We are however to examine the evidences of Christianity in the life of someone as prominent as a Sarah Palin who rising so meteorically to the public forum, claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and doing so with the ambition of leading the still most powerful nation on earth. I for one, believe it's my responsibility as a Christian and Citizen who will vote in our Presidential election to answer the question for my own conscience's sake.
Currently, Sarah Palin enjoys a significant degree of power with respect to communicating her ideas, sensibilities, values, thoughts regarding the state of our nation and the direction we should be going. As a Christian, I know that such public prominence and access is certainly the will of a sovereign God. I have not however concluded that that alone is in anyway His endorsement of her as a Presidential candidate or signals in anyway His desire that it will indeed come to pass that she occupy that office.
The thing is, I'm asking myself- what is she doing with such a privilege? I personally have never heard anything close to a Gospel reference from Sarah Palin in all the multitude of words she's uttered in front of the world's press corps. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!) Has she pointed out that Christ is the one true God? In a world in which Islam is not only increasingly tolerated as it marches onward seeking to conquer us all in the name of Allah, but is actually aided in so doing by our own public policies (those established by a truly tolerant Judeo-Christian political history), I'm aware that to boldly proclaim the exclusive claim(s) of Christ to deity would be controversial (and perhaps devastating to her political aspirations) but what are disciples of Christ called to do if not to courageously communicate the Gospel.
Are politicians who claim to be Christian exempt from this call upon their lives? Are they blessed in "walking the fine line" wherein they can rise to public office, in this case the presidency, but do so in a manner as not to offend (i.e. lose potential votes)? The last time I looked, the Gospel is an offense, and always will be. There is no way to communicate the need to repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of those same sins without offending people. He was crucified in large part because of the offense he was to his own people. As long as this world persists, men will sin and the good news of Christ will always be an offense.
One of things I really appreciated about the late Reverend Jerry Falwell was that every time I saw him make a national television appearance he gave a Gospel message or at least extolled the need for Christ. Sure, one can argue that he was a Pastor and Evangelist so that was his job, and Sarah Palin isn't so she can't be measured by the same rule, and I would heartily disagree with the conclusion. I for one am disappointed with Sarah Palin's public profession of Jesus Christ (or more precisely the lack thereof). Avoiding controversy and the likely loss of votes is not an acceptable motivation for not having a witness when Palin has been granted such access to a virtual loudspeaker into America's homes.
Still others will say that having and being a Christian witness is more than just speaking (or preaching) the message of the Gospel- it's living it. To which I would say I can agree that it is "more than" just a verbal exercise but not that it is an "either or" prospect. We cannot opt to trade a verbal witness to the truth of the Gospel for a "witness" which comes from our life's walk with God and the decisions we make in seeking to live a life that is glorifying to God. The truth is that God's desire in having us live a godly life is to prompt people to ask "Why is that person living so differently than most of the rest of the world?" or "How does that person have such evident joy in the midst of hardships?" thereby opening up the opportunity for an actual verbal conversation about Christ and the Gospel.
But can we say that Sarah Palin lives such a life? What about her life is so overwhelmingly Christian? I grant that knowing you will have a child with birth-defects (in Palin's case Down's Syndrome) and proceeding and accepting the situation with an apparent joy is an admirable thing, but have we so lowered the bar of what a Christian witness is that we are basically saying that to decide not abort your child after considering it, if even briefly, is the litmus test?
What about the myriad other life choices Palin has made thus far? Is it fair to test them against Scripture? I think so. There are many Christians that have a hard time processing the countless other decisions such an ambitious life has required Sarah Palin to make for the last decade. Actually I think its fair to consider that one does not simply wake up to such an ambitious life but it's precisely the record of the decisions we willfully make that gets us there. We cannot ignore that the fruit of such ambition is a life lived almost entirely outside the home. Is that really the tone of what Scripture would have us believe to be the calling of God upon the heart of a godly woman, a godly mother of many young children?
From what I understand her husband, who is also ostensibly a Christian, can provide sufficiently for an ample life. The Palin family would certainly not enjoy all the material abundance and the lifestyle they currently live if it weren't for what Sarah provides but what Christian family cannot say the same thing if men making adequate incomes all sent their wives out to work outside the home to add additional material things into the home or to provide those extra things that only more money can purchase like more frequent or lavish vacations, eating out more often, more luxuries, etc.?
While we're on the topic of the Palin family's support is it fair to question the wisdom of employment decisions that have required, for the majority of their 22 years of married life, that Todd Palin work a job that requires weeks if not months of time spent away from home? Could this man not find any other job? Countless men have made the decision to make less money in order to be home every night and perform an active role in the upbringing of their children. It's probably (sadly) taboo to consider that Scripture warns that such time spent apart for married people can lead to no insignificant temptation to infidelity.
Consider the following excerpts from a response posted by "Utah Mom" to What kind of Christian is Sarah Palin? an article on Beliefnet.com by Rod Dreher :
"I was personally amazed when Palin first came out with her speech. I thought, “Wow, this woman really has it together”. After the initial affair with the buzz created, I began thinking a little more rational and then watched events unfold.
It was soon clear that it is almost impossible to really juggle an enormous work responsibility with kids. Was I a working mom? YES. Fortunately I could work hours that didn’t have much conflict with being there. As I did want to teach my kids about morality as preteens and teens, I knew that teaching, role playing and talking about the issues was only one step. The next step was to be there.
I am told that studies tell us that most teenage pregnancies occur between the hours of 4pm and 6pm. I don’t need studies to tell me the thinking behind this. Whether there is actually a study out there that actually states this, I don’t really know. But, it doesn’t take rocket science to understand that opportunity exists in a home after school and before parents come through the door from work. [A clear reference to the under-aged unwed pregnancy of her daughter.]
I believe kids want to come in the door and yell, “mom”. And have someone within the walls yell, “I’m here”. In the best of worlds, I believe this is an ideal time to catch up on your kids day... what better time to really find out what is going on with them, with school, with peers, with teachers. Sometimes, well you don’t get a second chance to find out the important things.
Was I 100% there everyday? No I wasn’t. There were occasions. But they were unpredictable. I’m grateful that because the majority of the time I was there, good habits were created for after school activities. Did I leave them vulnerable during those infrequent absences? Of course I did. But, inside I feel like overall the decision to be around was a good one. My kids are all grown and out of the house. Now my career has a little more priority. But, it takes a back seat to still being a parent...
The pleasures of family (are)... Immeasurable.
Back to the initial statement. So many heartbreaking things have happened in the Palin family. A lot of residual hurt exists. Life could have been different with different choices.
It puzzles me how the diehard Christians would support this type of role model. It seems sort of double standardish. Do you get my drift?"
Like "Utah Mom" I confess that I have not done everything perfectly, far from it; but being perfect in every decision isn't the point. We're also not running for office and thereby exposing our lives to the requisite scrutiny such office-seeking warrants. The point is rather that Sarah Palin is indeed interested in the presidency and enjoys the spotlight for being one of the highest profile politicians in this nation, and yet the wholesale impression I get of her life as I know it does not strike me as even a mediocre example of a Christian or of being the helpmate to her husband and mother to a Christian family.
In fact Sarah Palin, in a recent Barbara Walter's Interview said of her husband: "He (Todd) is my helpmate!" Now that was a head-scratching statment. I really have to question how she (especially knowing the religious right is watching her) could even utter words like that, but the Bible does teach that out of the abundance of [what] the heart [thinks]--- the mouth speaks. Or perhaps she really is ignorant regarding what Scripture teaches on the subject, or (an even more upsetting thought) does she just reject it and want to turn it on its head?
In a recent NewsMax magazine Special Report edition Palin was featured on the cover for an article entitled "The Newer Feminism" subtitled "21 Women Who Are Redefining Womanhood". Is this really the candidate we as Christian's should be putting our support behind? It's an old adage that when anything becomes definable as an "ism" it's probably gone to far. I personally am not comfortable with a professing Christian woman who is now being identified as a major contributor to a "Newer" Feminism.
The Feminist movement has been and still is a terribly destructive force in this nation and even within the culture and recent history of the Evangelical church in this country. It has no peer in contributing to the disintegration of the traditional healthy family. Many families, specifically children have been ruined or profoundly affected negatively by the many effects of Feminism which has had as its main motivation the goal to gain for women at least on an equal footing with men in all things if not to excel or even dominate men and the areas of life men have traditionally occupied. Remember the effect of the fall upon Eve was that she (and her daughters thenceforth) would seek to have the mastery (rule) over her husband.
Feminism has now sold at least two generations of American women the empty promise that having the career will bring ultimate happiness. That breaking the glass ceiling will deliver the highest form of fulfillment but only until the eventual layoff or the sad day when that woman who bought the lie wakes up to find herself alone and childless but perhaps with the proverbial gold watch to commemorate a life devoted to big business. I doubt that will be of any comfort to her in her old age.
Is it my place as a Christian to support a female political candidate, who professes Christianity but who can only succeed by asserting herself as rigorously as any male counterpart, spend the majority of her time outside the home away from her young family of four (one child being of special needs) and having the dubious honor of being identified by even conservative media publishers as "redefining" womanhood rather than exemplifying it? I don't think so.
Logging you in...