There was a great story on NPR this evening about Huckabee’s rhetorical allusions to biblical stories (as he continues to run as the most Christian candidate). The story was put together by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, who interviews Stephen Prothero especially concerning the fact that so many people don’t understand what Huckabee is talking about. The story is fantastic to listen to, just to hear the responses people give, trying to guess what Huckabee means by things like “the widow’s mite has more effectiveness than all the gold in the world” or “one small smooth stone is even more effective than a whole lot of armor.”
It would be great to listen to in a classroom setting on biblical studies. The NPR page has the story in text as well as audio. [James at Old in the New also took note of the story and gives some analysis.]
Update (2/11/08): Did you hear Huckabee say this weekend that he didn’t major in math, he majored in miracles? Ugh.
Wouldn’t that be cool? Assigning an NPR story for homework? Or, even better, requiring students to listen to the speeches themselves and do an analysis on the use of scriptural themes? That could be a fun (and lively) conversation in a classroom setting, for sure!
Amen, Matt. I think multimedia should be incorporated as much as possible, particularly to seek out the use of the Bible in public discourse. These are just dusty texts nor are they solely constrained to the “daily devo” but their interpretation has enormous impact in our culture.
I heard that story and found it sadly very amusing.
Sounds like you’re not much on Huckabee’s rhetoric. I love his quips like the “majoring in miracles” one. The thing is, he believes what he says, but doesn’t take himself so seriously. I can’t fathom he’ll get elected, but I like having him participate in the public debate.
Thanks, Pistol. My sense is that, yes, Huckabee believes it, but that he’s also exploiting it at the same time, because his rhetoric works with the evangelical voters. Moreover, the rhetoric is infused with theology and mixing theology and politics in that way (especially in an attempt to get elected) inevitably corrupts theology. It has disturbing implications for foreign policy–we already have enough trouble looking like we’re fighting a Christian war against Islam. And Huckabee has made troubling statements about “Islamofacism” of which he considers himself an expert since he has theological training.
The language is problematic on so many levels.