Huckabee: I Have Gay Friends But I’ll Oppose Gay Marriage Until I See ‘New Version’ Of Bible

FILE - This Aug. 9, 2014, file photo shows Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as he speaks during The Family Leadership Summit, in Ames, Iowa. Conservatives should “stop the fight” over Common Core and instead co... FILE - This Aug. 9, 2014, file photo shows Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as he speaks during The Family Leadership Summit, in Ames, Iowa. Conservatives should “stop the fight” over Common Core and instead consider the benefits that the academic standards offer students in struggling schools, Huckabee said. The position puts him at odds with a significant bloc of Republicans. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File) MORE LESS
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This post has been updated.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Sunday tried to reconcile his acceptance of gay friends and his fierce opposition to same sex marriage ahead of a potential run for president in 2016.

On “State of the Union,” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Huckabee about a chapter in his book, “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy,” in which the former governor wrote about his relationships with gay friends.

“I don’t shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don’t drink alcohol, but gosh, a lot of my friends — maybe most of them — do. I don’t use profanity, but believe me I’ve got a lot of friends who do. Some people really like classical music and ballet and opera. It’s not my cup of tea.” Huckabee said on CNN. “I hope the party doesn’t change its overall view, but the very fact that I talk about relationships I have with friends who are gay, indicate that I’m not a person who shuts everybody out around me who disagrees.”

Huckabee said that for him, same sex marriage is a religious issue.

“This is not just a political issue. It is a biblical issue. And as a biblical issue, unless I get a new version of the scriptures, it’s really not my place to say, ‘Okay, I’m just going to evolve.’ It’s like asking somebody who’s Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped-shrimp in their deli. … or asking a Muslim to serve up something that is offensive to him or to have dogs in his backyard,” he said. “We’re so sensitive to make sure we don’t offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can’t have the convictions that they’ve had for over 2,000 years.”

The former governor also affirmed his view that the Supreme Court cannot change states’ laws on gay marriage.

“We don’t change law because some people in a black robe just decide they don’t like the fact that 70, in some cases 80 percent, of a state’s population have affirmed natural law marriage,” he said.

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  1. How about looking at the old versions of the Constitution ans Declaration of Independence? You know that parts about equality and about no state being able to deny it’s citizens equal protection under the law?

  2. This guy is talking himself completely out of relevance.

  3. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    It’s like asking somebody who’s Jewish to start serving bacon-wrapped-shrimp in their deli

    No, Mike, this window into your hungry but sad soul is another example of your execrable understanding of people and this religion you claim to defend.
    People are not menu items else your leadership would have thinned Arkansas’ population.
    And, Jesus wasn’t a myopic Pharisee according the Bible you must not have read, FYI.

  4. Avatar for anniew anniew says:

    No, just like his repeal Obamacare ads he ran, he’s talking himself into $10 donations from frightened elderly people. It adds up.

    A grifter has to grift.

  5. Sorry, Mike, but your “Some of my best friends are gay” shtick doesn’t wash. No one is telling you what you have to do, so afford them the same courtesy. Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t marry a gay man. But don’t presume that because you believe in some Bronze Age deity, every one else has to follow your rules…

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