Would Jesus vote Republican?

On Nov. 7, 2007, prominent conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson endorsed Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The endorsement came as a surprise to almost anyone familiar with these two men and their records. Giuliani supports abortion and gay rights and is a known adulterer. And Robertson vehemently opposes abortion rights and wants a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage – two issues that have been a staple to values voters lately.

But the shock of this endorsement was not based entirely on the men’s starkly differing views. It is also rooted in the fact that Robertson wouldn’t have had a problem finding a candidate who shares his bottom line – to implement a socially conservative agenda. In fact, Robertson could have selected a candidate who appears to be groomed by the movement the televangelist helps lead.

Mike Huckabee is the only presidential candidate who identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. He is a former Baptist preacher and Arkansas governor who is genuinely a part of the precious right-wing Christian vote the Republican Party has been courting, and successfully gaining, since the Reagan years. He grew up in a working-class family and became a born-again Christian at age 10, when attending vacation Bible school with his sister. He is strongly pro-life, speaks compassionately about health care and the middle class and supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage – in fact, he recently said he wants to amend the Constitution to fit God’s standards.

Really, conservative Christians could not ask for a better candidate. And they haven’t been. After months of coasting under the radar, Huckabee began surging in the polls in November and won the Republican Iowa caucuses, where 60 percent of GOP voters described themselves as evangelical Christians.

But despite his genuine beliefs and his success, Huckabee has failed to rack up influential evangelical endorsements. Instead, most have gone to other candidates whose views either aren’t in line with those of values voters, like Giuliani, or who have not been consistently conservative, like Mitt Romney (who also belongs to the Mormon church, which has a bit of a rift with evangelicals). The National Right to Life Committee endorsed Fred Thompson, and when bona fide conservative Christian candidate Sam Brownback dropped out of the race he endorsed John McCain, who has never been a favorite of religious right-wingers.

Huckabee has the beliefs and the popularity to be a favorable candidate for evangelical organizations, whose goal in political involvement is to back someone who will push their religious agenda. So why hasn’t he gotten more endorsements? There is at least one obvious reason: his populism.

Those closely following the campaign have labeled Huckabee’s economic policies as populist because of his desire to help out the middle class, his sympathy for labor unions and his criticism of excessive executive salaries, among other things. And herein lies the problem with the overall Republican profile of the past few decades – Jesus was a populist, not an advocate of laissaz-faire economy that can often leave the poor in the dust.

Some prominent Republicans have done their best to disguise this disconnect of the party pillars by lumping Huckabee in with the Democrats. Thompson has criticized him for his “liberal economic policies” (you know, those that employ compassion) and conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has derided him for engaging in “class warfare.”

Shouldn’t it be a sign to evangelicals that their leaders aren’t getting behind a candidate who is also fervently opposed by the anti-tax group the Club for Growth? Did Jesus advocate that people hoard their wealth and not share it to help others who are less fortunate?

Conservative Christians have had their day in the sun by allowing their faith to be snagged by politicians and power-hungry preachers who use it to get insensitive and questionably religious people in power. They have either been in the dark or allowed the hypocrisy to continue in their quest for religious control of this secular country.

Huckabee’s candidacy has created a documented divide in the evangelical community between its leaders and followers. And those who have long realized that Republican Party leaders care very little about “family values,” the sanctity of every human life or even morality can only hope that this divide remains and the party becomes honest with itself and all of its followers.