Like Michael Westmoreland-White and Jim West, I am skeptical of thinking a “theology degree” could qualify a person for presidency of the United States. I do see some potential benefits, depending on one’s training in that degree. For example, if a person focused on the relationship between theology and culture in American society or perhaps comparative religion, I think that they would be well-trained with some helpful intellectual tools to assess the religious landscape of the United States and how it affects public policy. I think a theology degree could possibly help an elected leader critically evaluate the use and abuse of religious language to make public policy decisions. Huckabee’s rhetoric is something else. It seems that Huckabee is posturing himself as the most Christian candidate out of all the Republicans. Note this NPR piece highlighting one of his ads in Iowa playing “Silent Night” in the background and talking about the “celebration of the birth of Christ.” I especially liked the comment from NPR’s Martin Kaste afterwards: “Now there’s a wily trick: you get ahead in the polls and then you declare Christmas!”

Check out how he’s talked about his “theology degree”:

I’m as strong on terror as anybody. In fact I think I’m stronger than most people because I truly understand the nature of the war that we are in with Islamofascism. These are people that want to kill us. It’s a theocratic war. And I don’t know if anybody fully understands that. I’m the only guy on that stage with a theology degree. I think I understand it really well. [Interview with Christian Broadcasting Network on 11/8/2007]

Or in answering the creepy questioner who asked “Do you believe this book?” [holding up a King James Version of the Bible] on the CNN YouTube Debate on 11/28/2007 (See James McGrath’s post):

And as the only person here (probably) on the stage with a theology degree, there are parts of it I don’t fully comprehend and understand, but I’m not supposed to, because the Bible is the revelation of an infinite God and no finite person is ever going to fully understand it. If they do, their God is too small.

He made a few mistakes while answering the YouTube question, like calling the bit about “plucking out your eye” “allegorical” (perhaps it is hyperbole, but not allegory) and his mention of Matthew 25 is a particular interpretation of the text, an exegetically questionable one. But the second quote here is clearly a better use of his alleged “theology degree” than the former.

As it turns out, however, Mike Huckabee does not have a “theology degree.” He spent a year at Southwestern Theological Seminary and dropped out to go work for televangelist James Robison. Check out this bit in a NY Times interview Zev Chafets had with Huckabee:

If young Mike Huckabee was ever rebellious or difficult, there’s no record of it. He preached his first sermon as a teenager, married his high-school sweetheart and went off to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. There he majored in speech and communications, worked at a radio station and earned his B.A. in a little more than two years. He spent a year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex., before dropping out to work for the televangelist James Robison, who bought him his first decent wardrobe and showed him how to use television.

During this interview, Huckabee also made the faux pas of wondering aloud about Mormonism:

I asked Huckabee, who describes himself as the only Republican candidate with a degree in theology, if he considered Mormonism a cult or a religion. ‘‘I think it’s a religion,’’ he said. ‘‘I really don’t know much about it.’’

I was about to jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee surprised me with a question of his own: ‘‘Don’t Mormons,’’ he asked in an innocent voice, ‘‘believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?’’

A theology degree doesn’t have to make you an expert in comparative religion. There are a lot of foci to a theology degree. I’m focusing on New Testament studies and by the time I finish my Master of Divinity this summer, I will not have had a single course on Mormonism. On the other hand . . . neither does it make you an expert on “Islamofascism” (a scary term in the mouth of someone running as the most Christian candidate for president), which Huckabee claims to “understand really well” because he is the only one with a “theology degree.” Even if he had a degree in theology, he would not necessarily be qualified to “understand really well” Islamofascism. Huckabee claimed both a degree that he didn’t have and expertise that such a degree would not have given him.

Mike Huckabee responds to the ensuing fuss:

I have a bachelor of arts in religion and a minor in communications in my undergraduate work. And then I have 46 hours on a master’s degree at Southwestern Theology Seminary. So, my degree as a theological degree is at the college level and then 46 hours toward a masters — three years of study of New Testament Greek, and then the rest of it, all in Seminary was theological studies, but my degree was actually in religion.

Did he really major in religion? Or communication like the NY Times article says? Is Mike Huckabee making his “theology degree” claims sound better by telling the world he was a religion major instead of a communications major? Ouachita Baptist University (who named its school of education after him) says that Huckabee graduated in 1976 with a degree in “pastoral ministry”:

Governor Huckabee and his wife, Janet, entered Ouachita as freshmen in the fall of 1973. The couple married following their freshman year. The Governor graduated from Ouachita in 1976 with a degree in pastoral ministry.

“Religion” sounds better than “pastoral ministry” when you’re in politics, I guess. Well, this mess clearly shows that Huckabee has some problems showing himself in an accurate light. But further, I’m just a little perturbed with how he used a “theology degree” to gain him some traction with voters. People already make assumptions about what my theology degree means. This just makes it worse.

Update (1/08/08): See also Dwight’s reflections on the issue at Versus Populum.