Someone asked me the other day why I don't like Mike Huckabee. I couldn't pin it down, other than the fact that i just don't think he's everything he is claiming to be. So I spent some time tonight hunting it down a little bit.

First of all, Governor Huckabee claims to be a big tax cutter. His record in Arkansas indicates otherwise. The following is from the Arkansas Times back in May:

"Huckabee said that he had a consistent record of tax cutting and that he had slashed taxes in Arkansas "94 times." His record is this: He signed one big tax cut, a 1997 income tax revision drafted and passed by the other party.

"He supported two other smaller tax cuts that became law. He fought elimination of the sales tax on groceries. He raised taxes far more than he cut them. He raised them so much that treasury surpluses set records his last two years in office."

I'm also concerned about his ideas on immigration. This is from a letter by Gary Bauer, the head of the Campaign for Working Families:

"When he was governor of Arkansas, Huckabee supported legislation allowing illegal immigrants who had attended Arkansas high schools to participate in a scholarship program to attend college. Huckabee lost that debate, and the bill failed.

"He also strongly opposed an effort by State Senator Jim Holt, also an ordained Southern Baptist minister, to end taxpayer subsidies for illegal immigrants in Arkansas and to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. Huckabee denounced Holt's legislation as "race baiting" and 'demagoguery.'"

Not only did he call his opponent's bill un-Christian and un-American, but he claimed to drink a different "Jesus juice" than Senator Holt.

That leads to what I think is bothering me the most about this guy, which is exactly what seems to be fueling his momentum. And that is his outspoken claims of Christianity.

Let me explain before I offend. There is nothing I would like more than for the man in the White House to answer to the authority of Jesus Christ. There can be no higher calling. One of the primary reasons I have stuck by President Bush is because I believe that he seeks God in his decision making, and I know he values the same things I value. I want my president to believe in something higher than himself. Otherwise, we might find ourselves having to deal with a Hugo Chavez or Vladimir Putin, or at the very least just another guy in office with no apparent moral authority who risks national security for the sake of his own gratification.

But at the same time, I don't want someone in office who will justify all of his actions as the only appropriate Christian response. We in the body of Christ are a VERY diverse group. God has given His children a myriad of personalities and passions. If we all were exactly the same, not only would it be a very boring faith, but an extremely narrow one as well.

I've often heard someone say, "I just don't understand how you can be a Christian and support so-and-so or such-and-such." I'm quite sure those very words have escaped my lips. But over the past couple of years, my eyes have been opened to the fact that my view of the world is not necessarily always the only way to go.

For instance, let's look at the poor. While we are all called to be merciful, there are some Christians whom God has especially bestowed with the gift of mercy. I must confess, it doesn't show up very high on my spiritual gift roster. But a person who is high on mercy will look at the poor in a very different way from someone who isn't. They might theoretically like the idea of "teaching them how to fish," but when they are standing there with the hungry one, they want a fish, and they want it now. They believe you can sort out the rhetoric later. Does that make them less of a Christian because they believe in welfare programs and government subsidies? Of course not. Does it make them a liberal in this particular area? Probably so. But in this example, conservatism may not be the more compassionate choice.

Yes, I get onto liberals constantly. I get angry enough at them to spit on a frequent basis. If you've spent any time reading my blog, you are not surprised by this. But I confess that I generalize about them far too often. I'm usually speaking out of my passions, and that causes the rhetoric to be a little heated sometimes.

But let's look at something like abortion. There are many Christians, including James Dobson, who use abortion as a litmus test for any elected official. I personally think this is a mistake. I think that it is incredibly dangerous for Mr. Dobson to lead a political movement away from the chosen Republican nominee (assuming it's not Huckabee, I guess) based on the fact that he doesn't like their abortion records. We don't have to look back in history very far to see what happens when a major percentage of the voting block goes for a third-party candidate. And the security stakes are just so high.

I don't have time to go off on this tangent right now, but perhaps soon. I'm reading a book right now called "The Myth of a Christian Nation," by Gregory Boyd, and it is about the dangers of mixing Christianity with politics. It is fascinating, and I think well worth the read.

But back to my point. I don't believe we are going to change abortion in this country through the courts. Not the Supreme Court or any other. I believe the only way to reduce abortion in this country is to change hearts and minds. Overturning Roe v Wade won't do anything but send the issue to the states (which would be better, undoubtedly). If overturned, you would very soon see a legal abortion map that looks much like the election map of 2000. Your coastal states would have legal abortion, along with some in the Midwest. People living in fly-over country would have to make travel arrangements in order to terminate their pregnancies legally. Could this ever happen? It's possible, if we end up with a very conservative bench. This TERRIFIES those who consider themselves pro-choice, and it's one of the reasons they have such a vehement hatred for conservatism.

But would outlawing abortion really keep a determined woman from carrying out her plans? Probably not. It might inconvenience her, and could possibly endanger her life if she chooses to go to a back room clinic somewhere.

So what do I think is the answer? Education and the love of Christ. I think my mom, by working for the past couple of decades in a crisis pregnancy center, has done far more to defeat abortion than angry protesters outside a clinic who terrorize the young women going in and cause them even more agony than their choices already have. Showing a pregnant woman her ultrasound goes a million miles farther in encouraging her not to abort her baby than showing her pictures of grotesque aborted fetal tissue and calling her "Baby Killer."

My friend Cheryl is an adoption advocate. She is using her time and energy to help others pursue building their families through adoption. We need more of this. We need adoption to become the most acceptable course of action for an unwanted pregnancy. This will take time and a lot of effort, but it is doable.

Picketing and screaming or simply writing a check to the National Right to Life are really the easy ways to fight abortion. It may not be practical to dream that the climate of our culture could really shift towards life, but isn't it worth dreaming? Isn't it worth praying and working towards in whatever way possible?

I'm out of time, so perhaps I can pick up here another day. I've just really been thinking lately about the whole Christian Right and the shift towards trying to solve the world's problems politically rather than changing hearts. (Incidentally, if you can find a copy of CNN's "God's Christian Warriors" I highly recommend you watch. It's eye-opening.)

We're called to love people. We're called to offer Jesus to a dying world. We're not called to get caught up in anything this world has to offer, including our government.

Don't get me wrong - you know I enjoy politics. I love the game of it. I love my right to vote, and I consider it one of my highest calls as an American. But I need to spend more time pursuing those things which are eternal. What am I called to do as a Christian? To study the Word. To pray. To love. To offer hope in a desperately dry land.

Will you join me?