Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: Palin comparison, VI

Naturally I find Sarah Palin's mixing religion and politics odious. Whether it's believing that the War in Iraq is a task from God or that Alaska's young people should pray that "God's will" be done in constructing her preferred version of a natural gas pipeline or thinking that it's fine to teach Creationism in science class, this is a person who feels untroubled and confident about the rightness of her personal religious views. Moreover she believes in the literal interpretation of the bible. So naturally I find Sarah Palin's religion and politics odious. What's to like?

I don't care about her private beliefs: whether she is a Pentecostal or just her own version of a "generic Christian." That's none of my business -- until she makes it my business by injecting it into public policy, just as George Bush has done for the last eight years. What we have to show for it is a deeply divided country, a catastrophic war and an economy in shambles. If this was part of God's Plan, he needs a new staff. This Plan is the work of the devil.

Sarah Palin also believes in the actual power of prayer, i.e., that a person can pray to their God to make certain things happen. She's not the only one who believes prayer works. Quack pastors have gotten rich "healing" parishioners that way. And once you open that door, you open it to these guys, too (and why not?):

Antiabortion militant and all-round theocratic activist Jay Rogers of Florida, whose blog is called The Forerunner, writes:

Pray for John McCain's salvation and speedy death [quote now removed from the Forerunner site because it was "misunderstood" by atheist blogs, according to Rogers]

And then there is this guy, a self-described Christian Reconstructionist whose blog handle is Ixion, and is apparently from Tennessee:

May the LORD cause McCain/Palin to win the White House in 2008, and then smite the godless McCain in favor of Palin. Amen.
(from John McKay)

[see also this from Ixion:

McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, suddenly made me want to vote for him, as long as the LORD smites him while he's in office. She's consistently conservative on all the issues, and if she's good enough for The Forerunner, she's good enough for me. The Forerunner agrees with me that McCain must be smitten, as well, so I'm obviously not alone in my viewpoints. (from Talk2Action)

Naturally I find Sarah Palin's mixing religion and politics odious.

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Calling Poe's Law on that song. "Square" indeed. Going out for coffee; it made my head explode..

By baryogenesis (not verified) on 07 Sep 2008 #permalink

GOSH!

REVERE!!! HALLELULIA, THE LORD BE PRSAISED.

THANK YOU!.

Not to distract you from this excellent series on Gov Palin but the NYT has a very nice frontpage article today on the rush to judgment in the Bruce Ivins anthrax case. Thanks for keeping the light on this issue as well.

On www.charlierose.com, the latest of Charlie's Green Room shorts is 3 1/2 minutes of Sarah Palin. Asked about her favorite authors, she cited C.S. Lewis --- 'he's so deep' --- and a columnist for Runner's World --- 'he's dead now but I have his columns'. So, are we to live in Narnia and hope that new jogging shoes fall often from the heavens?

By Stillwaggon (not verified) on 07 Sep 2008 #permalink

There is an old saying "the proof is in the pudding". It is said that there will be more Christians in China soon than any other country in the world. A case could be made that God is blessing.

There are a lot of people that believe that the bible is the word of God. One thing that the bible says is that "a nation that is ruled by the poor is like the driving rain that washes everything away until there is nothing left".

How bout that housing implosion! Go Congress!