Same country, different worlds

John Podhoretz read that front-page New York Times article about Sarah Palin's church, and finds it to be "an act of secular aggression against a believing Christian." You have to read his blog entry on it. Excerpt:

One sentence [from the Times article -- RD] reads: 'Mr. Kroon (pronounced krone), a soft-spoken, bearded Alaska native, said he was convinced that the Bible is the Word of God, and that the task of believers is to ponder and analyze the book for meaning -- including scrutiny, he said, for errors and mistranslations over the centuries that may have obscured the original intent."

The actual inclusion of this sentence in a major newspaper is an indication of the distance of secular America from religious America. Need it actually be noted that a member of the clergy believes the "Bible is the Word of God, and that the task of believers is to ponder and analyze the book for meaning"? That is what all believers, Christian and Jew, think (though Jews don't think it of the New Testament).

More:

She believes in the power of prayer! Imagine that! What a Yahoo! What does it matter if prayer and its efficacy stand at the center of all religious practice and belief? Every Sabbath, in synagogues worldwide, a prayer for the sick is spoken. It's called a "mishabeirach," and it is the custom either for congregants to stand up and speak the name of the ill person they wish to pray for or to speak the name in the rabbi's ear and have him recite it. Do we do this because we don't believe in the power of prayer?

There should be nothing exceptional to anyone in this country at this date about a politician who is also a believing Christian and who therefore thinks she owes her ascension to office to the role of the divine. What Palin said wasn't even notable; it was what might be called Christian boilerplate.

What is the political effect of this kind of thing likely to be? Read the whole thing. I don't think I would go so far as to call this story "an act of secular aggression," but I do think that reporters and anybody else who thinks stories like this are going to hurt Palin are badly mistaken. In fact, insofar as Evangelicals interpret this kind of coverage as hostile, it's going to help her, and deal a serious blow to Obama's outreach to Christian moderates.