Mike Huckabee Defends ‘Merry Christmas’ Ad, Says Cross Imagery is Incidental
Dec. 18: The TV ad features former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in a red sweater in front of what appears to be a white cross and Christmas tree. (Huckabee for President, Inc.)
In a new television ad debuting Tuesday in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee does the unthinkable - he wishes early voters “Merry Christmas.”
Wearing a red sweater and standing before a glowing Christmas tree as “Silent Night” plays in the background, the former Arkansas governor asks viewers if they’re “about worn out of all the television commercials you’ve been seeing, mostly about politics.”
Behind Huckabee appears to be a white cross, which may be intersecting shelf lines or a window pane and slowly moves to the right on the screen until it’s behind his head.
But the ordained Baptist minister, who has been riding a wave of evangelical support with his open religious appeals, said Tuesday that it’s just a bookshelf and defended the ad.
“If we are so politically correct in this country that a person can’t say ‘enough of the nonsense with the political attack ads could we pause for a few days and say Merry Christmas to each other,’ then we’re really, really in trouble as a country,” Huckabee said, speaking in Houston, Texas.
Click here to watch the ad titled, “What Really Matters”
In the ad, Huckabee says, “At this time of year, sometimes it’s nice to pull aside from all of that and remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ.”
“I hope you and your family have a magnificent Christmas season. God bless you and Merry Christmas.”
Will Mike Huckabee’s new TV ad where he mentions Christ by name and displays imagery of the cross help him or hurt him?
Have no effect (16%)
Hurt him (8%)
Loading …Catholic League president Bill Donahue said Huckabee went beyond wishing people a joyous holiday. Donahue said he was especially disturbed by the cross-like image created in the background of the ad, saying he believed it was a subliminal message.
“What he’s trying to say to the evangelicals in western Iowa (is): I’m the real thing,” Donahue said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends. “You know what, sell yourself on your issues, not on what your religion is.”
Huckabee said the bookshelf is “nothing more than a bookshelf” and shrugged off the controversy: “I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, ‘Paul is dead. Paul is dead.”‘
He was joking about the Beatles’ recording of “The White Album” and the urban legend that if a portion of the album is played backwards, the words “Paul is dead” is heard, a reference to the very much alive Paul McCartney.
Meanwhile, rival Mitt Romney launched a new TV ad yesterday slamming Huckabee, the ex-Arkansas governor, for commuting the sentences of 1,033 criminals - including 12 convicted murderers. “Huckabee granted more clemencies than the previous three governors combined,” says the 30-second Romney attack ad.
“The difference between us is that I did something he never had to do. I carried out the death penalty 16 times, more than any other governor in my state’s history,” Huckabee told reporters in Los Angeles before attending a Beverly Hills fundraiser. “That’s hardly soft on crime when you make that tough decision and actually carry it out.”
Romney’s state of Massachusetts does not have capital punishment.
The Romney-Huckabee spat continued throughout the day Tuesday.
“Interestingly, Mr. Romney has commended President Bush for the pardon of Scooter Libby, yet he brags that he never gave one as governor,” Huckabee said in Houston.
Returning fire in Columbia, S.C., Romney reiterated that Huckabee is “liberal” on crime and immigration.
Asked about the Christmas ad, Romney said, “We recognize the diversity of faith and we unite over our commitment to religious liberty, and I hope Governor Huckabee, like all of us, is supportive to the diversity of faith and the liberty to worship God as they choose, and I trust that he and the other candidates will do just that.”
Not surprisingly, Huckabee sounded Monday as if he wanted to declare a holiday truce among the Republican presidential contenders.
“I think the country could use a little good will and peace on earth a little more than they can some tit for tat in the political arena,” Huckabee said.
FOX News’ Carl Cameron, Serafin Gomez and Shushannah Walshe, and The New York Post and Associated Press contributed to this report.
Incidental? Don’t we mean accidental?
I applaued Mike Huckabee on standingupforhisbelief in Jesus Christ. How refreshing.
Alex - “God isn’t evil at all!!!!!!!!!”
I agree 100%
Alex - “we honestly deserve to go to hell for an eternity
we’re evil people who sin every day”
I agree that those who have accountability do sin. My disagreement is the Calvanistic approach:
God made us all flawed and evil. God predestines some of us fallen evil beings to be saved and go to heaven. The rest go to Hell, a Hell he made with a Devil. So here we have an all powerfull God, purposely making billions of creations that have dreams, hopes, love, desire, self awareness; all flawed. All are imperfect and it is “great” of Him to save some to show His “mercy” and the rest get thrown in an eternal hell of endless suffering. This is why, if God were a “Calvanist” I would opt to live in Hell than with such an evil, despicable being.
Alex - “God in his LOVE saved us from going to hell and made it so we had a chance by asking the lord jesus into our hearts and repenting of our sins NOT through the priest or the pope or all those other ungodly sinners.”
First, what about those that NEVER even heard of Christ. This is an area where I get lots of opinion from evangelicals, but no one ever has a logical answer. If they are saved in ignorance, then it would be better if Christ commanded the apostles to keep quite and never spread the word. Also, this would make God a respecter of persons and place salvation upon those who lived in times and places where the word was unknown.
Second, if those that never heard of Christ or had opportunities to recieve ordanances such as baptism were damned, then God again is unjust and a respector of persons. I do not believe that this fits the nature of perfectly just God, who thanks to Christ, is also full of mercy.
Third, I disagree with Catholic doctrine, but I do not believe in judging Popes or Priest as ungodly sinners. Some are good, some are bad, and some are downright evil (i.e. the alter boy molesters). This is also my thought toward Evangelical ministers. Some are good, some are bad, and some are down right evil (i.e. the Swagarts and Bakers who peddle the word of God for filthy lucur and wallow in sin on the side).
Alex - Romans 3:23
“For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Thus the need for a perfect sacrifice, a willing sacrifice to pay the price of the law - so that justice is not robbed, and now mercy may be extended.
Alex - John 3:16
“For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever beleiveth on him should have everlasting life through jesus christ our lord.”
Preaching to the choir on that one.
I just wanted to emphasis that there are some gapping holes in much of Christianity when it comes to what happens to those that do not hear the word of God. Or even better, what happens to those that hear of Christ under negative circumstances and curse His name (i.e. Jews and Moores who were tortured in the Inquisition).
why is it such a big deal anyway. obama talks about his religion and no-one bashes him for it. if huckabee want’s to have a cross so what. most of the founding fathers were christians. all of them believed in God. our money even says “In God We Trust.” the constitution garentees freedom of religion. how come only democrats are allowed to have it nowadays?
I can’t believe this garbage… the media is ruining this country!.. so what if there is a cross.. big deal.. ohh ohh ,if you look real close that might be an upside down cross.,or for that matter what hidden message is he sending by having a tree inside a house that was cut down for just holiday decor! I can’t believe someone would just kill a living tree before it even had a chance to reach full growth.. GIVE ME A BREAK people, the media is ruining this country with crap like this!
Ooh OOH OOh what hidden meaning is the light in the backgroud with 2 green lights and only 1 red light! hmmmhm.
Evan,
The constitution protects your right to worship how you wish. It does not, however, seperate religion and government. What I mean is this. What a candidates religious beliefs are should be very important to his constituents because it will be a primary influence in how the candidate will act in his representative role. If you do not believe this or think that a person can seperate their religious beliefs from their political ones your extremely naive. In addition, a candidates religious beliefs should be a moral guide when voting on and enacting legislation. If we did not have the moral compass and strong positive ethics of Christianity this country would probably look a lot like Iran, or worse yet Saudi Arabia where not only is it a monarchy it is an Oligarchy as well.
I get real tired of people who try to insinuate that our country and the constitution were not based on Christian principles and therefore, although it does seperate “church” and state, there is no defined seperation of Christianity and state. We are and hopefully will continue to be a Christian nation. Live with it.
Evan
listen
God isn’t evil at all!!!!!!!!!
we honestly deserve to go to hell for an eternity
we’re evil people who sin every day
God in his LOVE saved us from going to hell and made it so we had a chance by asking the lord jesus into our hearts and repenting of our sins NOT through the priest or the pope or all those other ungodly sinners.
Romans 3:23
For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
John 3:16
For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever beleiveth on him should have everlasting life through jesus christ our lord.
What a total liar. That cross is incidental?
“TJ, Mike Huckabee is anything but a moron sir. He is the most articulate, common sense, sincere,
sure, confident, true American -candidate I’ve seen in a long while.”
Articulate - I agree, he is very good with words.
Common sense - Neutral here, I’ve seen Mike show a refreshing amount of “common sense” at times and other times he has acted the fool.
Sincere - Totally disagree. I liked Mike - at first - the more I observed him the less I liked him mostly because of his nasty little shadow campaign against Romney. Up front he would proclaim that he was running a “clean” campaign while in the back he was running a very dirty, religiously divisive, campaign. His response when called on this was always a “who me, I don’t know much about XYZ”. Mike earned my contempt.
Sure - Agree, except when he was asked tough questions on his stance on imigration, closing Gitmo (loved Fred Thompson racking him over the coals on that one), and foreign policy questions which my 11 yo daughter knows more about than he did (of course she is homeschooled and well ahead of her peirs).
Confident - Agree, even with the math totally against him I am shocked at how long he stayed in the race.
true American - He is an American, but he also did his best to violate article 6 of the constitution purely for political gain. That is VERY unamerican in my book.
P.S. Mike is intelligent, someone with his wit is not stupid. He is however painfully ignorant on foreign policy, science and fiscal issues. This is not someone I would want in the white house, besides the fact that he violated the spirit of the constitution and article 6.
The Morons are those that are dumb enough to believe Mike when he says the cross image was unintential. Study up a bit on media and presentation folks - team Huckster knew exactly what they were doing with that book shelf. Again, I don’t care what image he put in his commercial, I do care when he lies about it.
“why should mike defend showing a cross and mentioning christ. be a true believer shout it from the rooftops and dont succumb to atheism.”
Why should he deny it??