A Palin Religious Round-Up

In advance of Thursday's debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin here is a round up of all the posts we have had about Sarah Palin since she came on the scene only a month ago. (Seems like forever doesn't it?) Here are a collection of some of the most remarkable religious voices in America including: Steve Waldman, Diana Butler Bass, Paul Raushenbush, Lisa Sharon Harper, Omid Safi, Randall Balmer, Eric Sapp, Welton Gaddy, Leonard Fein, Brian McLaren, Mara Vanderslice and Renita Weems.   Knowledge is power:

Palin's Religion - What's Scary, What's not - by Steve Waldman

Those on the left, or merely those who aren't evangelical Christians, are struggling to make sense of the religious life of Sarah Palin. To many, she seems a frightening harbinger of a fundamentalist takeover. Saturday's New York Times piece about Palin's deep faith and Bible-focused church will be chewed over for evidence of her extremism. Conservatives, meanwhile, will seize on the scrutiny -- including liberal overreactions -- as evidence that the left and the mainstream media are anti-Christian.  Read more...

The Apocalypse Rears its Head - by Diana Butler Bass

With media attention directed toward the largest economic story in recent American history, other stories are falling by the way.  One of the most interesting--and surely least understood--is the story of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's religious faith.

As a mainline Protestant whose faith values pluralism, I confess that I have been reluctant to blog on Ms. Palin's religion or to make that an issue.  But a small turn of phrase in her Katie Couric interview has given me pause and underscored the importance of Ms. Palin's theology in relationship to her politics. Read more...

 The Jewish Vote - A Backlash Against Christians? - by Paul Raushenbush

Should or shouldn't Jews vote for John McCain?  What effect does his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate (apparently instead of Joe Lieberman) whose religious world view is frightening and repellent to most Jewish voters have on their decision?  This is the subject of on-line discussions that have caught fire recently.  Read more...

Palin: The Religious Right's American Idol - by Lisa Sharon Harper

If the Republican Convention was American Idol and Palin's speech was a rock ballad, Palin would be preparing for next week's big sing-off right about now.

But this is NOT a reality TV show.  This is reality; the future of our country, arguably the future of the world hangs in the balance. Read more...

Palin Hears Voices - by Omid Safi

Religious conviction is a delicate matter.    Many of the greatest reformers this world has ever known, Christ, Moses, and Muhammad, not to mention more recent figures like Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu, all heard God's voice, pushing them along, affirming them, inspiring them, and lifting them up in moments of doubt and exhaustion.   Religious conviction can be a beautiful thing, illuminating one's path in a dark night of the soul, providing a sense of purpose and mission.

This type of religious conviction can also be a tricky, not to say terrifying, matter.   Many who claim to hear God's voice then move to speaking for God, with no pause to allow for a moment of humility.    My own question about religious reformers who claim to hear the voice of God or speak for God is always fairly simple:  how deep is your love, and whom do you serve?   In other words, is your conviction rooted in love, and is it directed to the uplifting of all of God's children, or does it uplift some at the expense of others?   This is what causes me concern about some of what I heard from Governor Sarah Palin so far.  Read more...

Praying for Pipeline - by Randall Balmer

Some years ago, Melissa Fay Greene wrote a book about the rural South entitled Praying for Sheetrock. If Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, ever published an autobiography, she might consider calling it Praying for Pipeline.

It appears that God has a keen interest in the building of a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline in the forty-ninth state. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built," the Alaska governor said. "So pray for that."  Read more...

Lay off Palin - Please!  By Eric Sapp

An election does not go by without someone paraphrasing Will Roger's famous quotation about not being a part of an organized Party because we are Democrats.  Well, as Democrats, we may not be organized, but we sure are predictable...and we have walked--nay, sprinted--right into the trap Republicans laid for us with the Palin nomination. The glee with which liberal bloggers, Democratic pundits, and the media latched on to the fact that Palin's inexperience makes her less qualified to be President than Obama--as if doing so would somehow undermine the GOP attack on Obama as inexperienced--is mind-boggling.  Read more...

Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech

The Matthew 25 Network released the following statement today in response to Governor Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC Convention.  In the coming days we will be seeking thousands of signatures onto this statement from Christians leaders and individuals around the country. Read more...

Democracy, Not Theocracy, by Welton Gaddy

In her speech last night, Governor Palin missed a golden opportunity to explain how her religious beliefs would influence her policy priorities in the White House. This is a conversation that all of our political candidates should have with the American people, but it is particularly important one for Governor Palin given her alarming theocratic rhetoric that has been revealed this week.  Read more... 

An Ironic Night at the RNC, by Brian McLaren

There were four highly ironic moments for me last night, watching the RNC on television.

First, Rudy Giuliani seemed to side with down-to-earth, rural, moral, family-friendly middle America against the urban, educated, gay-friendly, divorcing East Coast elite - and neither he nor the crowd seemed to notice the irony. At least Sarah Palin - with her pit-bull-in-lipstick line - didn't pretend to be something she wasn't.   Read more...

The Jewish Perspective, by Leonard Fine

"A grand slam home run," the commentators agreed.  More like a foul -- a very foul -- ball to me.

The subject is, of course, Sarah Palin, whose not-yet week-old candidacy for Vice President of the United States has sucked up so much oxygen these last days.  The reflections that follow were composed on day two of that candidacy -- before we learned of the truncated vetting process, before we learned of the daughter's non-abstinence, before we learned, as we did in her maiden speech last night, just how sloganeeringly mean-spirited she can be, this pit bull with lipstick.  Read more...

Plenty of Punches, but no Policies, by Renita Weems

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/09/plenty-of-punches-but-no-polic.html

Congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin for proving last night that she came honestly by her high school nickname "Barracuda.". She certainly carried forward the McCain strategy of mockery, ridicule, sarcasm and disrespect. Sarah Palin showed that there is at least one aspect of the Vice President role on the campaign trail she can do well, and that is play the role of attack dog.  McCain's campaign spokesperson Rick Davis said yesterday that this campaign isn't going to be about issues. They intend this to be about personality, not the issues. And that's what she did. Aimed primary at Barack Obama. Palin delivered the red meat for the audience at the RNC convention last night.

No policy however. Plenty of punches, however.  Read more...

Disappointed in Palin's Speech, by Mara Vanderslice

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/09/disappointed-in-palins-speech.html

As a woman and as a Christian- I came away deeply disappointed by the speech Sarah Palin gave tonight in front of the RNC Convention.

At a time in our country's history when we have a chance to address the most important moral issues of our time, reviving our economy, fighting global poverty and disease, ending the war in Iraq and addressing climate change, Sarah Palin delivered one of the most cynical and sarcastic speeches we have heard yet from a national political figure this year.  Read more...

And because you have to laugh: