Mike Huckabee on Jeremiah Wright

I thought that the readers of "Ramblings" might be interested in Mike Huckabee's perspective on the late bruhaha over Jeremiah Wright's highly publicized pulpit oratory. Here's what Huckabee had to say on MSNBC lately:

As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, "That's a terrible statement," I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack. And I'm going to be probably the only conservative in America who's going to say something like this, but I'm just telling you: We've got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told, "You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus." And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had ... more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.

What do you think? I'll offer my own take later.

Whatever Happened to WWJD?

Some years ago it got real popular in Christian circles to wear a WWJD bracelet around. “What would Jesus do?” The bracelet was supposed to remind us to think of that. Then comedians got hold of that concept and twisted it all sorts of ways. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read in big letters, WWND. Then in little letters is said, “What would Nixon do?” I saw another one that read WWJB. The little letters said, “Who would Jesus bomb?”

But another take on WWJD came to me while I was working at the Virginia Baptist Mission Board. The director of the Evangelical Environmental network called me and asked if I would sign a petition entitled, “WWJD: What would Jesus drive?” I signed it.

You see, I believe that the WWJD movement gushed out of someone’s conviction that the Resurrection should have an impact in the real world that God so loves. Once again, if the Resurrection happened, then who Jesus was, what he said about himself and what he taught was validated as the norm by which his followers make all their decisions. That would include the vehicles we decide to drive. That would include the TV shows we watch, the books we buy, the websites we visit, and the people we spend time with. We would use the WWJD standard to assess statements and policies put forth by politicians and political parties. We would use WWJD to guide how we construct a budget at church and how we regard the people we come in contact with both when we frequent the church building and when we’re in our offices, pick-up trucks, or sports facilities. Or when we listen to the debate on immigration. Or whether our nation ought to invade Iran. WWJD?

Maybe that’s why WWJD faded. It’s awfully demanding. It runs us head-on into the prevailing culture, socially and politically. And we haven’t really been convinced that the more we’d apply it, the more joyful we’d be; and fulfilled; and at one with ourselves and the Creation.

For this Easter, let’s revive it. WWJD