Mike Huckabee - God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy

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When you see a turtle sitting on a fence post, you can be pretty sure he didnt get there by himself. And though a book may be the product of one authors thoughts, rest assured that a lot of other people are involved. It certainly is true in the case of this precious tome you hold in your hands.

I owe a lot of gratitude to my family, who accepted my being unreachable many times while I was holed up in my office or my balcony and belting out another chapter to stay on deadline. This is the first of twelve books Ive written without the companionship of my beloved black Lab, Jet, who died in January 2013 after fifteen years together. I still miss him, but Toby and Sonic, our Cavalier King Charles spaniel and Shih Tzu respectively, have done their best to provide inspiration and companionship when my wife has long since gone to bed.

St. Martins Press has been great to put their trust in me and turn me loose. Its been wonderful working with their entire team and their editor in chief, George Witte, and editorial assistant Sara Thwaite. And Sally Richardson, president of St. Martins Press, won me over at hello. Her enthusiasm, depth, and vision for the book have been better than a bowl of grits with cheese and shrimp, and where I come from, thats good. As a writer, I have loved that Ive been allowed the freedom to say what I felt and do it in my own voice.

My agent, Frank Breeden, has been more than an agent. He is a trusted friend who has helped guide me through the turbulent waters of the publishing world.

Two indispensable partners in the project were Pat Reeder and Laura Ainsworth, who have worked with me for several years as writers and researchers for my daily radio commentary, The Huckabee Report, and who helped research a lot of the material in the book that illustrates the message inside. They not only were of great assistance, but provided tremendous encouragement and gave their opinion when they thought a chapter was good and when something didnt float the boat.

Duane Ward and Josh Smallbone of Premiere Marketing, working along with my son Davidwho runs several of the companies I ownhave put together the effort to get me on the road to promote and sign the book in venues across the country.

Most of all, thank you, for buying (or stealing) this book and investing some of your precious time to read it. I really do want you to enjoy it. Ive written it for you to easily understand and enjoy. I didnt write it for academics and scholars because I think it would be over their heads. I truly hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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PEOPLE WHO PUT FAITH AND FAMILY FIRST

I T ALL STARTED OVER a simple chicken sandwich.

On a Saturday in July 2012, Truett Cathy, the ninety-one-year-old founder of the family-owned Chick-fil-A restaurant chain, was a guest on my Fox News Channel television show to talk about his book, Wealth: Is It Worth It? I had been trying to schedule him for months, ever since appearing with him on the speaking roster for a couple of events and finding his personal background to be one of the great American success stories. Id read his book and found quite compelling its admonition to use wealth as a means to be generous and not just as an end in itself. Finally, the July date worked out for him to be in New York on a Saturday afternoon when we were taping my show.

But between our booking of Mr. Cathy and his appearance on the show, his son Dan Cathy, chief operating officer of the company at that time and now the CEO, gave an interview to the Ken Coleman radio show on June 16, 2012, and another on July 2 to the Biblical Recorder newspaper, which is published weekly for and about Baptists in North Carolina. Dans comments in support of traditional Christian teachings that marriage is between one man and one woman were blunt, but not unusual or outrageous. He said, We are very much supportive of the familythe biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that. Cathy continued: We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.

Wow! That was really outrageous of him! The very idea that someone would publicly spout the view that a family has value to our society! Dan even had the audacity to talk of a family that included a father, mother, and children all living in the same household and husbands and wives who married and stayed that way. Scandalous!

And thats when the chicken hit the fan! By the time Truett was in New York for my show, the controversy over Dans remarks had fired up the same-sex marriage advocateseven big-city mayors like Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Thomas Menino of Boston, who publicly vowed to run the Chick-fil-A businesses out of their towns because they disagreed with personal comments made by an executive of the company! [ The Ken Coleman Show on WDUN, June 16, 2012] There would have been less controversy had Dan Cathy slaughtered live chickens on the steps of Chicago City Hall at lunch hour. But what we witnessed instead was the slaughter of the basic American principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and free enterprise. I was shocked that elected officials in America actually believed they could goose-step on top of the Constitution and use the power of government to squelch a viewpoint that they personally didnt like (but one that, incidentally, was consistent with the will of the electorate in thirty-four states that had voted on the issue of same-sex marriage). It was especially hypocritical in Emanuels case, in that same-sex marriage was illegal at the time in his own state. But facts and the First Amendment didnt seem to get in the way of the bigotry and intolerance directed toward Dan Cathy.

In fact, the viewpoint expressed by Dan Cathy was the very position held by none other than candidate Barack Obama in 2008. At Californias Saddleback Forum in August 2008, when Pastor Rick Warren asked Obamas position on same-sex marriage, the then-candidate expressly said he was opposed to it because, as a Christian, he found it not in keeping with his biblical view of marriage. After he was elected President, Barack Obama not only changed his view but went on to become the cheerleader-in-chief for all things gay. (One might even say his opinion was fundamentally transformed. Who knew that the change in hope and change would actually come to describe Obamas own views?) Its a reflection of how sloppy and biased journalism has become that I cannot find evidence of any reporter asking the simple question, Mr. President, if your reason for opposing same-sex marriage in 2008 was because of your Christian belief that the biblical definition of marriage meant one man and one woman, has there been an update or revision to the Bible since then, or did you base your decision to change your position on political expediency? If so, were you being dishonest in 2008 or now? Still waiting on that one!

Truett had been scheduled to speak about his book, not the controversy over his sons remarks, and I wanted to be faithful to that purpose. Besides, it really wasnt his controversy, and it was obvious that the books publicist, who was with him that day, was nervous that the interview would ignore the book and focus on same-sex marriage. But it has never been my practice to ambush guests on my show. I was raised in the old-fashioned traditions of the Southa guest is to be treated with gracious hospitality. The role of a host is to meet the needs of the guest, not to use that guest to serve ones own interests. The host offers food, beverage, and the most comfortable chair in the house. When I was growing up, even poor people in the South would dig up something for their guest in the way of refreshments, but criticism and confrontation were never on the menu. If a host had unkind words to say, they would be held until after the guest had gone. Then the first thing said would be, Bless his heart