In response to my post about the Oliphant cartoon mocking Palin for speaking in tongues, reader "price of liberty" makes two points worthy of discussion:
"We have a double standard: Its ok to make fun of the religion of Obama(or the fact that someone doesn't believe him), but its not ok to make fun of Sarah because she might be pentacostal."
Exactly. Anyone who defended Obama from the attacks on the sincerity of his faith (as I did), has an equal obligation to defend Palin from this cartoon.
"Some Christians like my self feel that some pentacostals are not telling the truth about there Glossolalia experiences and are not of the holy spirit. Sometimes I feel like those that believe they spoke in tongues are mocking us when they describe it, and get upset when sane people want to test the spirits to see if it was indeed from God."
It's impossible to know about the absolute genuineness of someone's speaking in tongues experience -- just as it's impossible to know whether a Christian is faking when he describes being saved, or a Catholic is faking when they claims to believe in transubstantiation, etc. In interpersonal relations, it's an easy call: just assume they're telling the truth and go about your business. Most religious believers, I feel, are sincere in their descriptions of their own spiritual experiences. And those who aren't -- well, they'll get their ultimate rewards eventually. I have better things to do than hunt out the frauds.
But politics admittedly poses a dilemma: we're supposed to be sniffing out fakery in our politicians, in general. And the more the candidates offer their faith as a political asset, the more tempting it is to apply traditional modes of scrutiny.
My view, though, is that faith is simply in a different category -- that we need to give politicians the benefit of the doubt about their personal faith experiences, at least until they try to impose it on other people. And unless I missed something, Sarah Palin has not tried to force the rest of us to speak in tongues. For the same reason -- i.e. we don't really know the sincerity of a politician's faith -- we shouldn't make that a major factor in our vote.
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Where on earth did you get this psudo-scientific mumbo jumbo about how the brain works? All the gifts of the spirit are mentioned in the Bible, so are you an atheist with a remarkable understanding of the human brain? Ridiculous. You really don't know the first thing about Speaking in tongues or Prophecy in the Penecostal Religion, or you would know that the ones who speak in tongues do only that and another person with the gift of prophesy interprets it. The only thing insane here is your take on it.
As an Alaskan and a christian, believe me when I now say Alaskans are in shock of John McCain's appointment of our Govenor Sarah Palin to the Whitehouse. She is clearly unqualified. We are excited to be a part of a LOST state in America that's gone Hollywood but we are strong and committed to how our great state is being governed. We are doing all we can to get the "troopergate" situation resolved. Palin has only been a member of her church for 6 years. The little Assembly of God church she attends has to lock it's doors to keep news reporters out now. Folks can not even worship there on Sundays in peace. My brother is a Penecostal preacher and sometimes I went to hear him speak. Many seemed to be "talking in tounges" during the 7 hour long service. Once I went to my Episcopal pastor and asked what he thinks. He had said he could talk in tongues too. Also a former Nun in my hometown said she was blessed with this gift also. As for me, I would only believe it to be true if it actually did happen to me... Keep the faith all!!!
-susan47
Brain misfiring while speaking in tongues? Insanity? And you know this how? Please don't judge things of a spiritual dimension that you apparently know nothing about. Your life doesn't depend on Sarah Palin. The very breath you breathe depends on God.
Who knows whether Sarah speaks in tongues or not? Personally I don't care. I do know that her stands on abortion, and stem cell research and the questions I have of her qualifications means this pagan isn't voting McCain/Palin.
I agree that the cartoonist most likely would come under a lot more scrutiny if he attacked Islam or Judaism. For some reason attacking pentecostalism is so much more entertaining to some people. Either way, our nation is developing a double standard that says, "Please no religion in politics" but praises politicians who claim to have no religion at all, Islam (and this is not directed at Obama, I am in no way stating he is of the Muslim faith, to do so would be ignorant), or some other religion. If our government is to exclude Christianity, then it should exclude Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. As a Christian, I first found the cartoon to be offensive, but then I just felt sorry for the guy because not only did he alienate his readers and offend them, he showed his complete lack of understanding of Christianity, pentecostalism, speaking in tongues, and so on. It astonishes me the ignorance displayed by the media in our culture that claims to be so forward thinking.
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