Mike Huckabee: "take this nation back for Christ"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/74472/output/print

The man he is now trailing in Iowa is smooth on the campaign circuit, appealing to conservative Christians without alienating other kinds of voters. How long this will last is an open question. Huckabee the front runner is only now beginning to face new scrutiny. A speech he gave in 1998 is likely to come up again. Addressing Southern Baptist pastors gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center, Huckabee, then governor of Arkansas, said that he "got into politics because I knew government didn't have the real answers, that real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into our lives … I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."

More detailed coverage at the time it happened is here:

http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/jonesboro/afhuckabee08.asp

Side note:  Many will remember that this 1998 meeting of Baptists in Salt Lake City where Huckabee spoke had the intent of proselytizing Mormons to become "Born Again"

That Huckabee, as a Political figure (governor at the time) would participate in a convention in Utah with such anti-Mormon messaging may tell us where he really stands on Mormonism.

More coverage of the convention here.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1998/06/06/MN78538.DTL

http://www.baptiststandard.com/1998/5_6/pages/sbc_groups.html

http://cnview.com/news_service/cnv_may_1998.htm
Two religions are colliding in Salt Lake City. More than 10,000 Southern Baptists are invading the Mormon stronghold during their annual convention June 9-11. The meeting takes place in the Salt Palace Convention Center, across the street from the Mormon Temple.

...The convention is almost secondary to what is going on around it. Baptists are evangelizing the city with an extensive campaign before and after the meeting. Some 3,000 Baptists are canvassing 140,000 homes door-to-door in 18 neighborhoods. (Excerpts from Religion News Today)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E3D7163DF937A25755C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

http://www.shields-research.org/Critics/SBC.html

http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RIN%20Vol.1No.2/salt_lake.htm