Yesterday's New York Jewish Week published an article detailing Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's views on church-state issues. The candidate-- a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor-- generally opposes school voucher programs. As a strong supporter of public schools, he says that vouchers are often small so that they only empower affluent parents. However, he said, even if full tuition voucher were offered,: "Most of the people I know who have run religious schools do not want government vouchers for their religious schools, because they know that with government money comes control. The very reason they established their schools is to have an independence from that government control."
The paper also questioned Huckabee on a prior statement he made calling for taking the nation back for Christ. Responding to concerns Jews might have with the concept, Huckabee explained: "If you understand what that means, it means that if that were to happen, this is the Jesus who said 'love your neighbor as you love yourself.' What it means is that you wouldn't have children going hungry at night; you wouldn't have women having the daylights beat out of them by abusive, alcoholic husbands..... It doesn't mean everybody would go to the same church as I do and pay their tithe; it does mean there would be a civility, a stand against corruption."
