Republican
presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee apologized to Mitt Romney
on Wednesday for saying, ''Don't Mormons believe that Jesus
and the devil are brothers?''
Republican
presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee apologized to Mitt Romney
on Wednesday for saying, ''Don't Mormons believe that Jesus
and the devil are brothers?''
An ordained
Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee asked the question in an
article to be published Sunday in The New York
Times, which released his quote Tuesday. Romney retorted
that ''attacking someone's religion is really going
too far.''
Huckabee
apologized Wednesday, saying he had asked an innocent
question during a lengthy conversation and was shocked
to see it taken out of context.
''I was horrified
when I read that, and I apologized to Mitt Romney,
because first of all, I don't think that his being a Mormon
or not being a Mormon has a thing to do with his being
president.'' Huckabee said his discussion with the
reporter, Zev Chafets, lasted several hours. ''He was
saying, 'But there are some different things about
Mormonism.' He obviously knew more about it than I
did. In the course of that conversation, honestly, I
raised the question. But no one believed it was an
innocent question; they thought I was trying to throw
something out there,'' he added.
Huckabee said
Romney responded graciously to his apology, which he
offered after a Republican presidential debate in Des
Moines.
''I just wanted
to make sure that he heard directly from me, face to
face, eyeball to eyeball, that I truly was sorry that that
had come out,'' he said. ''And it looked like I had
taken some shot at his faith, and I absolutely do not,
and I would not do that, and I apologized, because I
felt like I owed him that.''
The Times
reported Huckabee's comments this way: ''I asked
Huckabee, who describes himself as the only Republican
candidate with a degree in theology, if he considered
Mormonism a cult or a religion. 'I think it's a
religion,' he said. 'I really don't know much about
it.'
''I was about to
jot down this piece of boilerplate when Huckabee
surprised me with a question of his own: 'Don't Mormons,' he
asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and
the devil are brothers?'''
A spokeswoman for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kim
Farah, said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those
who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify
doctrine. She said Mormons believe God is the father
of all. Romney, asked earlier Wednesday if he thought
Huckabee was speaking in coded language to evangelical
Christians who support him, praised his rival as a
''good man trying to do the best he can,'' adding, ''I
don't believe that the people of this country are
going to choose a person based on their faith and what
church they go to.''
Romney is vying
to become the first Mormon elected president. Huckabee
has been surging in recent public opinion polls, taking the
GOP lead in Iowa and pressing closer to front-runner
Rudy Giuliani in national polling. (Amy
Lorentzen, AP)
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