A Very UnChristian Discussion

Dear Brave Reader,

Bare with me, I sat through the entire two-hour-and-forty-three-minute interview between Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee because people were praising it. Tucker seemed to get a lot of applause for the way he drew Huckabee into admitting certain points of view about Israel and American foreign policy. Max Blumenthal even paid him the complement of doing a better job than most journalists. That’s not what I saw.

What I saw was verbal ping pong — two “good old boy Christians” talking about Israel, America, destiny, and scripture while the human cost hovered somewhere off-screen.

Carlson pressed for America First. Huckabee defended Israel. They quoted the Bible. They spoke about land and covenant and national strength. Every now and then Carlson would say he opposed “killing children.” Every now and then Huckabee would push back. Carlson would guffaw, “I have no problem with Israel,” and reassure everyone he supported the President.

It felt like a badly choreographed dance. Safe. Self-protective.

What I found so unsettling was that the whole conversation had this Christian thread running throughout it. Yet the spiritual heart of Christianity was largely absent. There was no “blessed are the peacemakers” or “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren , you do unto me”, or sermon on the mount. No. Instead, Carlson lamented that the United States was no longer “his country,” that it had become something unrecognizable, something diminished. As if it had been taken from him.

I didn’t realize America belonged to Tucker.

Aside from Indigenous nations who were on the land long before European arrival — and enslaved Africans who were brought to the US against their will — America is a country of immigrants. The Statue of Liberty reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Now that definitely sounds more Christian to me. But religion aside, America belongs to anyone who becomes American. It does not belong to one man, one tribe, or one demographic. It never did.

Then there is Huckabee.

A former Southern Baptist pastor, now ambassador, speaking about biblical adherence and covenant promises while aligning seamlessly with Israeli state power. He speaks of annihilation directed at Israel — chants of “from the river to the sea” framed as existential threats — while dismissing or minimizing the catastrophic scale of devastation unfolding in Gaza and on Gaza. I would say he actually did his best to not talk about Gaza at all, except to point fingers at Hamas.

If you are going to use the language of annihilation like Huckabee did, you must apply moral scrutiny consistently. And when defending a nation born from persecution you would think he would understand the the cost of dehumanization - but that was missing. And Huckabee’s faith, centered on a crucified savior should be sensitive to state violence….but that was definitely lacking.

And I heard statements that were simply not credible from Huckabee. He accused the Palestinian journalists who had been killed (260 no less - a staggering amount) by the IDF, of being Hamas fighters, he said the same thing of UNRWA, he said there had been over a 1000 suicide bombers in Jerusalem (when?), he said he did not know anything about the Epstein files, or that there were allegations of Epstein being connected to Israel and Mossad. How convenient for him.

Lying seems very unchristian to me. Its an intentional manipulation of our trust in order to persuade us of a falsehood. I don’t think Christ would be okay with that, do you?

I am not a Christian, however much I might respect Christ and his words and intentions. I’m probably more of a humanist and Daoist with a splash of Witch. I believe in the human spirit. I believe in the soul and in Love, the Universe and this planet. I believe in moral coherence. And I know hypocrisy when I see it.

Faith, when tethered to empire, always seems to mutate. It stops asking, “Who is suffering?” and instead focuses on “who is sovereign?”, something Huckabee and Carlson both seem obsessed with. And I am so tired of watching powerful men speak with total certainty about borders and destiny while the vulnerable remain secondary and barely mentioned.

These did not seem like men of faith to me. The certainly loved being part of the Christian brand, but hearing them go on about it - I would have no idea what actual spiritual leanings they had - no matter how many times they said the word “Christian”, as if that actually meant something these days. It is quite obvious that Huckabee believes in the Rapture prophecy, and one can tell he is quite excited about that. I wonder what Christianity truly means to him and I mean in a spiritual sense, what lies within his spirit? Perhaps he should touch base with that and pull his head out of a certain book.

I am not denying Jewish history, or trauma or identity here by going after Huckabee’s seemingly blind support for Israel and its policies. But ancient or even recent history cannot override present humanity. Recognizing one people’s attachment to land does not require erasing another’s lived presence. A moral framework capable of honoring Jewish self-determination must also be capable of protecting Palestinian civilian life. Or it means nothing and stands for nothing.

If Christianity means loving your neighbor, then neighbor cannot stop at the checkpoint. If Christianity means welcoming the stranger, it cannot be invoked only when convenient. If Christianity is a representation of Christ’s love - how can it sit comfortably beside airstrikes, starvation and displacement….

I found the conversation to be self serving and patriarchal. And I found their Christian claims to be a lot more about branding than questioning power (which Christ did) or caring about the suffering. It was a very unchristian discussion if you ask me.