Friday, September 05, 2008

God Save Us from Palin

When John McCain picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate, I thought he had lost it. It was obviously a desperate attempt to reinvigorate his floundering campaign. Some compared it to a Hail Mary pass in football. The play almost never works, but when it does, it could be a game changer.

Whether or not McCain’s Hail Mary will work still remains to be seen. It has certainly reenergized the Republican base of evangelical Christians, who were always lukewarm to McCain himself. But if he’s hoping to win over women voters who backed Clinton, the ploy may backfire. Clinton supporters are smart enough to see through it.

Regardless of the reasons he picked Palin, the possibility that McCain’s campaign might actually have a shot at victory has me worried. Although vice-presidents typically hold very little power of their own, they at least have the ear of the president. And if something happened to McCain while serving, Palin would actually become the president. That should be enough to make anyone nervous.

This woman is spooky. She scares me half to death, not because she’s a bulldog or because she speaks her mind or because she may be a maverick. Those things I can deal with. It’s her ideology that scares me.

George W. Bush has been the worst president in our history, and that’s not just my opinion, but the opinion of professional historians who know all about American history. But Palin might just be farther to the right than he is. Consider some of the things she has said just since she has been Governor of Alaska.

She told ministry students from a church school that troops were sent to Iraq “on a task that is from God.”

And that’s not all. She claims to be doing God’s will in governing Alaska, particularly in building a natural gas pipeline. “God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said.

In talking about building roads and buying new police cars, she invoked the will of God and told people it couldn’t happen unless they prayed for it. “But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God,” Palin said.

Now, obviously, these words and her sentiment might please the bible thumpers. But they should frighten everyone else, including mainstream Christians. Here we have a woman who wants to be a heartbeat away from an aging president and who believes that her policy decisions on everything from the economy to energy and foreign policy have been mandated by God.

Palin told the ministry students that she would work to implement God’s will from the governor’s office. And God’s will was to build gas pipelines and to send young Americans to fight the war in Iraq. And she called on all Alaskans to pray for God’s will to be implemented. “That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan,” she said.

That brings forth an obvious question. How does she know what God’s will is? And if it really is God’s will, why do we have to pray for it to be implemented? We are in Iraq because of Bush’s perception of what God’s will is. Now Palin wants to carry on God’s will at the side of McCain for the next four years.

Not since the Divine Right of kings back in the Middle Ages has a leader given over governance of a country to his narrow view of what God wants. Bush has done that, and Palin wants to continue his legacy, bringing our country even closer to a theocracy.

Never mind the Constitution or separation of church and state or freedom of religion. Never mind that we are supposed to have freedom of choice in this country. We don’t now and really never did, but we have far less freedom of choice under Bush than we did under previous presidents and we will have even less with McCain and Palin.

Personal freedom is very important to me. We, as Americans, ought to have the private right to do whatever we want, as long as it does not infringe upon others’ rights to do the same thing. But with Bush, and with McCain and Palin, we will have the personal freedoms only to do what they believe is God’s will. Seems we may be coming full circle to the days when the king knew best, because he obtained that knowledge from the Almighty.

May God help us.

4 comments:

Beatty said...

I totally agree with everything you've stated in this week's blog.

Anonymous said...

I just listened to your podcast about Palin and wanted to say that I agree 100%. I can't figure out what has happened in the last few years to empower the religious nuts to take control of this country. One thing we can do about it is to speak up, as you have. Thanks.

Honestas Optima said...

Hi,

I landed on your blog looking for the amount of caffeine in hot chocolate.

This post would be more useful if provided citations to the Palin quotations. The quotations shown in context would be even better.

Did you know that when Palin was interviewed on ABC, her responses were edited, to evoke the response you exhibit. ABC played answers that didn't match the question being asked. You can read the edited-out portions in bold at this link...

Palin's "mission from god" statement is taken out of context and distorted. Palin prayed that the mission in Iraq would be in accordance with God's will. The quote in context *expresses her uncertainty*, not her certainty, that what was happening was actually in God's will. It is common for Christians to pray that God will be at work in their life, becuase we are accountable to God for everything we say and do.

Mission From God In Context

Now, do you think that ABC's and the AP's treatment of Sarah Palin vs. Barak Obama is objective and balanced? Or, is there a prevailing anti-republican candidate bias in the media? Is your treatment of Sarah Palin objective and balanced? Or, do you have an anti-Republican candidate bias? You don't need to answer.

I'm just wondering if you are an intellectually honest person. I will stick around for a while and read your posts, to find out.

Cheers!

Jerry Wilson said...

In answer to Honestas, this is an opinion blog. It is totally biased. That's kind of what an opinion is by definition. I don't like Sarah Palin and I took her comments to mean what I said. If I'm wrong, and she meant them another way, well then I misinterpreted. But either way, I still don't like Palin because she is an evangelical Christian and I don't trust evangelical Christians to run this country fairly for everyone.