Jacques Berlinerblau, of “What’s Wrong with the Society of Biblical Literature?” fame, has a new book out called Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics. He has taken the opportunity to reflect the interests of this last book on the current race and has an excellent specimen in Mike Huckabee (I previously reflected about Huckabee and his “theology degree”). On his “The God Vote” column/blog at the On Faith website, Berlinerblau offers some brief, but good thoughts about Huckabee and conservative evangelical voters. Here’s a bit to get you started:
It seems doubtful, for example, that [Huckabee] will carry New Hampshire–if only because Evangelicals there do not comprise anywhere near the 38% of Republican voters that they do in Iowa. It is estimated that about 18% of the Republican electorate in New Hampshire is Evangelical (versus, incidentally, a whopping 53% in South Carolina).
It is for this reason that Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary is our friend, our teacher. It wants to help us answer a question and that question is: will Republicans and Independents with no particular investment in a biblical worldview (though with no particular disdain for it either) find something else about Huckabee that convinces them to vote for him?
