Mike Huckabee: Christians Should Vote Values or Face the 'Test of Fire'
Women's Votes Could Be Split
Mike Huckabee has been accused of threatening Christians with hell after releasing a new ad that suggests voters should base their vote on values that will "stand the test of fire."
Some Christians have questioned whether or not it will be possible to cast a "Christian" vote when it comes to election time. For some the answer seems obvious because the church has conflicted with certain policies passed by President Barack Obama, namely Obamacare. But women may share a different perspective when it comes to values and voting.
In a recent ad, Huckabee denounced voting for Obama for these reasons, attacking his campaign for the lack of moral values.
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"Many issues are at stake, but some issues are not negotiable: the right to life from conception to natural death. Marriage should be reinforced, not redefined. It is an egregious violation of our cherished principle of religious liberty for the government to force the church to buy the kind of insurance that leads to the taking of innocent human life," Huckabee announces in the ad.
On issues of contraception, or when it comes to the definition of marriage, Mitt Romney appears to be a more conservative candidate. But others have found different reasons to unite under Obama, including for the sake of poverty. Sister Simone Campbell criticized Romney and Ryan's budget plan at the Democratic National Convention, stating that it "failed a basic moral test because it would harm families living in poverty."
She also stated that their policies supported an individualistic mindset, but "our faith strongly affirms that we are all responsible for one another."
"I am my sister's keeper. I am my brother's keeper," she added.
The Christian Vote Isn't that Simple
Huckabee finishes the ad by suggesting that voting for the wrong candidate could mean a sentence to hell.
"Your vote will affect the future and be recorded in eternity. Will you vote the values that will stand the test of fire? This is Mike Huckabee asking you to join me November 6th and vote based on values that will stand the test of fire," he states.
But for some, it isn't that simple. It isn't possible to make a straight "Christian" vote, according to Jen Pollock Michel, a guest writer for Christianity Today.
"Voting is a great freedom and an important civic responsibility," Pollock wrote in a blog geared towards women. "However, a vote for president cannot express the breadth of Christian conviction."
And what are the convictions of evangelical Christian Women? According to the book, "What Christian Women Want This Election Season," published by her-meneutics, poverty scores high because it is more likely to affect women than their male counterparts. According to Lisa Sharon Harper, the poverty rate for women in 2010 was 14.5 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for men.
"Poverty effects everybody: women in two-parent homes, single women, and single mothers. Elderly women are also more likely than elderly men to be poor," Harper stated, adding that such figures made poverty the "number one issue."
Equality is another important issue.
"Every contact point in our election decision-making, we should be thinking about poverty and inequality in our country and around the world," Harper said. "That's the women's issue of our time."
Poverty is of course, still an economic concern, but it is not one without values or morals. A Christian vote for evangelical women could go either way.
