“I don’t know what’s truth and untruth in terms of the allegations against him, but I don’t regret all that we did,” said Lane. “He was fabulous. It’s just that, from a biblical standpoint, Old and New Testament, man is born in sin.”
Instead of Robinson, Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, whose daughter, Sarah, is now governor there, spoke to an overwhelmingly white and older crowd of about 200 church members and Republican Party operatives. Huckabee spoke on the twin issues Robinson liked to invoke, opposition to abortion and trans rights.
Former Baptist pastor and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks at an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)
“The issue is not how many weeks, it’s personhood, and personhood begins at conception,” Huckabee intoned. He then condemned teenagers asserting a different gender identity: “You’re not in the wrong body, because God put you in the body he gave you.”
Also speaking at the luncheon were two American Renewal Project stalwarts, both pastors: Bladen County Commissioner Cameron McGill and North Carolina state Rep. Neal Jackson of Randolph County.
Speaking to a reporter after the event, Jackson, who still serves as pastor of Beulah Baptist Church in Bennett, North Carolina, acknowledged that the allegations against Robinson are “serious and deplorable.”
David Lane and his wife, Cindy, bow their heads during an American Renewal Project pastor luncheon in Henderson, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)
“If they are true, then I am very saddened and greatly, greatly disappointed,” Jackson said. “But I think time will play out and truth will come out.”
In either case, Jackson added, he would not vote for Robinson’s Democratic challenger, Attorney General Josh Stein.
This article originally appeared here.
