As politicians push their religion harder and harder, some have questioned the propriety of making religion such a big political issue. Unfortunately, many of these questions don't criticize candidates for making such a big deal about religion; instead, they criticize reporters who ask hard questions about religion. Mike Huckabee endorses this double standard by promoting his religiosity but while acting disappointed when asked direct questions about his religious beliefs. Too many politicians, like Mike Huckabee, want to have their cake and eat it too — they want to the benefits of being perceived as pious, but they don't want anyone to look too closely lest they realize how divisive religious beliefs can be.
When asked about the scrutiny his religious believes have received, Mike Huckabee actually claimed that he received a disproportionate amount of attention:
Generally speaking, do you think it’s fair for people to take a candidate’s theological convictions into consideration at the polling place?
As long as everyone gets the same scrutiny. That’s what I don’t think is fair: I’ve been given an unusual level of scrutiny. No candidate gets quizzed to the depth that I do about faith.
Source: GQ
Mike Huckabee has a point, but he's wrong on every count here. It may sound fair to give the same scrutiny to every candidate's theological convictions, but it's not necessarily fair. A candidate who never mentions religion, never implies that their religion is a positive force in their decision-making, and never panders to religion shouldn't be subjected to extensive scrutiny on their theological beliefs. To put it simply: if they don't make an issue out of it, then others shouldn't.
If another candidate in the same race does do all the above, however, then why should their theological convictions not be subjected to close scrutiny? It's not fair to treat two candidates the same if they are behaving in starkly different ways — and it's not even very honest of Mike Huckabee to be decrying scrutiny of his religion when he claimed that God was responsible for his surprising primary successes, when he offered his non-existent theology degree for why he should be more trusted with issues like terrorism, and so forth.
Mike Huckabee even went so far as to use the question of religion to attack Mitt Romney in Iowa.. Huckabee's television commercials, where he told voters "Faith doesn't just influence me, it really defines me," proclaimed him a "Christian leader." Imagine if such a commercial were run in a race where his main rival were a Jew or an atheist — the subtext of "who's the Christian in this race" would be an obvious attempt at religious bigotry. The same is true when the rival is a Mormon because he knows most conservative Christians regard Mormonism as a heresy.
Mike Huckabee has done much more than the other Republicans to emphasize his religion. He wants to tell voters that his being a "Christian leader" is very important, but when specific questions come along about his Christian beliefs he dodges them by insisting that he's not trying to run a "theological school." None of the other candidates ever received enough scrutiny based on the degree to which they used religion, but it's fair for Huckabee to get more scrutiny on the basis of his extensive use of religion.
