Hallelujah, Mike Huckabee, Hallelujah
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Tue Dec 16, 2014 at 11:11:31 PM EST
Fox News personality Mike Huckabee had a defining moment in the wake of the Newtown massacre. One that as we enter the 2016 presidential season, we should not forget. Its too bad that the original of the video at the end of this post is no longer available, but I found another. In any case, I think the rest of this re-post says what needs to be said. -- FC

When I was considering writing this post, at first I thought that too much had already been said about Mike Huckabee's comments on the Newtown massacre. But I now think that maybe there has been nowhere near enough.  

The horror affected most of us profoundly and all of us differently. Many of us, on reflection, encountered eternal questions about the meaning of life and death, and particularly, how such evil can happen.

The religious among us come from  many different traditions. But even the most orthodox among us know that whatever revelations God (or gods) may have provided us; and whatever our understanding of ancient texts may be, mysteries remain.  Many of us are not part of a religious tradition.  And those of us who look to science for answers may find that nothing we know, or think we know, explains everything. Especially about Newtown.  

And then there was Huckabee.

The Fox News pundit not only sought to blame the Newtown massacre on how we navigate matters of religion in the public schools, but to head off future school shootings, he suggested that people who think like him be deployed to hector school children about learning to fear "a holy God in judgment."  

Bill Berkowitz reported:

"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?  Because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability -- that we're not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment. If we don't believe that, then we don't fear that."

Huckabee forgets, or knows and does not care, that we are a nation of individuals and of many faiths. And that was surely reflected in the elementary classrooms of Sandy Hook.

Our country has wisely taken the step that we no longer use government employees as de facto priests and religious instructors in the public schools. Our teachers are there for broader and different educational purposes. The kind of omniscient God in the Christian tradition, the Creator of all things, can't be removed from anywhere, let alone the heads and hearts of believers. And surely such a God does not require that we hire government employees to hector our children about Huckabee's notion of his eternal wrath. Good grief.

Let's be clear about this. We don't need Christians leading non-Christians and non-believers in Christian prayers. And we need not insult the varieties of orthodox Christian with watered down ecumenical or interfaith prayers that mean nothing to them. Nor do we need anyone to teach the Word According to Huckabee as a condition of employment. (But if we did, what would the criteria be and who would get to decide?)  

It is not easy navigating a religiously plural society. And there have always been Huckabees around who stand in opposition. But pluralism is what we have and I wish we would do a better job in all parts of our society to develop the knowledge and skill set that goes with it.

OK. For those of you who have been wondering about the title of this post, your patience is about to be rewarded.

I read that the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" was intended to be sung as "melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on what the performer wanted it to be.  It is a remarkable song of spiritual significance for many, and it is often sung with great reverence.

And so it was fitting that on the Monday after the mass murder in Newtown, the cast of the NBC TV singing show The Voice offered a moving tribute before the entertainment began.  They sang "Hallelujah", and each held a sign with the name and age of a victim.  One of the young singers later said that rehearsal was difficult because they were all breaking down in tears.  

It takes time and effort to get things right. The mournful anthem. Respect for religious and non-religious differences. (It has taken us centuries to get to where we are, and we are still working on it.) It will take time and effort for us to reduce the scale and number of events that give horrific new meanings to the names of towns like Aurora, Columbine and Newtown. And there will be more tears along the way.

But we we are not without options as the new national conversation about gun control and school safety shows.  And among the things we can do is ask Mike Huckabee to renounce cheap demagoguery; and we can also learn how to better answer claims like his.  

Hallelujah.




Display:
and wonderful post Fred. Thanks for the info re Leonard Cohen. Well done.

by Bill Berkowitz on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 11:08:32 AM EST
I should probably also have mentioned that Cohen mightily struggled writing "Hallelujah" and at one point found himself banging his head on a hotel room floor.  Or so the story goes. (There is a pretty good Wikipedia article about the song.)  

I believe that episode of The Voice was the top-rated show that night, giving the Newtown tribute version of Hallelujah what must have been by far the largest audience ever for a performance of Hallelujah -- and one of lasting meaning for many.  

 

by Frederick Clarkson on Fri Dec 21, 2012 at 12:37:47 PM EST
Parent



For a while, it was looking like Huckabee was going to be one of the "good ones". But long ago he sort of retrenched into this rather extremist posturing that plays to the "values voters".

by razajac on Mon Dec 22, 2014 at 03:34:34 AM EST

A very sad subject that even now started to bring me to tears. Senseless and complex and coming from the darkest depths of the human psyche it comes. Guns just make it easier for the evil to do their dirty work. Only species with such complex brains as we have can do such things outside the need for survival.

I am all for people being armed. However they must prove yearly that for each weapon they have the same licensing as any police officer. Instead you can buy a gun first then maybe learn how to shoot it. Totally backwards. Also swords, nunchuckas, pepper box pistols etc. We are a gun society with little training in them. And even so not that many have guns or shoot them here. So we have a gun enthusiast society.

by Nightgaunt on Mon Dec 22, 2014 at 06:20:31 PM EST


Huckabee's comments are just offensive as well as demagogic. I'm not sure that I want to know the answer about how low he and his fellow pols can go with their demagoguery.

by khughes1963 on Sat Dec 27, 2014 at 02:33:41 PM EST

This article on Mike Huckabee is good to read. I liked this blog for good religious studies.  customize your own engagement ring It provides so many interesting audios and videos related to Christianity like this. It is so informative. Thanks a lot.

by isabelladom on Thu Sep 01, 2022 at 11:44:04 PM EST


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