Huckabee Angers Some Catholics

Huckabee Angers Some Catholics

Huckabee angers some Catholics
SAN ANTONIO Rising Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee risked his standing with Catholic voters on Sunday by courting his evangelical base at the church of a controversial preacher accused of disparaging Catholics.
There are a few remnants of anti-Catholicism amongst evangelical Christians in the South however the two sides have found a lot frequent political ground over the past three many years in their strident opposition to abortion and homosexual marriage.
But the visit to Cornerstone, pastor John Hagee's imposing "mega-church" within the Texas city of San Antonio, was fraught with political perils for Huckabee given his efforts to woo conservative Catholics.
Huckabee, a folksy former Arkansas governor and former Baptist preacher, has had a meteoric rise in opinion polls in current weeks, largely as a result of he has connected with the Republican Social gathering's influential evangelical wing.
This places him in serious competition with lower than two weeks earlier than the January 3 nomination battle in Iowa, which starts the state-by-state process to choose the Republican and Democratic candidates for November's presidential election.
Faith performs a big function in politics in the United States, where ranges of perception and church attendance are much higher than in Europe. Evangelicals quantity round 60 million within the country of 300 million people, while the Catholic population has been put at close to 70 million.
Taking a break from the Iowa marketing campaign trail, Huckabee delivered a Christmas season sermon at Cornerstone about Christ's delivery and embraced Hagee, calling him "one of many nice Christian leaders of our nation."
Hagee is a fiery preacher finest identified for his writings on the Middle East, the place he reads contemporary events as unfolding Biblical prophecy. He is staunchly pro-Israel, saying that God had made his love for the land and its individuals clear.
The Catholic League says Hagee is virulently anti-Catholic - a cost he denies - and it is getting the word out that Huckabee is rubbing shoulders with an anti-Vatican figure.
Huckabee's marketing campaign insisted his visit to Hagee's church ought to by no means be taken as a slight to Catholics.
"Three members of the senior leadership of the campaign are Catholic, including our nationwide chairman. Gov. Huckabee is committed to being a frontrunner of all Americans," stated Charmaine Yoest, one of his senior advisers.
CATHOLIC ANGER
But some Catholics were angry in regards to the visit.
"Hagee has a historical past of denigrating the Catholic faith," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, the largest Catholic civil rights group in the United States.
In his latest e-book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee wrote: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear document of historical past linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."
In the identical guide, Hagee did applaud the late Pope John Paul II's efforts to reach out to Jews.
But Catholic bloggers on the Web have been largely crucial about Huckabee's go to. The Catholic Information Agency ran the headline: "Mike Huckabee to speak at strongly anti-Catholic preacher's church."
One Catholic blogger said whereas Huckabee was an eloquent spokesman for the "tradition of life" - code for the anti-abortion trigger - his visit to "a church pastored by a raving anti-Catholic bigot" was deeply troubling.
At Cornerstone, Huckabee's appearance went down effectively with the group of several thousand worshipers, who incessantly interrupted his remarks with loud applause.
"I feel he is an efficient and godly man," stated Suzanne Ramirez. But requested whether she planned to vote for Huckabee in the Texas major in March, Ramirez said she had not made up her mind.
Huckabee stated earlier on Sunday on the CBS show "Face the Nation" that he was operating to be president of the whole United States, not simply the Christian neighborhood.
"That is how I served as governor," he stated. "People look at my report and so they didn't see that I put a tent out on the capital grounds and had therapeutic companies and I did not exchange the dome with a steeple."
(Writing and extra reporting by Ed Stoddard; Enhancing by John 'Callaghan)
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