JACKSON, Tenn. — Oct. 8, 2014 — Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spoke about personal morality and the value of Christian education at Union University鈥檚 17th annual Scholarship Banquet Oct. 7 at the Carl Perkins Civic Center.
Huckabee said he was delighted to assist Union because he graduated from another Southern Baptist liberal arts college, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.
As the first male in his family to attend college, Huckabee was dependent on scholarships.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have a trust fund,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll I could do was trust God to help me fund it, and that was my trust fund.鈥�
Huckabee also worked full time as a disc jockey at local radio station, studying while the records played. His hard-earned education has paid off, he said.
鈥淪tudents who go to a school like Union University will have an education that will put them on par with students who go to any Ivy League university in America,鈥� Huckabee said, citing his personal experience debating Harvard Law graduates.
Union students will have an additional advantage over their secular peers, Huckabee said: 鈥淎 person is far better off if they are prepared not only in their minds but in their spirits . . . We鈥檙e living in an age where people have utterly rejected God鈥檚 truth and are proud of it.鈥�
Huckabee said students need to be able to defend their faith in an increasingly secular world, a skill Union will give them.
A former Southern Baptist pastor, Huckabee also stressed the importance of personal morality.
鈥淭he best government we will ever have . . . is when we are governed by people who understand that the best government is self-government: people who govern themselves according to their conscience and the law,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 country built on the idea of personal liberty cannot survive without an equal emphasis on personal responsibility and personal morality. The reason why government is so big is because people鈥檚 morality has gotten so small.鈥�
Huckabee said the cost of putting a person in jail for a year exceeds the cost of putting him or her through four years of college, complete with room and board, books and spending money. He also said a high school teacher with a basic college degree would contribute $250,000 of value to the state during his or her lifetime, while a frequent guest of the prison system would cost the state $1.5 million.
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have morality, we can鈥檛 afford the economics of immorality, and that鈥檚 why righteousness will save a nation and unrighteousness will kill it,鈥� Huckabee said.
The antidote to this unrighteousness, Huckabee said, is to raise up a generation of skilled Christian youth who can defend their convictions and are willing to suffer for them.
鈥淲e need to get back to an understanding that some things are right and some things are wrong,鈥� Huckabee said, 鈥渘ot because we voted on them, but because God established them in his Word.鈥�
The annual Scholarship Banquet has become one of the premiere events in West Tennessee each year, and is Union鈥檚 primary fundraising event for its student scholarship fund. Previous speakers have included George H.W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Condoleezza Rice, Ben Carson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Laura Bush, Tony Blair and Robert Gates.
