Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee
Politically speaking, there’s not much I agree with Mike Huckabee about. But with regard to the issue that got him kicked off the board of the Country Music Association Foundation, I can only applaud and say, this time Mike Huckabee got it right.
Less than 24 hours after being appointed to the CMA Foundation board, Huckabee sent in his letter of resignation due to a strong backlash from prominent CMA members. What was Huckabee’s sin that provoked such a massive reaction? CNN characterized it this way:
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee resigned Thursday from the Country Music Association Foundation board of directors — less than one day after his appointment — after backlash over his anti-gay rights record.
In other words, because Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister as well as a former governor, refuses to go along with the prevailing attitude of accepting same-sex relationships as normal, right, and to be celebrated, powerful people in the country music establishment rose up in their righteous indignation to have him expelled from any association with their industry.
The Country Music Establishment Accuses Huckabee of Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry
Jason Owen, co-president of Monument Records and owner of Sandbox Entertainment, characterizes Huckabee’s appointment as “grossly offensive.” Owen, who says his family consists of both a same-sex partner and a son, applied financial pressure to have Huckabee removed from his CMA post, telling the organization that neither his companies nor the artists they represent would support the foundation if Huckabee was on its board.
“Huckabee speaks of the sort of things that would suggest my family is morally beneath his and uses language that has a profoundly negative impact upon young people all across this country,” said Owen.
Another strident critic is singer Chely Wright, a self-proclaimed lesbian. In an open letter on her Facebook page, she accused Huckabee of outright “bigotry toward LGBTQ people.”
Is it bigotry when a Christian opposes the normalizing of LGBTQ lifestyles? Or is it simple faithfulness to God’s design for humanity as revealed in Scripture? The Bible is very clear about that design:
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God’s Design for Human Sexuality
God created mankind to be male and female. That gender complementarity is an inherent part of what it means to be human.
But modern western culture has effectively declared itself in full rebellion against the sovereignty of God over human affairs. Our society has adopted wholesale the myth that individuals have the right and the ability to define themselves any way they want. That is a fundamental tenet of our culture’s reigning secular faith. Were you born male but now would rather be female? It’s your choice. Are you in a committed same-sex relationship? It would be discriminatory to forbid your “marriage” to your partner, even though it means totally abandoning God’s definition of marriage as being between “the man and his wife” (Genesis 2:25).
We should not be surprised at the treatment Mike Huckabee is receiving because of his rejection of today’s obligatory LGBTQ orthodoxy. It is, in fact, exactly what the Bible warns the followers of Christ to expect:
2 Timothy 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Former Governor Huckabee has been an active participate in the last several presidential campaign cycles, and in many instances I’ve thought he was flat-out wrong in the point of view he expressed and the policies for which he advocated. But when it comes to being faithful to God’s standards as given in His word, politics has nothing to do with it.
This time, Mike Huckabee got it right.
Ron Franklin
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
© 2018 Ronald E. Franklin