Make Huckabee Hear Your Voice

We have been putting pressure on former Governor Huckabee for the last few weeks through our campaign, and as Pastor Dan noted its time to take it up a notch. This is especially true since we finally heard from Huck PAC's Executive Director Sarah Huckabee in regards to two simple questions:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?

2. Will you require the candidates supported by your PAC to take a stand against torture?

In my multiple efforts to get these easy questions answered by Huck PAC and Ms. Huckabee (the Governor's daughter for anyone keeping score) my final response from them was:

My dad does not fill like it is appropriate to sign a pledge since he is not a candidate but he is against torture. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

First, there are so many things to take issue with on this statement from the Executive Director. I will ignore the typo of fill, which should be feels, because I have my fair share of them as well.

Yes, Mr. Huckabee is not a candidate, as of now. But in a few short months he could very well be John McCain's running mate for the White House as he campaigns with McCain. We deserve to know more details and to have a pledge from a potential VP candidate when it comes to torture: a heinous act that has been used by the current administration.

Regardless of Mr. Huckabee's candidacy, his new political action committee places him within a distinct leadership position within his party, his followers as well as a new leader in the Christian Right. Mr. Huckabee's influence has far reaching potential to be a great leader on this moral issue, an issue that also addresses the sanctity of life that so many in the Christian right pride themselves on.

He is raising money and doing appearances for candidates that have supported the use of waterboarding as I have demonstrated before. Instead of taking the moral high ground and ask them to end their support of this practice in order to gain his backing he has opted to stay silent.

We are calling on him to publicly support the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture by signing onto the statement through a petition. His leadership would be instrumental in bringing about real change in a bipartisan manner. Because this should not be about which political party you belong to, it's a matter of standing up for what is right.

We ask that you join us by asking Mr. Huckabee to also sign on. You can do so by signing and submitting the petition. The more people that do it the more they will know how much we care he joins us. But Mr. Huckabee would not just be teaming up with: Leith Anderson, Rich Cizik, Joe Carson, Rev. Randall Balmer, Joel Hunter, Becky Garrison, Brian McLaren, David Neff, Chrstine Pohl, and hundreds of others.

I will leave Mr. Huckabee with the challenging words of David Gushee to take a stand:

I believe that no evangelical leader has moral credibility who does not oppose torture unequivocally. I invite Governor Huckabee to sign our "Evangelical Declaration Against Torture" and to help end evangelical ambivalence about this issue. Based on statements he has made on this issue, I am hopeful he will do so. That will be real moral leadership!

So sign onto the petition, make your voice heard, and press Mr. Huckabee to show some real moral leadership.

Originally posted on Faithfully Liberal and Street Prophets.
By Aaron Krager

David Gushee Challenges Huckabee

Last week I asked a few faith leaders their thoughts on former Governor Mike Huckabee's newfound leadership in the Christian right and how it correlates to torture. After hearing back from Faith in Public Life's executive director Rev. Jennifer Butler and UCC President Rev. John Thomas essentially saying that Huckabee can represent a bridge on this issue, we hear a little different from another leader.

Again the question:

As a faith leader yourself, and someone who has adamantly opposed torture, what do you believe former Governor Mike Huckabee's role in condoning or opposing torture is in regards to his newfound leadership in the religious right?

David Gushee, president of Evangelicals for Human Rights, addressed torture at the recent Compassion Forum to Senator Barack Obama. He has some strong words for the former governor.

I believe that no evangelical leader has moral credibility who does not oppose torture unequivocally. I invite Governor Huckabee to sign our "Evangelical Declaration Against Torture" and to help end evangelical ambivalence about this issue. Based on statements he has made on this issue, I am hopeful he will do so. That will be real moral leadership!

Mr. Gushee's remarks are in my opinion right on the mark. If Mr. Huckabee wishes to take on the role as the next leader of the Christian right with his newfound PAC, or as a few pundits have remarked – to be the vice presidential nominee, then he needs to show true moral leadership and take a stand against torture. He needs to join the thousands of people who are standing together to say that it is illegal and it is immoral.

That is what this campaign is all about – religious bloggers taking a stand and asking a leader to join us. We do not do this to score political points. We do this to say no more to a practice that threatens our nation's standing around world as a beacon of freedom and democracy. Simply torture is un-American.

Mr. Gushee has invited Mr. Huckabee to sign the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture just as we have. It truly would be a sign of real moral leadership.

Originally written for Faithfully Liberal and Street Prophets
By Aaron Krager

Cruel and Unusual

Perhaps it's another example of the superficiality of our national debates that a Supreme Court Justice (Antonin Scalia) can claim that torture is not "cruel and unusual punishment" on national television and two days later hardly anyone's noticed (save Rolling Stone).

While Scalia claims he's no fan of torture, he fudges on the question of its Constitutionality claiming "defining it is going to be a nice trick."

What made this interview most "unusual," however, was Scalia's bizarre interpretation of what "punishment" means. Interrogation, it seems, doesn't qualify:

To the contrary...Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don't think so."

"Well, I think if you are in custody, and you have a policeman who's taken you into custody…," Stahl says.

"And you say he's punishing you?" Scalia asks.

"Sure," Stahl replies.

"What's he punishing you for? You punish somebody…," Scalia says.

"Well because he assumes you, one, either committed a crime…or that you know something that he wants to know," Stahl says.

"It's the latter. And when he's hurting you in order to get information from you…you don't say he's punishing you. What's he punishing you for?

While we certainly need to pay close attention to the words of the Constitution, I find it hard to believe this interpretation is consistent with the intent of the framers. If what really matters is the intent to "punish" rather than extract information, then a witness to terrorism could potentially be subjected to the most inhumane treatment (in order to get information about the terrorist) while the perpetrator would be spared such abuse.

(Even within Scalia's preposterous construction, torture is indeed a punishment for silence or obstruction.)

This is the same immoral reasoning behind the infamous "torture memos," which made the abuser's intent -- not his or her actions -- the benchmark for morality.

The thousands of Faithful Americans who signed a petition denouncing those memos may not be on the Supreme Court, but they know the United States has no business engaging in "cruel or unusual" behavior of any kind.

If only the government agreed.

Posted by Beth Dahlman

Originally posted at Faith in Public Life

NEVER: Speak Up and Stand Up

Originally posted on Faithfully Liberal.

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

A poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller

Recent news sources have detailed the White House discussions on torture in the so-called Situation Room in the basement of the White House. Participants included nearly all the top officials in the administration:

Discussions were so detailed, ABC's sources said, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group. In addition to Cheney, the group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft.

Furthermore:

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding....

People of faith, people with a moral conscience, all people must take a stand against this consolidation of power, this immoral decision making and desecration of the image of God in human life.

We have a name, we have a logo and we have a mission: to push and persuade our leaders to take a stand with us against the use of torture. The current administration is breaking international law and is acting immorally. We must take an absolute stand against it. Please consider joining us and speaking for those whose voice cannot be heard.

NEVER: Kidnapping And Beating Children

In light of Aaron's post below, I wonder where Mike Huckabee thinks capturing terror suspects' wives and children and occasionally stripping them naked and beating them fits in with the classic American values of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"?

How about CIA agents being tried in absentia for kidnapping?

Do you think those things fit "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"?

NEVER: Faith leaders chime in

Originally posted at Faithfully Liberal.

As you have undoubtedly noticed we have been putting pressure (here, here and here) on former Governor Mike Huckabee to come out strongly against torture with two simple questions for him. We still await an answer but I want to emphasis how important it is for Mr. Huckabee to publicly state his position on the moral/value issue.

I posed a quick question in that regard to a couple of different faith leaders and received two very well thought-out responses from Faith in Public Life Executive Director Jennifer Butler and from United Church of Christ President Rev. John Thomas.

Here's the question that I posed to them:

As a faith leader yourself, and someone who has adamantly opposed torture, what do you believe former Governor Mike Huckabee's role in condoning or opposing torture is in regards to his newfound leadership in the religious right?

And their responses:

Rev. Butler -

Governor Huckabee is a different type of conservative religious leader. He may be a bridge between the old guard and new guard. The old guard was led by Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The new guard is lead by Joel Hunter, David Gushee and Rick Warren. The emerging evangelical center, including this younger generation of evangelicals and those coming up behind them, opposes torture. They represent the future of American evangelicalism. Look for instance at this new organization, Evangelicals for Human Rights. In the coming year we will see evangelicals as well other people of faith holding Huckabee and the presidential candidates accountable on this issue—there can be no compromise. (See here for video of Dr. Gushee asking Obama about torture)

Rev. Thomas -

While Governor Huckabee represents a conservative point of view, often at odds with my own, he has demonstrated a refreshing commitment to engaging his Biblical faith with a broad array of issues, not limiting himself to a narrow "moral values" agenda. I have particularly appreciated his sensitivity to issues of poverty and the strong Biblical mandates to address poverty in our world. Although I don't know his personal views on the current debates regarding torture, I would anticipate that he would approach this issue as he does others, namely, through his Biblical interpretive lens. In my mind, it would be hard to take the Bible seriously and find any justification for condoning torture. Were Governor Huckabee to articulate a strong Biblical case against torture, it would be enormously helpful as a means of gathering broad support from Christians across the theological and political spectrum for a ban on the use of torture.

It's a simple concept – we should never torture and a strong coalition of faith leaders on both sides of the theological and political aisle can help end its practice.

But I would like to throw it out to you as well. Why is ending the use of torture or pressuring leaders on the issue important to you?

NEVER: What we want to end

Originally posted on Faithfully Liberal and Street Prophets.

With a proper name in place: NEVER: Religious Bloggers Against Torture

Its time to know exactly what we are fighting against. We have all seen the graphic pictures from Abu Gharib; torture that was supposedly conducted by a few bad apples. But the revelation that President Bush knew and approved of "enhanced torture techniques" and meeting to discuss them in the White House Situation Room means that we need to know what fellow human beings are enduring because of this administration.

The Associated Press reported earlier that senior Bush administration officials took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved.

However, ABC News is now reporting that President Bush himself was aware of the discussions and approved the controversial interrogation tactics himself.

"Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC News. "And, yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

This man of a so-called "compassionate conservativism" political ideology approved of the disturbing use of waterboarding, which you can see simulated in the following video (warning: graphic and disturbing):

The video was created by Amnesty International and their new unsubscribe-me campaign to end torture.

Sometimes seeing the truth of our leaders' actions can be more than what we want to admit. But that is what we are fighting to put an end to this by asking prominent leaders to come out against. We have started to put pressure on former Governor Mike Huckabee with his new PAC and we will continue. Please visit his website (yes I am encouraging you to do so) and ask variants of the following questions:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?

2. Will you require the candidates supported by your campaign to take a stand against torture?

Let's keep the pressure up. It matters!

Huck’s just getting started… so are we

Originally posted at Faithfully Liberal.

In Mr. Huckabee's latest blog post to his Huck PAC website he says they are just getting started in making a difference to help elect Republicans in November with a push for contributions from supporters. But it reveals something more profound than just that. While I have been unable to have my messages returned from Huck PAC, Mr. Huckabee provides a powerful insight:

HuckPAC will give us an opportunity to have a direct impact on elections. We will not support any and every candidate who wants money, advice, or endorsement. We want to support those who reflect the same values as those who contribute to the PAC and who principles are more important than the "politics of convenience."

The organization and himself are being selective in who they support and as a guidance they must have the same values as Huck PAC contributors.

Mr. Huckabee, do you or your contributors support the use of torture?

Simple question considering that the first Congressman that Huck PAC endorsed supports the use of waterboarding as he voted against banning it or overriding the President's veto. Is that a value that Huck PAC endures Mr. Huckabee? Really, its a simple question that can be answered distinctly.

He continues:

We look for candidates who understand the imperative of respecting human life as core to our civilization…

I agree with you there Mr. Huckabee, that respect of human life is core to our civilization. But maybe we disagree on the underlying meaning of it. Torture is the destruction of the physical and emotional psyche of a human life. Its practice by the current administration is against that core in which you speak.

We continue to call upon you to answer two simple questions:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?
2. Will you require the candidates supported by your campaign to take a stand against torture?

If someone from Huck PAC wants to finally return my messages please email me. We too are just getting started.

Anti-Torture Project, Day 2

Well, it's only day two, and we've already got a ton of work to do:

1. Hop on over to the Mike Huckabee blog if you haven't already and ask him if he'll sign the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture and if he'll require the candidates supported by Huck PAC to stand against torture.



2. Hop on over to Crooks and Liars and find out how to send a letter calling for an Independent Counsel to investigate the Administration's approval of torture and abuse. So far, C&L and the ACLU have gotten 80,000 letters sent; now they're shooting for 100,000.



3. Hop on over to firedoglake and find out how to send a letter to local papers asking them why the story has disappeared without a trace.</li>
   
   
4. Last but not least, help me name our campaign. We really are going to keep this up for a while. Might as well have a shorthand for reference.

Submitted by Pastor Dan
Originally published at Street Prophets

Huck PAC can't return a phone call

Originally posted at Faithfully Liberal

With the launch of Huck PAC and the recent revelations that the Bush Administration, not only condoned the use of torture but actually conducted discussion with simulations of techniques, a few of us progressive faith bloggers, lead by Pastor Dan, have begun pushing former Governor Mike Huckabee to come out against torture much like he did in December of 2007. Why? Because he is aiming to be the next leader of the Religious Right with his newfound PAC. I explored this in an earlier post but in simple terms, he is using conservative Christianity as a foundation for raising money for conservative Republicans to be elected in 2008 (I am not arguing against that because I realize that I am doing the same thing but with a liberal theology).

Because of Huckabee's Christian faith and his previous denouncing of torture it is vital for him to come out once again as someone, particularly a leader that fought hard for his party's nomination for President. It is also important for him to only endorse candidates who also denounce torture. But that is not happening.

Multiple phone calls to Huck PAC's press person went unanswered, in fact that person is Mr. Huckabee's daughter Sarah Huckabee (btw Sarah, if you read this I would still welcome an answer to these questions below as it is only our goal to have Mr. Huckabee take a lead on this issue, please email me). I merely wanted to ask him the two questions that Pastor Dan wrote earlier in the week:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?

2. Will you require the candidates supported by your campaign to take a stand against torture?

But these two simple questions have gone unanswered and Mr. Huckabee still has not signed onto the declaration. In the meantime, I decided to place a call to the first candidate endorsement of Huck PAC, New Hampshire State Senator Bob Clegg to ask him if he would take a stand against torture and denounce the tactics taken by the current administration. Multiple phone calls turned into left messages to Mr. Clegg's office and have also gone unanswered.

But all is not lost; Huck PAC just endorsed Congressman John Linder, a Republican from Georgia. Guess where Mr. Linder's stance on torture is? We can uncover it by looking at his vote to ban waterboarding (unfamiliar with that tactic? Read here) in H.R. 2082, a bill that passed the House and Senate only to be vetoed by President Bush. Mr. Linder voted against the bill the first time around and also voted against overriding the President's veto.

Mr. Huckabee said it quite well on Fox News:

I don't believe that we ought to torture. I think it's a policy that is beneath us. It is obviously unproductive.

And every single military person with whom I've spoken, people who actually have been trained and who have been on either side of this issue, either being tortured or being asked to do it — I've got to tell you, I can't find anybody who says that ought to be the policy of the United States.

I call upon Mr. Huckabee to come out strongly against all forms of torture and to require all candidates that he supports to do the same. It's the only way to live up to our own standards.

Ask Mike Huckabee If He Rejects Torture

I've been thinking about a couple of stories that came up at Street Prophets late last week: the revelation that senior members of the Bush administration knew about torture techniques applied to detainees held by the CIA and the rollout of Huck PAC.

I think we need to link those stories. With the news that Pres. Bush himself knew and approved of meetings discussing torture being greeted with widespread shrugs, we need to find some new pressure point to keep torture from becoming just another routine aspect of American security policy.

Mike Huckabee is that pressure point.

Here he is denouncing torture on FoxNews in December 2007:

I don't believe that we ought to torture. I think it's a policy that is beneath us. It is obviously unproductive.

And every single military person with whom I've spoken, people who actually have been trained and who have been on either side of this issue, either being tortured or being asked to do it — I've got to tell you, I can't find anybody who says that ought to be the policy of the United States.

Curiously enough, he's not listed as a signatory of the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture. But here he is on the new Huck PAC blog describing what it's all about:

Many felt that their Party needed to get back to its core principles: less government, a strong national defense and unwavering support for the family and the sanctity of life.

I campaigned to be the agent of that change and while we may have come up short, I remain and I hope you do as well, undeterred, because the campaign was never about me.

If it had been, I can assure you I would have gotten out of the race long before the Ames Straw Poll when generous pollsters had us trolling at 2-3% in national polls. I stayed in the race then because my campaign was always about the issues and the voters. The folks that felt invisible and overlooked and who believed that Washington wasn't fighting for the same principles they believed in.

Enter Huck PAC.

Huck PAC is founded on the principles that make America great: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. And because we believe our Republican Party embodies these ideas and is best suited to lead America forward, we are committed to supporting Republican candidates who are passionate advocates for tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government and individual liberty.

Well, goody. Mike Huckabee is going to protect the principles that make America great: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Given what the Evangelical Declaration has to say about those things, he should have no problem coming out strongly against torture, right?

Life:

We ground our commitment to human rights in the core Christian theological conviction that each and every human life is sacred. This theme wends its way throughout the Scriptures: in Creation, Law, the Incarnation, Jesus' teaching and ministry, the Cross, and his Resurrection. Concern for the sanctity of life leads us to vigilant sensitivity to how human beings are treated and whether their God-given rights are being respected.

Liberty:

International law contains numerous clear and unequivocal bans on torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. These bans are wise and right and must be embraced without reservation once again by our own government. Likewise, United States law and military doctrine has banned the resort to torture and cruel and degrading treatment. Tragically, documented acts of torture and of inhumane and cruel behavior have occurred at various sites in the U.S. war on terror, and current law opens procedural loopholes for more to continue. We commend the Pentagon's revised Army Field Manual for clearly banning such acts, and urge that this ban extend to every sector of the United States government without exception, including our intelligence agencies.

And the pursuit of happiness:

Human rights, which function to protect human dignity and the sanctity of life, cannot be cancelled and should not be overridden. Recognition of human rights creates obligations to act on behalf of others whose rights are being violated. Human rights place a shield around people who otherwise would find themselves at the mercy of those who are angry, aggrieved, or frightened. While human rights language can be misused, this demands its clarification rather than abandonment. Among the most significant human rights is the right to security of person, which includes the right not to be tortured.

...The concept of human rights is not a "secular" notion but instead finds expression in Christian sources long before the Enlightenment. More secularized versions of the human rights ethic which came to occupy such a large place in Western thought should be seen as derivative of earlier religious arguments. Twentieth century assaults on human rights by totalitarian states led to a renewal of "rights talk" after World War II. Most branches of the Christian tradition, including evangelicalism, now embrace a human rights ethic.

I think this is really very simple: Mike Huckabee wants to be the champion of a new Religious Right. I'm down on that. But neither Huckabee nor any other presumptive heir to Jerry Falwell's throne should be allowed to skate on the question of torture. If we're going to talk about "core principles," let's talk about this one: torture violates both Christian norms and specifically American values. It is always and everywhere wrong.

Until we can guarantee the basic human right not to be tortured, political advocacy for "life, the family, less government and individual liberty" is going to be a sham.

So I think we need to ask Mike Huckabee two very simple questions:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?

2. Will you require the candidates supported by your campaign to take a stand against torture?

And from there, we spread the meme by asking other representatives of the Religious Right what they think. Eventually, we'll get around to nailing down non-Evangelical religious leaders and politicians. If they want to be seen as faithful, if they want to be seen as having values, let them declare in clear, unequivocal language that anything even remotely resembling torture is repugnant, evil, and categorically to be rejected as a policy of the United States government.

If you want to claim to represent American "people of faith," you'd better come out against torture. It's really that easy.

Huckabee is where we begin to construct that equation. Step one: go to the comment board at Huckabee.com and ask the questions listed above.

Submitted by Pastor Dan
Originally published at Street Prophets
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