But presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governoer Mike Huckabee, himself a Baptist minister, actually told a crowd yesterday that "most" of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were "clergymen."
So how many of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were clergymen? Well, "most" would be at least 29, so I'd assume we're talking 35, 40 people. I mean, I'm sure Mike Huckabee wasn't exaggerating, right?
Only one of the 56 was an active clergyman, and that was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a Presbyterian minister and president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).
A few more of the signers were former clergymen, though it's a little unclear just how many. The conservative Heritage Foundation said two other signers were former clergymen. The religion web site Adherents.com said four signers of the declaration were current or former full-time preachers. But everyone agrees only Witherspoon was an active minister when he signed the Declaration of Independence.
Let's go easy on him. Mike's bad at math, and it's not really a surprise that he could confuse less than two percent with more than 51 percent. After all, the Huckster also thinks the universe is only 7,500 years old or so, when it's actually about 15 billion years old, so really, he's getting better with the math as time goes on.
