Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Utah Sen. John Curtis questioned Mike Huckabee about his views on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- Huckabee expressed respect for the church's commitment to family and moral values.
- Curtis invited Huckabee to visit BYU's Jerusalem Center, praising its significance.
WASHINGTON — At a Senate confirmation hearing for Mike Huckabee, nominated by President Donald Trump as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, Utah Sen. John Curtis spoke about his time in Israel while he was a student at Brigham Young University, and asked Huckabee to clarify his feelings toward The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Huckabee's nomination comes as the war continues to rage between Israel and Hamas, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants brutally attacked Israel. Fighting in Gaza resumed earlier this month after a two-month ceasefire deal fell apart. For the ceasefire to continue, Israel is demanding the immediate release of live and dead hostages held by Hamas and that Hamas lay down its weapons of war, which Hamas will not agree to.
Thousands of people have died in the conflict, and thousands more have been displaced from their homes in Gaza.
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and GOP presidential candidate, has expressed his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During his Senate testimony on Tuesday, Huckabee, who is also an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, praised the Abraham Accords, historic peace agreements signed between Israel and several other Middle Eastern countries during Trump's first term in office, and he also said he supported Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
"The challenges facing Israel and the United States in this part of the world are enormous," he said. "The ongoing war and situation with hostages, including American citizens, makes this assignment urgent."
Curtis: Utah has a 'special relationship with Israel'
During his opportunity to question Huckabee, Curtis asked him to clarify his feelings about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Huckabee spoke critically about the church when he was running against former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney in the 2008 Republican primary, but later apologized.
Curtis spent six months in Israel as part of a BYU study abroad program in 1979, before the school's Jerusalem Center was built.
"Utah has a very special relationship with Israel," he told Huckabee. "I like to tease my friends with ties to Israel that until I was 18, I thought I grew up in Zion in Utah. We have Zion Park, we have a Jordan River. There's lots of ties. One of those ties is Brigham Young University, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that has a campus there."
Curtis then asked Huckabee about his feelings about the church.
"It's clear that Utah, that myself, Brigham Young University, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has this tie. And I don't need to go into the past, but this might be a good opportunity to send a message to Utah about how you feel about our dominant faith, and I just didn't know if you would have me carry anything back to Utahns," Curtis said.
Huckabee said he appreciated "the question and the opportunity."
"The respect that I have for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is extraordinary because I respect very much the commitment to family, to moral righteousness, to a sense of right and wrong. It's part of what has drawn me to an understanding that Israel, in many ways, is a reflection of our own heritage and history," Huckabee said.
He continued, "It is the Judeo-Christian law that there is a right and that there is a wrong, upon which all of Western civilization is built, but certainly our system of government. There is no country across the globe that more mirrors our own struggle and our own level of democracy than does the state of Israel. And it's one of the reasons that it is a natural ally.
"The spiritual connections between your church, mine, many churches in America, Jewish congregations, to the state of Israel is because we ultimately are people of the book. We believe the Bible, and therefore, that connection is not geopolitical. It is also spiritual. And to ignore that, to deny that, would make it very difficult for us to ever understand how to go forward in a relationship with them."
Curtis thanked Huckabee for his comments.
"I will certainly carry that message back to Utah, and I agree. I can't imagine doing what I'm doing now without that spiritual opportunity that I had to understand both Arab, Jew, and Christian in that period of my life," he said. "Brigham Young University has a center over there. It's on the Mount of Olives. I would like to invite you to meet there on the campus as you get your feet underneath you. And if you're OK, I'll help broker that agreement. I think they'd love to have you there and see what they're doing there in Jerusalem."
Huckabee said he has been to BYU's Jerusalem Center and said it was a "beautiful, beautiful facility on the Mount of Olives and has one of the most spectacular views of the old city in all of Israel."
Curtis said he would make sure there was an organ recital for Huckabee's next visit.
