Praise the Lord and pass the ballot box.
Sarah Palin may be “right with God.” But is she “right with America?” Talk about separation of church and state…I was just watching the accompanying video with my wife and she–both of us having been born and raised in New York–said: “Can you imagine a governor of New York saying these things?” Frankly, I can’t imagine a governor of any state saying such things, at least not as a sitting governor.
Things are different in Alaska perhaps because politically there is less at stake. But now that Palin seeks to move onto a national stage, it is precisely videos like this that will allow a national audience to determine whether she is fit to be elected.
Here are some of the choice quotations from the video that jumped out at me. In his introduction, controversial Pastor Ed Kalnins notes that when he first met Palin, she was the mayor of Wasilla:
When I got the chance to meet our mayor, I said: “This person loves Jesus. That’s the bottom line. She loves Jesus with everything she has. She’s a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ before she’s a mayor.”
After boasting that her 19 year-old son Track had enlisted in the military and was about to be deployed to Iraq, Palin preached:
“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.
Subsequently, she makes another boast about a $30 billion natural gas pipeline which she’s seeking to build from Alaska through Canada to the lower 48:
” I can work really, really hard to get a natural gas pipeline, a $30 billion project that’s going to create a lot of new jobs for Alaskans and will have a lot of energy flowing through here. And pray about that also. I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that.
She then lists the tasks she can do as governor to make the state a decent place to live. But she adds:
None of that is gonna do any good if the people’s heart isn’t right with God. We can work together to make sure that God’s will be done here in Alaska.
After watching this video, I can perfectly understand why evangelicals are overjoyed with her nomination. But I can’t understand why John McCain was as well. Did he not think that videos like this might disturb non-evangelicals, not to mention non-Christians of which, believe it or not, there are a few in this country?
Religiously, Sarah Palin is George Bush unbuttoned. The latter manages much of the time to disguise the evangelical passion of his political mission. Palin possesses the same zeal, but lays it on the line for all to see. There is no artifice, no subtlety. It’s all right there. So America, judge for yourself. If this woman is “right with you” to be vice president, then evangelical Christianity is even more frighteningly pervasive and powerful than I feared.
Frankly, candidates like Palin are the Jews’ worst nightmare. The sentiments she expresses are part of a vestigial memory we internalize about what intolerance and bigotry sounds like. We know it when we hear it. And we hear it here. Not perhaps, in full-bore anti-Semitic mode. But we know when we’re not wanted and as non-believers we’re not wanted in Sarah Palin’s theocratic world view.
We are a minority who in a way, lives on the kindness of strangers, to quote Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire. In the words of this candidate there can be no kindness for Jews, except as instruments of some Hagee-like plan to wreak destruction and redemption on the world.
John McCain till now had the highest poll ratings of a Republican presidential candidate in a long time (around 32%). No longer. With Palin on his ticket he can kiss much of that Jewish vote goodbye. Sure, he’ll still retain 15-20% of the hardcore true believers. But forget the rest. As Ben Smith writes about an e mail he received from the Republican Jewish Coalition touting Palin as a friend of Israel because her office has an Israeli flag on the wall:
…The fact that this tiny image [of an Israeli flag on her office wall] is the best the official voice of Republican Jewry has to defend Palin is a mark that McCain may have just helped solve Obama’s Jewish problem.
Thank you for noticing that she basically said, as Governor of Alaska, that non-Christians weren’t welcome and/or would have to convert in order for anything worthwhile to be accomplished.
This sort of line is something out of the 19th century – and while even President Lincoln invoked the Almighty, he had the decency to acknowledge that the Civil War came about, in no small part, because of each side’s conviction that God’s will was being done.
Actually, Jews like you are the Jews’ worst nightmare.
@Bixby: If you are a Jew, I’m happy to be your nightmare. If you’re not, why would you have the unmitigated chutzpah to speak on behalf of any of us?
Palin is a Christian, speaking ia Church, presumabely to other Christians. She wasn’t speaking in a school. Seperation of Church and State doesn’t mean that the governor has to stop believing in Jesus.
Speak for yourself. Many Jews are quite comfortable with Christians.
Which sentiments. I listened to the clip and could’t find any.
This is a very harsh accusation. Can you back it up somehow?
Which words exactly? What are you talking about? I must have missed something.
I’m hearing it from you. Against Christians.
@amir: I didn’t say she has to stop believing in Jesus. But she has to stop claiming that her commitment to Jesus supercedes her commitment to her elected office (as her pastor said on her behalf). She has to stop claiming that her political views & projects are somehow endorsed by God.
I’m quite comfortable w. most Christians. But most Jews (unlike you) are quite uncomfortable with Bible-thumping evangelicals of this variety. If you’re not uncomfortable w. these views check out the Jews for Jesus sermon (covered by Ben Smith at Politico) delivered w. Palins in attendance which blamed terror against Israelis for Jews not accepting Jesus. Still comfortable w. Palins’ brand of Christianity??
I’m really comfortable w. yr support for Palin & evangelicals because it only goes to show how out of touch you are with the typical American Jew’s perspective on these issues.
It bothers you that Palin’s Church invited the leader of Jews for Jesus to speak and Palin was there? But it doesn’t bother you that Obama’s reverand gave an award to Farrakhan?
It’s true that I may differ with “typical American Jews”. I never claimed to be one.
And I never said I supported Palin, there are many disturbing things about her, like that her oldest son has tatoos and she brags about it. That would probably turn off more New York Jewish voters than her belief in Jesus. I was reacting by what I saw as an unjustified and unsubstantiated attack by you on her religious beliefs and that they imply anti-semitism or xenophobia.
And frankly, “bible thumping” in a church doesn’t seem so wrong to me.
@amir: Hell yes, if she’s running for VP it bothers me that she was there while a shyster Christian missionary said Israelis deserved to be murdered because they didn’t accept Jesus. Doesn’t that bother you?
As for Wright, you may not recall that he severed his ties w. Wright. I’m waiting for Palin to sever her ties w. her Church.
I know you’re trying to be funny about the tatoos in that feeble way you have, but minimizing the offense that Jews will take in all this news doesn’t do yr political perspective any favors.
G_D HELP US!!!!!
Being punished for ones transgressions is hardly an idea that originated in Palin’s church. New York Jews call it karma.
As I recall you defended Obama not cutting off Wright, before he did.
@amir: Yes, I defended Obama’s relationship to his church until his pastor went on the rampage at the National Press Club. Then it was clear to everyone that he had to do disassociate himself, which he did.
Apparently, not enough people know just how loony tunes her church is–YET. But just as with Pastor Hagee, they WILL know eventually. And it will not go well with her when they do.
Let’s see if I can get a word in here between postings by Richard Silverstein and amir.
If McCain is elected, then dies in office (I’m in my 70s too – I could go at any time – he’s no different), then Sarah Palin will be our next president.
Hold that thought ..
It is EVERYBODY’S worst nightmare, including the fundamentalist Christians, whether they know it or not, to have a president who believes that sending our troops to Iraq, or to ANY country for that matter, is a task from God.
Consistency of message is really the key to the Republican victory…
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=184086
I’m starting to feel more positive about a Repub victory.
Think about it…all the decisions we have to make in life – what to eat, what to wear, where to live, where to work, who to live with, whether or not to have children, what to watch or read, who to be friends with,…
whew.
It makes me tired just thinking about it.
Now…under a theocracy we wouldn’t have to make all those decisions. They’d be made for us. Maybe not so bad.
Sarah Palin does have a rather large supporter base. Its hilarious when some of them are interviewed and cannot explain why they support her. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/palin-supporters-struggle_n_367800.html