Mike Huckabee says in a new ad that hell’s fire awaits and suggests that a vote for President Barack Obama on Nov. 6 will not stand up to the flames.
The former Arkansas governor and ordained Southern Baptist minister warns Christians that their votes “will affect the future and be recorded in eternity” and they must cast a ballot that will “stand the test of fire.” The video, entitled “Test of Fire,” features symbolic fiery imagery and is narrated by Huckabee.
“Christians across the nation will have an opportunity to shape the future for our generation and generations to come,” the ad says. “Many issues are at stake, but some issues are not negotiable: The right to life from conception to natural death. Marriage should be reinforced, not redefined. It is an egregious violation of our cherished principle of religious liberty for the government to force the church to buy the kind of insurance that leads to the taking of innocent human life.
Your vote will affect the future and be recorded in eternity. Will you vote the values that will stand the test of fire? This is Mike Huckabee asking you to join me November the 6th and vote based on values that will stand the test of fire.”
The “Test of Fire” ad is connected to Value Voters USA, an organization of Christian and nondenominational citizens who believe it’s important to vote based on life, family and faith this November, according to Politico.
Huckabee, a former Republican presidential candidate, does not mention Republican challenger Mitt Romney by name in the ad, but he has publicly endorsed the former Massachusetts governor. His conservative views on marriage, abortion and contraception mandates did not sit well with some.
“Mike Huckabee has a new ad out chastising Christians to set aside their concerns about jobs, the economy and taxes to focus on what really matters: the government’s power to interfere with the private lives of strangers,” quipped Slate’s Amanda Marcotte.
“In other words, anybody who doesn’t vote against the healthcare of women and family security of same-sex couples is going to Hell,” wrote Think Progress reporter Zack Ford.
Huckabee has been an avid opponent of same-sex marriage and joined ranks with Chick-fil-A after the company’s chief executive Dan Cathy publicly supported the “biblical definition” of a family unit. In 2008, Huckabee pushed to “amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”
