Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Libery Council, offers this reply to David Kuo’s recent posts Huckabee and the evangelical mullahs and the Mullah’s problem:

Such unchristian, harsh and hostile language from David Kuo! In describing “Dobson, Land, Perkins, Bauer, etc.” in such demeaning and unflattering terms as “increasingly old, tottering, out of touch, self-appointed evangelical mullahs,” Kuo may reveal more about his own unresolved hostilities and conflicts than he does about the status of the modern Evangelical movement.
First, in the interest of accuracy, Jim Dobson (born in 1936), Tony Perkins (born in 1963), and Gary Bauer and myself (both born in 1946, the same year as Presidents Clinton and Bush), regularly appear in public “without Geritol” and give every appearance of being actively involved both in the Evangelical movement and public policy for years to come (no doubt to the consternation and disappointment of Mr. Kuo).
As for these Evangelical leaders being out of touch and with decreasing influence, who does Mr. Kuo think hosted the Values Voters Summit which prompted nearly 3,000 evangelical activists from across the nation to come to Washington – Tony Perkins and his organization? It appears to me that David Kuo’s comment that a “new generation of evangelicals” have never heard of these leaders is the profound wish becoming the father of the inaccurate thought. If these leaders have no influence, then why attack them?
And, by the way, isn’t this the same David Kuo who called on Evangelicals to take a hiatus or sabbatical from political involvement? Why, yes it is! Make up your mind, David. Are you in the process or out this election cycle? Why are you so concerned about Mike Huckabee and whether or not Evangelical leaders support him?
I know of no comment from any of the Evangelical leaders Kuo mentions that could be taken as a criticism of Governor Huckabee, whom I have known for more than 20 years, consider a personal friend, and think would be a perfectly acceptable candidate for ANY public office. My advice to David Kuo would be if you really like Mike Huckabee, quit saying nice things about him because your endorsement would harm him more than it would help. If I were running for office, heaven forbid, and you endorsed me, David, I would be terribly depressed.