Huckabee preaches to the choir from Va. pulpits

MIDLOTHIAN

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee drew a sharp distinction between his careers as a minister and a politician Sunday night as he addressed an overflow crowd of the faithful at Swift Creek Baptist Church.

"I'm not here as a candidate," Huckabee announced when he took the pulpit. "I'm not here to advocate for or against anyone except Jesus. He's the only one I'll campaign for tonight."

And with the flair of a Baptist minister - which he is and was long before serving 10 years as Arkansas governor and becoming a presidential hopeful - Huckabee unloaded a 45-minute sermon that could have been titled: "How to be like Jesus."

Huckabee, running a distant second to Arizona Sen. John McCain for the GOP presidential nomination, earlier in the day received a rousing reception at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.

There, too, he eschewed political talk from the pulpit. He picked up a bass guitar and joined in playing "I'll Fly Away."

Perhaps there was no need to give campaign speeches. The packed congregations at both socially conservative churches seemed well aware of Huckabee's evangelical roots and his campaign commercials identifying him in bright letters as "Christian."

Senior Pastor Ronnie Brown drove those points home in his introduction of Huckabee to the Swift Creek congregation.

"He is an advocate of marriage in the true, biblical sense," Brown said. "He is an advocate of life."

A poll late last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. showed McCain with a 2-to-1 lead over Huckabee in Virginia. Huckabee's best chance for closing in may be a strong turnout of conservative Christian voters at Tuesday's primary.

McCain has feuded with Virginian evangelical leaders, calling Falwell and Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach "agents of intolerance" during his unsuccessful bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000.

McCain has sought to mend fences and even spoke at the 2006 graduation of the Falwell-founded Liberty University. But he is still widely criticized by evangelicals for his 2000 remarks and his opposition to a ban on gay marriage.

Although Huckabee declined to talk politics from the pulpit, he didn't take the whole Sunday off from earthly concerns. After the service in Lynchburg, he met with reporters and said his stands on immigration and the war in Iraq are more conservative than those of McCain. He disregarded polls.

"We think we're going to win in Virginia," he said.

Today, Huckabee is scheduled to campaign across Virginia, with events scheduled in Virginia Beach, Richmond, Roanoke and Weyers Cave in the western part of the state.

From the pulpit at Swift Creek Baptist Church, Huckabee acknowledged that some people are troubled by his roles as minister and politician. He recalled a woman in Arkansas who was so outraged that she told him: "I wouldn't vote for you if you were St. Peter."

Huckabee said he replied, "Lady, if I was St. Peter, you wouldn't be in my district."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Warren Fiske, (804) 697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com