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Faith, Not Politics

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee spoke at Swift Creek Baptist Church on Sunday night, but his message – about faith, not politics – was not what many expected two days before Virginia's primary elections.

"I want to be really clear tonight: I'm not here as a candidate. I'm not here to advocate for candidacy for or against anyone," he said.

"If you came to hear a political message tonight, I'm going to really disappoint you. …We are here not to think about who I am, but who Christ is."

The former Arkansas governor, who is trailing Arizona Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination, read eight verses from the Bible – Philippians 2:1-8.

As more than 1,500 people listened, Huckabee discussed his Christian faith and values, explaining what he said it means to be person of greatness.

"Greatness is not somebody who has his picture in the paper," said Huckabee, who has been featured in many newspapers himself.

"Greatness is when you're willing to put your life out for somebody else and you ask nothing in return. Jesus laid his life down, and he asks nothing in return, other than we would live our lives as he would."

Huckabee said lives should be marked by efforts to exemplify Jesus Christ's character: humility and selflessness and to serve others. Today's culture, Huckabee said, does not honor this type of life, and does not understand humility.

"Humility is a very misunderstood word. Some people think humility is to run yourself down all the time; that is not humility," Huckabee said. "To be like Christ is not to see yourself better than you are, worse than you are – it is to see yourself in honest terms of who you are, as you are, loved by him, accepted by him with all of your flaws but working on them every day. That is to be like Jesus."

Huckabee reminded attendees of the greatest challenge of life and how to overcome it.

"The greatest challenge of our lives is that feeling that you don't measure up," he said. "The greatest moment of liberation in our personal lives is when we begin accept who we are, as we are, and know who we are in Christ."

Ronnie Brown , senior pastor of Swift Creek Baptist Church, said the event drew people from the community because of Huckabee's name. Yet, Brown said the event was planned specifically to not focus on Huckabee, but instead as on God in a worship service.

Brown said Huckabee "didn't even come in to the service until after it had started … he didn't want to distract from our worship time. We tried really hard to make it just that."

But Brown said the evening was significant because Swift Creek is a Southern Baptist congregation and Huckabee's background involves not only his time as governor, but his former positions as a Southern Baptist pastor in Arkansas as well.

"It was an exciting time," Brown said of the evening. He added that this is "an event you don't hear very much about. Most presidential candidates don't preach. ... We were all blessed by it."

Huckabee concluded his 40-minute speech with a challenge followed by a prayer.

"When somebody says, 'Oh that person is a great Christian,' I want to know: What are they sacrificing? Who are they serving? In what ways do they exhibit selflessness and unselfish behavior?" Huckabee said. "Because being a great Christian is not being able to say things; it is having it lived out."

Bethany Emerson is a reporter for Capital News Service.