Christian Right Moving Toward Huckabee?

Rick Scarborough, President of Vision America, announces his support for Mike Huckabee:

“I have chosen to cast my support for Mike Huckabee, not because he is perfect, but because I believe him to be competent, and I have known him for more than 30 years. I have watched his life up close and from a distance for the entire time. We attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary together in Ft. Worth, 30-plus years ago. It was and still is the largest evangelical seminary in the world, and at the time there was significant liberalism on the campus.
Among the students, there were three basic groups: 1) Those that sat in awe of the professors and drank the “Kool-Aid” of the latest liberal theological fad, 2) Those who were conservative but who chose to go about their business of getting their education quietly with as little conflict as possible, and 3) Those who were there on a mission to prepare to change the world and for whom Christ was their first love and winning souls their passion.
Mike and I gravitated to each other because we hung with students in the third category.”

Commenting on the delay of many Christian leaders to come out in support of a particular candidate, Scarborough notes:

“Over and again I have been encouraged by men I admire to be patient. But I submit that our patience has moved beyond prudence, and we are increasingly being viewed as irrelevant. I would submit that our mistake has been that we have been looking for perfection in a candidate, which can only lead to frustration.”

I totally agree. But Scarborough also tackles a gnawing issue that I too have been wondering about: Where was Pastor Huckabee during the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention?

“During those early years, the ‘conservative resurgence’ in the Southern Baptist Convention was taking place. Always the warrior, I jumped in with both feet, doing all I could to expose theological liberalism in our denomination. In 1989, I ran for president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. In the process, I ran an aggressive campaign, naming names of liberals in both churches and educational institutions. In the end, I was defeated by a significant margin. Mike took a different approach in Arkansas, which resulted in his being elected to the office of president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention.
Some have tried to diminish his conservative credentials because they say he was a “no-show” for the theological wars of the Southern Baptist Convention. While that charge is not completely accurate, his gentler approach certainly proved prudent in God’s wider agenda of providing a leader for the whole state of Arkansas. And after three doses of Bill and Hillary Clinton, people of both sides of the theological wars in the SBC, as well as people of many faiths in Arkansas, voted for and elected a Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee, to state-wide office three times.”

Read the whole thing. You may not agree with everything Scarborough says, but I think his endorsement is significant. So is the fact that Huckabee raised more money in October than in July, August, and September combined.