The Second Commandment Republicans

By Joe Klein

The weakness of modern religion is its obsession with sin, G.K. Chesterton once observed. "A modern morality," he wrote, "can only point with absolute conviction to the horrors that follow breaches of the law." And so it has been with the religious conservatives who have overwhelmed the latter-day Republican Party. For preachers like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Pat Robertson, the prospect of hell has always been far more vivid than the possibility of heaven. Presidential candidates like Robertson, Pat Buchanan and Gary Bauer have loaded up on the "Thou Shalt Nots" and rarely, if ever, mentioned the grace and serenity that come from doing "for the least of these."

But there is a striking change in the 2008 Republican presidential field. There are two candidates with strong religious credentials, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and both spend far more time talking about good works than about sin, although each has the requisite positions on abortion and gay marriage. Indeed, it was Huckabee who reminded me of Chesterton's lament. "I'm a 'grace' Christian," Huckabee told me over lunch recently, "not a 'law' Christian. The Second Commandment--do unto others--is the basic tenet of my faith. And so I believe that life begins at conception, but I don't believe it ends at birth. I believe we have a responsibility to feed the hungry, to provide a good education, a safe neighborhood, health care ... That's why I talk so much about the need for music and art programs in our schools. I know some conservatives think it's foolish, but I just believe it's necessary to build whole, creative individuals."

Huckabee is a political inconvenience, a destroyer of stereotypes. He is probably best known as the fellow who lost 100 lbs. in a year, and made living well through exercise and good nutrition one of his signature issues as Governor. But the real significance of Huckabee--and, to a lesser extent, Brownback--is that he represents the introduction of a new constituency into the political process: "Second Commandment" Christians, those more interested in salvation than damnation, people like the California pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life. Huckabee says, "Our church in Little Rock is very similar to Rick Warren's. We've gone from 25 members to about 5,000 in eight years. Our focus has been to minister to people who were otherwise neglected. We built a ministry center before we even had a sanctuary. We held our services in warehouses until a year or two ago." The center contains a range of faith-based initiatives: welfare to work, job training, programs for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, a food bank. "We are a multicultural, multiracial congregation, with rich and poor," Huckabee says. "I play the bass in the Praise band."

What will traditional Republicans make of all this? In 2000, George W. Bush successfully used "compassionate conservatism" to soften his image with independents and some conservative Democrats. But it didn't go over so well with many Republicans: I remember Bush putting more than a few country-club-conservative audiences to sleep with his long disquisitions about "armies of compassion," only rousing the faithful when he talked about tax cuts. (Huckabee plays this card too: he claims to be the only Governor of Arkansas to cut taxes in the past 160 years.) Bush sustained his candidacy, despite all the soft talk, because he was the eldest son of royalty in the party of primogeniture. Neither Huckabee nor Brownback has that luxury, and both are languishing in the polls. Is it because it's early and they're not well known? Or is it just too much talk of Darfur--Brownback's cause--and food banks? Several weeks ago, I watched Huckabee lose an audience at the National Review's Conservative Summit with his talk of feeding the hungry and health care. "I think he's in the wrong party," a gentleman from Pennsylvania told me.

Then again, the Republicans are fielding a motley crew right now: if you count Newt Gingrich, who'll probably join the fray in the fall, the four leading candidates have had nine marriages among them: Giuliani three, Gingrich three, McCain two and Romney one. The Republican faithful are left with a devil of a choice: moderate candidates who live like liberals, or religious conservatives who talk like liberals.

For Huckabee and Brownback, a moment of biblical temptation looms. Both will be spending most of their time in Iowa, where Republicans have a strong religious bent. Both Robertson and Buchanan have done well there. The temptation will be to slouch back to hellfire and brimstone to unite conservative Christians. It will be an exquisite test of faith for a Second Commandment Christian like Huckabee: Thou Shalt or Thou Shalt Not? Can you win the Iowa caucus without losing your soul? time-blog.com/swampland