Politician? Or Minister of the Gospel?

According to this AP story, when asked if he thinks only Christians will go to heaven, Mike Huckabee "refused to say."

Hmmm. One would think that would be a pretty important question for a minister to answer. Unbelievers need to be told in no uncertain terms that Christ is the only path to heaven, that "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Why would a Christian minister "refuse to say" that?

I can understand, of course, why a politician would refuse to say that. A politician can't afford to alienate too many potential voters. But is Huck a politician or a minister?

The problem is, Huck's trying to have his low-fat cake and eat it too. "If Huckabee is called to public service (a legitimate and noble calling), then he should resign his office as minister," author and pastor Kim Riddlebarger notes. "That would clarify things greatly. In effect, Huckabee should do what the minister in the movie The Patriot did when he took up arms against the Tories -- he took off his clerical collar before going to war."