Character Makes A Difference

We Americans have just participated in a historic Presidential election. It was a heartily fought campaign with many issues on both sides. We voters had the responsibility of choosing from a number of candidates beginning with the Primary Elections. Only time will reveal whether the best one for the job was elected.

One way to help in our discernment when choosing candidates is to read material written by the candidates, themselves. I just finished one such book and wish I had done so earlier.

Character Makes a Difference by Mike Huckabee, was thoroughly informative and enjoyable. I already knew he seemed a cut above the rest, but after reading his short book (175 pages before an Appendix of Speeches); I saw that there are still men in places of authority that put a premium on Godly character.

Originally published as Character Is the Issue in 1997, the book enlightened me to some of Huckabee’s political background as a Baptist pastor and later as the governor of Arkansas. Of course, no man is perfect, and one may have some different views on some political issues but every Christian should heartily agree with Mr. Huckabee’s estimation that Godly character should play the primary role in how man conducts himself.

The best way to articulate this is to include some quotes from the book.

On the Ten Commandments:

“The law reveals the depth of God’s character, and it also reveals our lack of character. Laws are a giant mirror reflecting not only what is but projecting what ought to be, giving us the standard against which to compare our lives.” (pg 77)

On legalism and liberalism

“One of the few things I detest more than liberalism is legalism. I think both are cancers to the Christian faith-liberalism because it doesn’t believe anything, and legalism because it restricts us only to the things we can live up to. Liberalism makes God seem so commonplace that He becomes meaningless, while legalism makes God so small that He becomes insignificant. The negative aspect of a legalistic worldview is that you create what becomes your own Christian faith. It’s really a set of do’s and don’ts that allow someone to judge whether others are good people or good Christians. The problem is we’re always going to create a list we can live up to, which means we’re not living up to the standards of Jesus Christ.” (pg 84)

On the ultimate question for society:

“How did we move in one generation from a society with a shared, confident sense of right to a society of relativism and moral decay? If any force is going to overcome a free, prosperous country like America, it won’t happen all at one. America has a solid foundation of liberty, personal dignity, and opportunity… The only way to destroy something with that kind of foundation is to chip away at it, one value at a time. Take away its heart and essence. Bring doubt to what used to be a confidence, denial to what used to be faith, death to what was life. I think that is what has happened.” (pg 109)

I could go on and on but then no one would pick up the book and read it for themselves. Mr. Huckabee ends his book with a paragraph pertaining to a candle in the darkness. Paraphrasing, it states that a Christian’s spiritual light-a light of integrity, character and a God-centered world view-is just as invincible as a candle in a dark room. “We live in a dark spiritual age-all the more reason for you to hold your candle high and hold it out to others! The darker the world gets, the brighter your light will shine.

One never knows if the Huckabee name will be seen on a ballot in the future but I am encouraged to look for men with the same view of the importance of character as found in this excellent book.

To purchase this book, click here.