Former Governors, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, were not best buds during the 2008 campaign. No one doubts that. But since Governor Huckabee decided not to run for president this time around, it seems as if they have fixed whatever ailed their relationship. Governor Romney has appeared on Huckabee’s show, and Huckabee regularly defends Romney against unfair attacks and appears even-handed even when he disagrees with Romney. That is all well and good, and demonstrates the good will and kind demeanor of both governors.
However, Romney’s position on the murder of unborn children has not changed since his official declaration in National Review in June of 2011 that he supports the killing of some unborn children:
I am pro-life and believe that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
On the other hand, Governor Huckabee has demonstrated over and over that not a single baby is expendable.
First, he wrote in 2010:
“We recognize that each life, every life, is unique and that the loss of one unique life diminishes each of us individually and collectively…. if we lose sight of the sanctity of human life, then we lose our soul…. That is why I will continue to fight, by every legal means available, for the protection of life – every life is a life worth fighting for.”
Second, Governor Huckabee hosted and his son David produced, the movie The Gift of Life, and the former governor argued that “contempt and indifference toward any life can become contempt and indifference toward every life, including yours and mine.”
Third, Governor Huckabee gave one of the most powerful defenses of human life in a single political speech one might ever hear. He spoke about the concept of human equality at the 2010 Value Voters Summit[1]:
It’s all based upon the value of every single individual. Our founders had it right. When in the Declaration of Independence they said “We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The basic idea is that there is no such thing as a person who is more valuable than another, that all of us have the same intrinsic worth, that no person is worth more because of his last name, or landownership, or occupation, or who his father was or grandfather was, or what city he came from, or what color he is, or what gender he or she may be. Nobody has greater worth because the IQ level in one person is higher than that of another.
I’d like for us to believe and surely this country can accept the fact that a child with Down’s Syndrome, a child with a severe disability—whether it’s Cerebral Palsy or any other disability—is equally as precious and valuable not only in the eyes of God but in the eyes of the rest of us, as the kid who is Mensa-level in intelligence, and could be the NFL Player of the Year.
There is no difference in the essential basic worth and value of that individual. But if those of us who truly believe that, do not continue to say…
We will not be silent on the issue of the unborn, and we will not be silent on the value of every human life from the moment of conception until the end of life.
Let it be clear I will not vote for, I will not support any candidate who does not value the worth and value of every human life and I urge you, don’t do it either.
It is easy to say these words. It is harder to mean them. I know that the pressure on Governor Huckabee to endorse Romney will be tremendous, but we as Christians cannot let fear of Obama–nor political pressure–force us into compromise. I will take Governor Huckabee’s advice: I will not vote for or support the former governor of Massachusetts, should he be the Republican nominee, because he does not believe every life is worth saving.
I believe Governor Huckabee to be a man of his word, a man of integrity, and a man of principle. He will not violate the trust so many have put in him.
[1] Quote from http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/2010archive (browse to the Huckabee speech, beginning at the 37:00 minute mark). Transcript taken from With Christ in the Voting Booth: Casting Down Imaginations Before Casting Your Vote, David J Shedlock (2012) Turretin Press