were seven of them — and David was the last one," she quickly responded, adding, "Jesse said, 'No, I still have one more son, but he's the youngest and he's out in the field tending the sheep,' and he chose him.

"And so the lesson that we're supposed to learn from that," she explained, "is it's not on our physical appearance that we're judged, but it's on our heart. So the prophet knew that David would be king because he had the proper heart."

"Do you feel like you're in church today?" Frey asked, laughing.

It just so happens Frey is a Huckabee supporter.

And Prothero's response when he learned we had finally found someone who could understand Huckabee?

"It's an exceedingly small target audience, about as small as the percentage of animals climbing on Noah's ark."

No one knows how long Huckabee's campaign will last. But it's already been nearly 40 days and 40 nights since his surprising win in Iowa.

How Sad. . .

BERLIN (Reuters) - The decomposed corpse of a German man was found alone in his bed after nearly seven years, police in the western city of Essen said Thursday. The police said in a statement the man was 59 and unemployed at the time of his death. He most likely died of natural causes on November 30, 2000, the date he received a letter from the Welfare Office found in the apartment, police said. Next to the dead man's bed police found cigarettes, an open television guide and Deutschemark coins, which came out of circulation after the euro was introduced in 2002. The man's apartment was in a building with offices and apartments, many of which are now empty.
"No one missed him. No missing person report was ever filed," the police said.

3 Christians Killed in Turkey

Christian Aid Worker Stoned

Police in have launched a murder investigation after the body of 23-year-old Michael Blakey, was discovered in a Gully near to the St John's Church in the Wilderness, Dharamsala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh where he worshipped. He disappeared on November the 23rd but his body was only discovered three day's later, partially hidden by large stones. The area is the home of the Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama and considered a safe area for tourists and backpackers. Police sources in the region said that his injuries were consistent with him being stoned to death. The motivation for the killing remains unclear and police believe may have been committed by more than one person.

Michael, a graduate of Swansea University had taken a gap year to work with the Tong Len charity which he helped set up after hearing of the plight of the Tibetan refugees. It is reported that he developed a strong relationship with a ten year old boy named Suresh and they were "special mates". Michael was to return from India just day's after his "brutal death" to spend Christmas with his family who live in Burnley, Lancashire, before returning to the region for six months. Speaking of his son's death Michael's father told a local journalist, "Michael touched the lives of so many. He just wanted to go to India and help other people, but now we may never know what happened to him. "Michael was always quite a happy boy but never more so than when he was in Dharamsala. He was doing what he loved best - helping others". The Reverend Richard Hall a Methodist minister at Swansea University where Michael gained a first class honours degree wrote of his anger of the British media's reluctance to report Michael's death. Reverend Hall described Michael's death as "heartbreaking". It is believed that Michael's body has now been returned to the UK and his family have revealed that following his funeral his ashes will be returned to India and scattered on a sight where a permanent memorial will be erected in his memory. In 2004 Michael wrote an of his coming to a faith in Jesus Christ and God our Father. The last paragraph reads "Only the good news of the love of God, and the saving grace that is there for us to receive, can do this. Only by acting through love can we truly work for the glory of God, and only by living with compassion can we do justice to the sacrifice made for us. To preach a gospel of fear is to remove all that is glorious about our relationship with God, and to deny people the essence of the good news. God is love, and without fear, we should accept him as such."

Bush drops Vietnam from ''Concern List''

Vietnam (MNN) -- Vietnam is hailing the United States decision to remove it from their list of violators of religious freedom, saying it reflects warmer ties between the two former foes. However, many Christians are wondering about the move.Voice of the Martyrs has been working with Christians in Vietnam for years. VOM's Todd Nettleton believes this is a public relations ploy. "18 Vietnamese churches were granted registration, but instead of going to the pastors or the church leaders, the government simply faxed a list to the U-S Embassy as if to say, 'Look, look, we have religious freedom now; we've registered all these churches.' Some of the pastors were informed by our U-S Embassy there."While Nettleton says Vietnam appears to be proud of the church registration, "They don't mention that there were actually 534 churches that applied for registration and only 25 were granted."The registration, Nettleton says, didn't come without a price. "One of the things you have to do in order to apply for registration is you have to list all of the members of your church. At least some of those lists were used to target people for interrogation and persecution."Despite the problems in Vietnam, the churches are growing in Vietnam, says Nettleton, especially among the ethnic minority groups. He says not only is church registration an issue, but Bible translation. "It's illegal in Vietnam to have something printed in those ethnic minority languages, and yet we see the church growing at an astounding rate."Vietnam has been successful in removing their name from the list. They're also members of the World Trade Organization. Now, they want normalized trade status with the US. Nettleton says, "The interesting thing will be to see if all of these things are granted, what happens then. Does it return to business as usual in terms of persecuting Christians, or is it a time of opening up the borders and maybe having a little more religious freedom."As President Bush visits Vietnam, Nettleton is hoping religious freedom will be a part of his discussions.

Brawl in Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) - A young woman's rooftop bid in Germany sparked a mass brawl between spectators encouraging the 21-year-old to jump and a group of homeless people trying to protect her, authorities said Tuesday. The homeless people were angered when some teenagers in the crowd of hundreds started yelling to the woman she should throw herself from the roof of the town hall of the southwestern town of Loerrach, said police spokesman Dietmar Ernst. "The homeless people started shouting at the kids not to say that, using some strong language," Ernst said. "Morally speaking though, the homeless people were in the right." A punch-up involving around 40 people then ensued, during which time police managed to coax the woman back indoors -- three and a half hours after her ordeal began. Some 35 officers, six of whom were injured during the fight, were needed to break it up. Eight participants were arrested, most of them school children aged between 16 and 19.
Ernst said he was doubtful that the brawl, which involved at least one , had stopped the woman from jumping. "She was about 70 metres (230 feet) up and probably wouldn't have seen much of what was going on," he said.

Iraq: A 15 year old Assyrian Christian beheaded

At approximately 6:00 a.m., while Ayad was beginning his twelve hour shift of maintaining an electrical generator, a group of disguised Muslim militants approached him and asked to see his identification.
According to an employee who witnessed the events, when the Muslims saw that his identification noted him as "Christian," they asked him if he was truly a "Christian sinner." Ayad replied, "Yes, I am a Christian but not a sinner." The insurgents responded that this is a "dirty Christian sinner!" They then threw him to the ground, held down his arms and legs, and shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great), they beheaded him.
Sources include:
Assyrian International News Agency (AINA)
Salem Voice (SVM)
At Any Cost Jesus Mission

German Extinction?

Everyone in Germany knows the rabenmutter. The word, which translates as "raven mother," describes the kind of woman who is so unloving, so selfish that she heartlessly places her toddler in day care so she can go back to work. . .the idea of leaving one's child in the care of someone who doesn't necessarily love the child, of paying a stranger to do a mother's job, just doesn't sit right with many conservative Germans. . .The rabenmutter complex helps explain why Germany has had Europe's lowest birthrate for the past three decades. . .Since the mid-1960s, each new generation of Germans has been a third smaller than that of its parents. If the trend continues, Germany's population will shrink from 83 million today to about 79 million in 2050. . .At the same time, the number of retirees is ballooning. By 2020, 30% of the German population will be 60 or older. The ratio of workers paying into the pension system and those receiving a pension is now 2-1; in a decade it will be 1-1.

"What is happening when an entire continent -- wealthier and healthier than ever before -- declines to create the human future ... by creating a next generation?" asked George Weigel in an essay on the decline of religious practice in Europe. Weigel, an American theologian, answered his question by suggesting that there is a direct link between Europe's loss of faith and the loss of its desire to reproduce itself.

Steffen Kroehnert, who studies demographic trends at the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, notes that France and the Scandinavian countries, generally regarded as among the least religious in Europe, are also the ones with relatively healthy fertility rates. France has a fertility rate of 1.9; Norway's is 1.8.
What Kroehnert and other experts are discovering is that European couples want to have babies, but they are inhibited mainly by work-related economic factors. . .

Compared with other European nations, Germany spends generously on pro-family programs, but the results have been disappointing. France spends less but gets much better results. One explanation is that in France, educated women are expected to pursue their careers even after they have children and the government makes it possible by funding extensive day-care facilities. Last month, Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor, unveiled a package of changes aimed at making it easier for working women to raise children. Under the changes, women will receive two-thirds of their salary for up to a year if they take time off after birth. The ceiling is $2,300 a month; if a woman is earning less than $1,275 a month, she gets her entire salary. Men will be eligible for 2 months of paid leave under the same terms, or a couple can split the 14-month total any way they please. (August 3, 2006; Chicago Tribune)

Explosives found in German Stations

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Federal prosecutors began an investigation Tuesday after a suitcase and another piece of luggage with explosive material were found [at the Dortmund and Koblenz central stations, they] contained a propane gas tank, a detonator, batteries and three bottles of gasoline, prosecutors said. An examination of the materials determined that they were potentially explosive, but authorities could not say why they did not explode or if they were intended to do so. . .Both pieces of luggage and their contents were being examined in an attempt to determine how they were linked and whether they were intended to be crude bombs, or whether they were explosive materials intended for other uses, prosecutors said.
In 2003, a suitcase containing a fully functional bomb with a propane gas tank was found on a platform in Dresden's central station during a busy holiday weekend. An engineer was tried and found guilty of planting the explosives and sentenced to 12 years in prison. (AP, August 2, 2006)

Walmart's Retreat from Germany

Wal-Mart said Friday it plans to sell its 85 stores in Germany to rival Metro AG, ending a nearly decade-long effort by the world's largest retailer to crack the market in Europe's biggest economy. . .Wal-Mart had trouble winning over German consumers, who tend to be very price-focused and would rather drive to a different store if they know they can buy something cheaper. National discounters such as Lidl GmbH and Aldi Einkauf GmbH put the heat on Wal-Mart's sales, he said, by offering the same products at competitive prices.
Further, Schlueter said consumers rejected some of Wal-Mart's signature features, like stores outside of town centers, employees required to smile and heartily greet customers, or baggers at checkouts. . . (AP: July 28, 2006)

Reuters Oddly Enough (Germany)

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin postal worker who was caught with more than several thousand undelivered letters in his basement has admitted he was overwhelmed by the job but insisted he planned to deliver them soon.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Berlin foster mother was ordered to remove a marijuana crop her teenage son had been growing in the garden where six small children under her care have been playing. . .Silke's son Sven was later seen carrying the plants away in plastic crates, the daily said. . .Silke B. said she did not know what Sven was growing, but added: "I had a feeling it was something bad."

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 61-year-old German on trial for theft got himself into more trouble when he stole from the judge during his court hearing. . .while facing her at the bench, the man pocketed a bunch of keys from the judge, who did not notice until he had left the room.
When confronted by court officials in the toilet, the man, who had a string of convictions for theft, told them he had been shocked to discover the keys in his pocket. . .

A parliament run by monkeys?

Mood: amused and disturbed all at once
Stage notes: babysitting for the Gaschos

''MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's parliament is to declare support for rights to life and freedom for great apes on Wednesday, apparently the first time any national legislature will have recognized such rights for non-humans. Parliament is to ask the government to adhere to the Great Ape Project, which would mean recognizing that our closest genetic relatives should be part of a "community of equals" with humans, supporters of the resolution said. . ."We were born into a society where humans alone are the sole focus, and we begin to expand to the non-human great apes. It isn't easy for us to see how far that expansion will go, but it's very clear we need to expand beyond humans," Waldau said. . .''

I agree that we should protect the natural world, but arguing that apes have the same inherent worth as a human being is disturbing to me. Rather than raise respect for animals, it simply lowers respect for people. Even natural humanists should recognize the need to focus on improving our ability to love one another before we turn our focus towards ''ape equality''.

In the news

-Hindu extremists have filed a counter-complaint of "forced conversion" against two Christian women who had lodged rape charges against Hindu villagers in Madhya Pradesh state. The women had filed the charges after local leaders encouraged the Hindu villagers to gang-rape the two Christian women after the husband of one refused to deny Christ. read more here

-Saudi Arabian police armed with wooden clubs raided a private Christian worship meeting, arresting four East African citizens leading the service. More than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Filipinos were gathered for worship in a home on June 9th. Startled worshippers brought chairs to seat the policemen, who sat and waited with clubs in hand for the three-hour worship service to conclude before making arrests. read more here

-A Baptist Pastor in Kazakhstan has been fined more than three times the estimated average monthly salary, for leading unregistered religious activity. In some Kazakh regions, state registration demands information on the ethnicity, family status, religious education of congregational leaders, their age and type of work and "the most acute problems worrying parishioners", as well as details of members' political affiliation. read more here

Americans have few close friends

''Americans are more socially isolated than they were 20 years ago, separated by work, commuting and the single life, researchers reported on Friday. Nearly a quarter of people surveyed said they had "zero" close friends with whom to discuss personal matters. More than 50 percent named two or fewer confidants, most often immediate family members. . .Smith-Lovin's group used data from a national survey of 1,500 American adults that has been ongoing since 1972.

She said it indicated people had a surprising drop in the number of close friends since 1985. At that time, Americans most commonly said they had three close friends whom they had known for a long time, saw often, and with whom they shared a number of interests. They were almost as likely to name four or five friends, and the relationships often sprang from their neighborhoods or communities.'' (Reuters, 26 June 2006)

Anti-Immigrant and Islam Attitudes in Netherlands

Mood: ill
Stage notes: I'm currently babysitting for an American couple in Köln. Normally this would be fun, but 5 minutes after they left I had to make a mad dash for the toilet to puke. Not fun. This afternoon I hung out with some friends to play board games and eat lunch together. I am in the process of re-evaluating what I previously thought was a very good meal.

I just came across this article. It made me wonder what the stats look like for Germany. I'll let you know what I am able to find out.

''AMSTERDAM — One in 10 Dutch people are racist. They feel superior to immigrants and believe Dutch people should not mix with other nationalities, according to a new survey. A quarter of the Dutch public is very negative about immigrants in general. . .Ten percent of the respondents openly supported racist ideals, including the idea that Dutch people are more intelligent than immigrants. Half of the people questioned expressed an aversion to Muslims and expressed fear about this group's influence on Dutch society. Some 43 percent said Islam is not for peace and almost two thirds said the religion is incompatible with modern society in Europe. The majority of the respondents favoured a multicultural society, but 80 percent agreed cultural tension and racism have increased in recent years. Director Ilhan Akel of the Dutch centre for foreigners (NCB) said the findings of the report were "very shocking" but he said he was not surprised by them. "The hardening in society has been going on for five years. . .'' Read the full story here.

''The Wrong Guy''

Mood: freudig (joyful)
What I'm Reading: vocabulary list of ''emotion words'' in German

LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC has revealed that a bewildered man it interviewed live on TV in the mistaken belief he was the editor of a technology website was, quite literally, "the wrong Guy''. He was Guy Goma. . .who had gone to the BBC's News 24 studios for a job interview. Goma sat down in the BBC reception and waited to be called for the interview. A producer greeted him, led him to a studio, seated him on a stool and clipped a microphone to his lapel. A business presenter then introduced the clearly startled Goma as the editor of a technology website and asked if he was surprised by computer company Apple's victory in a trademark dispute with The Beatles' Apple Corp. He gamely answered, and grappled with two more questions about music downloading, before the flustered presenter thanked him and moved on. . .Kewney, who watched the interview with astonishment at reception, said the mix-up was hard to explain because BBC staff had seen his picture in advance. Kewney is white and Goma is black. . ."(It was) very stressful," said Goma, whose first language is not English. "When I was on set already and we started already the presentation, I couldn't stop ... so at that time I said 'keep going'..."The BBC has yet to say whether Goma got the job he applied for, as a data support cleanser

India : Anti-Conversion Law Introduced

India's recently introduced The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantraya (Freedom of Religion) Act which outlaws any attempt to convert a person from one religion to another "by use of force or by allurement or by fraudulent means". The punishments specified by the law are a prison term of "not less than two years" or a fine of up to 50,000 rupees (approximately $1550). Read about it here.

Christian Convert on Trial for Life

''KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Senior Muslim clerics are demanding that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed. . . 'Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die,' said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban. . .Diplomats have said the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case. On Wednesday, authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial. But three Sunni preachers and a Shiite one interviewed by AP in four of Kabul's most popular mosques said they do not believe Rahman is insane. 'He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian,' said Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque. 'The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed.' Raoulf, who is a member of the country's main Islamic organization, the Afghan Ulama Council, concurred. 'The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled.' . . .'We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left.' He said the only way for Rahman to survive would be for him to go into exile. But Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shiite places of worship in Kabul, said Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country. 'If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can, too,' he said. 'We must set an example. ... He must be hanged.' The clerics said they were angry with the United States and other countries for pushing for Rahman's freedom. 'We are a small country and we welcome the help the outside world is giving us. But please don't interfere in this issue,' Nasri said. 'We are Muslims and these are our beliefs. This is much more important to us than all the aid the world has given us.'' You can read the full story here.

6 Christians Killed for Faith

''At least six Christians are dead, including an infant girl, and another five injured after suspected militant Muslims opened fire on a group of Christian families in the predominantly Muslim island of Jolo in the Philippines. At least five gunmen, believed to be from the militant organization Abu Sayyaf, went door-to-door in the village of Patikul and asked the residents if they were Christians. If the residents confessed faith in Christ, the militants opened fire.Those killed were identified as Itting Pontilla (45), Emma Casipong (16), Melanie Patinga (9 months), Selma Patinga and Pedro Casipong. Abu Sayyaf ("Bearer of the Sword") is a militant Muslim guerrilla organization associated with the al-Qaeda network and has been operating in the southern Philippines since 1991. They have been blamed for a series of bombings, kidnappings and murders, mostly targeted at Christians and foreigners.'' (15 Feb. 2006, Voice of the Martyrs Canada)

The Progeny of Relativism and Hate

''Right-wing British historian David Irving pleaded guilty Monday to denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to three years in prison. . .Irving, 67, has been in custody since his November arrest on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews. He has contended that most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution. They convicted Irving after his guilty plea under the 1992 law, which applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media." Irving's trial came amid new — and fierce — debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered deadly protests worldwide. Irving's lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, said last month the controversial Third Reich historian was getting up to 300 pieces of fan mail a week from supporters around the world and was writing his memoirs in detention under the working title "Irving's War." . . .Within two weeks of his arrest, he asserted through his lawyer that he had come to acknowledge the existence of Nazi-era gas chambers. Before the trial began, Irving told reporters he now acknowledges that the Nazis systematically slaughtered Jews during World War II. "History is like a constantly changing tree," he said. In the past, however, he has claimed that Adolf Hitler knew little if anything about the Holocaust, and he has been quoted as saying there was "not one shred of evidence" the Nazis carried out their "Final Solution" to exterminate the Jewish population on such a massive scale. . .In 1992, a judge in Germany fined him the equivalent of $6,000 for publicly insisting the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz were a hoax.'' (VERONIKA OLEKSYN, AP, 20 Feb. 2006)