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	Huckabee Won't Be Coming to Preach The GOP Candidate Said He Never Committed to the Jacksonville Church By Jeff Brumley Florida Times-Union January 25, 2008 http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012508/met_240040965.shtml Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will not be preaching Sunday at Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville. That much is for sure. What's not so clear is why. The folks at Huckabee's Little Rock campaign office said Thursday they never agreed to the appearance in the first place, contradicting the church's Wednesday announcement that the Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor would deliver the sermon at its 6 p.m. service. "That's surprising," Trinity spokesman Daniel Riddick said. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests - SNAP - said Thursday night that Huckabee got cold feet after learning of a sex-abuse scandal at the church involving a former minister. "There may be no Baptist congregation in the country that would be a more troubling place for any public figure to appear than this one," said David Clohessy, the network's national director. Trinity's former pastor, the Rev. Robert Gray, was arrested in May 2006 and charged with multiple counts of molesting children as much as three decades ago. By the time he died in December 2007, he faced criminal trial for capital sexual battery and Trinity faced civil suits from some of Gray's victims. So the network sent a letter via fax and e-mail to Huckabee's campaign Thursday, urging that he not appear at Trinity because claims in lawsuits allege church leadership knew of Gray's abuses and covered them up. The church has consistently denied accusations that its leaders knew of or covered up accusations against Gray. Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said she couldn't confirm the campaign received the network's letter Thursday. "We never confirmed to speak at that church," Stewart added from Little Rock. In a statement e-mailed to the Times-Union Thursday night, pastor Tom Messer said Huckabee's visit had been confirmed by the candidate's Florida and national offices, verbally and in written form. "But we do understand the governor's hectic schedule does change frequently," Messer said in the e-mail. Messer also disputed Clohessy's claim that the network was the first to inform Huckabee's staff about the Gray case, because the church had already done that. Contact: jeff.brumley@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4310
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