Gov. Mike Huckabee discusses his stance on marriage at Calvary Chapel

Mike Huckabee Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks not only hosted an important guest speaker at last Sunday's service, but added another musician to its band.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a onetime leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, took to the stage early to jam with the worship leaders, tapping his foot as he more than kept up on the electric guitar. Huckabee looked right at home sitting on a stool and smiling as the vocalists sang upbeat Christian songs.

When the music wrapped up, Huckabee spoke on the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.

"God has chosen marriage to be a picture of the church," Huckabee said. "If you went to the Louvre and saw the 'Mona Lisa' and thought, she looks better as a blonde, you have no right to paint over it. You have no right to touch a masterpiece. Who of us thinks ourselves so capable that we would take on the masterpiece of God?

"It's not mine to change. I have as much right to change that as I do to paint (over) the 'Mona Lisa.'"

Although he's against samesex marriage, Huckabee was careful to clarify his feelings.

"I may surprise you, but I'm not mad at anybody at the other side of this issue," Huckabee said. "I have friends and family who believe we should have same-sex options."

Huckabee said the most important reason to preserve the traditional definition of marriage is the sociological impact.

"Once we redefine it as a man and man or a woman and a woman, why not a man and several women? If we accommodate one person's lifestyle, we should accommodate all."

The idea of marriage goes back a long way, and altering it could be devastating, Huckabee said.

"The biblical concept of marriage is the foundation of every civilization," Huckabee said. "Even the most decadent of Greco-Roman culture, they never changed the design of marriage. They accommodated other options, but they never changed it.

"There's more at stake here than changing a law," he added. "We don't have the right to change the concept of marriage. When we redefine what life means, the basis of whether our civilization will rise or fall, we are on our way to destroying ourselves from within."

Huckabee mused at the fact that many say people like him aren't scientific enough.

"Two males can't reproduce and two females can't reproduce," Huckabee said. "When we redefine things like that, we have to ask, do we have the right to do it?

"Either we believe God created us or we created God—that's a decision we have come to," Huckabee said. "When we decide that we are the creator, we believe we have that right. It's not about changing laws. It's about changing lives."

Huckabee also gave advice on what marriage truly is.

"The mistake people make is that they have a different idea of what marriage is," Huckabee said. "The purpose is not for us to be happy. The purpose is to be holy. The purpose is for God to teach us how to love another like he loves us."

Laura Denton, who came to Calvary to hear Huckabee, said he was inspirational.

"He was able to explain what we feel in such a great way," Denton said. "And he's a great speaker—very funny. I really enjoyed him."

Former congressman Bob McEwen and Thousand Oaks City Councilmember Tom Glancy came to hear Huckabee. Senate candidate Tony Strickland and his wife, Assemblymember Audra Strickland, also attended the service.

McEwen called Huckabee "one of the finest men in the United States. A man God isn't finished with yet."