Huckabee likens gay marriage to incest, polygamy

leatherbear

In this Dec. 20, 2009 file photo, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks in Omaha, Neb. Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the effort to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.

By NATASHA METZLER, Associated Press Writer Natasha Metzler, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 13, 7:05 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Mike Huckabee, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the effort to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.

Huckabee also told college journalists last week that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt. "Children are not puppies," he said.

Huckabee visited The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., last Wednesday to speak to the Student Government Association. He also was interviewed by a campus news magazine, The Perspective, which published an article on Friday.

Huckabee told the interviewer that not every group's interests deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is outside of what he called "the ideal."

"That would be like saying, well there's there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?" he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

The 2008 presidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor also said that deciding which lifestyles should be accommodated and which ones should not creates a slippery slope.

"Why do you get to choose that two men are OK but one man and three women aren't OK?" he asked.

Huckabee added that his goal isn't to tell others how to live, but that the burden of proving that a gay marriage can be successful rests with the activists in favor of changing the law.

"I don't have to prove that marriage is a man and a woman in a relationship for life," he said. "They have to prove that two men can have an equally definable relationship called marriage, and somehow that that can mean the same thing."

Since the magazine published the interview, Huckabee's remarks have attracted considerable attention on the Web.

In a statement Tuesday, Huckabee said that while he believes what people do in their private lives is their business, "I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage." He also said he thought the college magazine was sensationalizing his "well-known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage."

In response to a 1992 questionnaire from The Associated Press, Huckabee, then a Senate candidate in Arkansas, spelled out his opposition to homosexuality, saying it was crucial that the country not "legitimize immorality."

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle," he wrote, in response to a question about gays in the military.

He also advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, saying it was necessary to confine "carriers of this plague."

As governor, Huckabee supported an Arkansas policy that prevented same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. On gay marriage, he said in an interview, "Marriage has historically never meant anything other than a man and a woman. It has never meant two men, two women, a man and his pet, or a man and a whole herd of pets."

cumeaternc

What a loser. Isn't he a pastor? I thought that christians are supposed to love everyone. If you think about it, only heterosexual couples can produce homosexuals(two guys together or two girls together can't make babies ;D ) So I guess they get to ride the first bus to hell.

I bet you 500SBP that he will be exposed for being a closet homosexual before it's all over….You heard it here first folks.

trentreviso

It astonishes me that virtually no one in the Republican leadership has a clue about how life works.

Not a one of them.

juancho

it's funny how these self-proclaimed "christians" openly announce that they follow the teachings of christ and yet use these said teachings to justify their hate on others who are different than them.

isn't "unconditional love" one of the basic teachings of christ?

if all these self-proclaimed saints are right, then this just proves that the sign of a true christian is hypocrisy!

Spintendo

@juancho:

isn't "unconditional love" one of the basic teachings of christ?

Considered in themselves, the moral precepts of Jesus are sometimes interesting, sometimes poetic, sometimes benevolent, sometimes confusing, sometimes pernicious, and sometimes devastatingly harmful psychologically. None, however, are especially profound. If not for their tremendous historical impact, most would deserve little more than a philosopher's passing glance.

The major precept of the biblical Jesus is total devotion, or commitment, to God. In this context the terms "devotion" and "commitment" are euphemisms for their less flattering counterparts: obedience and conformity. When Jesus says "believe" he means "obey." And when Jesus praises men of great "faith," he is praising men who will obey unquestioningly any command they believe to come from God.

When conformity is required, the sacrifice of truth inevitably follows. One can be committed either to conformity, or truth—but not both. The pursuit of truth requires the unrestricted use of one's mind—the moral freedom to question, to examine evidence, to consider opposing viewpoints, to criticize, to accept as true only that which can be demonstrated—regardless of whether one's conclusions conform to a particular creed.

The fundamental teaching of Jesus—the demand for conformity, something Mr. Huckabee preaches himself—give rise to the fundamental and viciously destructive teachings of Christianity: that some beliefs lie beyond the scope of criticism and that to question them is sinful, or morally wrong. By placing a moral restriction on what one is permitted to believe, Christianity declares itself an enemy of truth and of the faculty by which man arrives at truth—reason.

raphjd

Huckabee told the interviewer that not every group's interests deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is outside of what he called "the ideal."

My lifestyle is a lot better than my neighbors'. We rarely drink and we grow our own fruit and veg.

Maybe this dick headed bigot means "sexual orientation".

trukr

@Article:

Huckabee added that his goal isn't to tell others how to live

He's…not doing that? $:-\$

@Article:

"I don't have to prove that marriage is a man and a woman in a relationship for life," he said. "They have to prove that two men can have an equally definable relationship called marriage, and somehow that that can mean the same thing."

Please die of something, somehow. Yes, it can mean the same thing.

@Article:

It has never meant two men, two women, a man and his pet

But hey, it happens. :laugh: What an "interesting" relationship that would be. :laugh:

I wonder if he'll "change" or tone down some of this views if he runs for President. ::)

raphjd

For those who forgot, the Obama administration has done 2 defences of DoMA so far {getting ready to start a 3rd} and they said that gay relationships were not better than incest, pedophilia and bestiality.

That is how they justified DoMA and discriminating against gays.

The new defence of DoMA supposedly won't use that language, but will try to say that the the equal protection clause of the constitution does not apply to gays.

Yeah, this is the guy that says he is the best friend we {GLBTs} ever had in the White House. With friends like that,…........... well, you know the rest.