Mike Huckabee wants pastors to be more graphic about Christmas. The former Southern Baptist pastor says that the church has sanitized the holiday and should tell it like it happened. The former governor of Arkansas recently finished his 64-city book tour for his book A Simple Christmas, which was No. 5 on The New York Times bestseller list this week. Huckabee spoke with Christianity Today during his tour in mid-November about his book, the Middle East, and his future in the Republican Party.
You say the church has sanitized Christmas. As a former pastor, how do you think ministers can help their congregations better understand Christmas?
The best way is to be more graphic in the way they understand the humble, humiliating, and horrible circumstances under which Mary gave birth. This was not a neat, clean, quiet, peaceful, tranquil, serene setting where the Hallelujah Chorus was going off in the background.
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I would agree. We had one of the sweetest, kindest, most humble pastors I’ve ever known who uncharacteristicly gave an unsanitized version of the Christmas story one Christmas Eve, and some of the church pillars almost kicked him out of town. It was not well received by those who were expecting warm and fuzzy. I felt so bad for our pastor. He never saw it coming, he was only telling it like it was.
Great interview. We try not to miss Mike’s show. He has a lot to offer, and does not try to hide his Christian beliefs.