Former Arkansas governor, Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day founder, and Fox News pundit Mike Huckabee again reminded his supporters that he's not homophobic -- even though he doesn't support the freedom to marry or nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people.
"I'm not against anybody, I'm really not," Huckabee told the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition yesterday. "I'm not a hater. I'm not homophobic. I honestly don't care what people do personally in their individual lives. ... But ... when people say, 'Why don't you just kind of get on the right side of history?' I said, 'You've got to understand, this for me is not about the right side or the wrong side of history, this is the right side of the Bible, and unless God rewrites it, edits it, sends it down with his signature on it, it's not my book to change.' Folks, that's why I stand where I stand."
His response garnered enthusiastic applause from the conservative audience.
Later in his speech, Huckabee lambasted the Supreme Court -- labeling the nation's highest judicial body "the Extreme Court" -- for declining to review the Elane Photography v. Willock case, wherein a New Mexico photographer refused to photograph the wedding of a same-sex couple. When lower courts declared that Elane Photography, as a business which serves the public, was ordered to abide by New Mexico's Human Rights Act, the photography outlet appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court, claiming that the religious freedom and artistic expression of the photographer was being unfairly constrained by state law. By refusing to hear the case last week, the Supreme Court essentially affirmed the lower cours rulings, which found in favor of the same-sex couple who had been unlawfully denied services.
But that isn't how Huckabee explained the case to the crowd Tuesday.
"This week the 'Extreme Court' decided it would not hear that case, which basically says that if you are a Christian believer, and you just do not feel that it is in your artistic interest or within your artistic capacity to do photos of a same-sex wedding, then the government will force you to do it," said Huckabee. "OK, let me ask the government a question: If I go to a Muslim artist and ask the Muslim artist to paint me a picture of Mohammed, will the government stand behind me and force that artist to paint me a picture of Mohammed? Yes or no in this country? The answer is no."
"So I'm asking this, why is it that Christians stand back and take it in the teeth time and time and time again?" asked Huckabee. "But we cannot change this country if we don't rise up and at least vote. And vote with an informed mind and a committed spirit, and if we're not willing to stand alone."
Watch CNN's video of Huckabee's comments below.
