I told myself yesterday that it was time to take a break from commenting on the media’s sustained and disgusting attacks on Sarah Palin’s character. I said to myself, “they’re threatened by her because she’s a woman who has achieved great success while raising a wonderful family, and she did it outside of the liberal feminist model. America knows better than to buy any of the garbage that the networks are shamefully dishing up, they’ll get fed up with it soon enough.” And I still believe that. I still think that this race won’t see any significant developments until the debates. But then I read this brief bit of “journalistic” tripe on MSNBC’s website by Michael Levine today and I just lost it. Not only was it insulting to Sarah Palin, but it was insulting to me personally. And it should insult any American who has any sort of faith at all, and who believes that our nation is fundamentally good, a driving force for freedom and enlightenment in a world of turmoil. The article can be found here, but I’ve included one of the most offensive excerpts below (and believe me, it was hard to choose). Levine’s words speak for themselves:“As questions have been raised over how thoroughly Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign vetted Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot, it seems the McCain campaign was unaware of a video -- available online -- in which Palin talks about God's role in U.S. military action overseas, according to a political operative familiar with the situation.
The video, first reported by the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com, is from a June Palin speech to the graduating class of commission students at Palin's former church in Wasilla, Alaska. While describing her family, Palin told students about her oldest son, 19-year-old Track, who is set to be deployed to Iraq this month with the U.S. Army. She urged students to pray ‘that our leaders -- that our national leaders -- are sending [soldiers] out on a task that is from God.’
She added, ‘That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for: that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan.’
“It's pretty uncomfortable stuff,” said the political operative, after watching the video online. ‘It's bad. It's really bad. … It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.’”
While these statements may be offensive to this “political operative” (whose words are a dead give-away that he’s a liberal political operative), anyone who has worshipped in a church of any stripe across this country would not only find them to be commonplace, but heartening. And there’s nothing threatening about that. To pray for our leaders in times of great national distress? To pray that America follows a righteous path, especially as our men and women in uniform go to war? Having worked and lived among liberals most of my adult life, I find it easy to believe that they would find these words shocking and uncomfortable. But that’s because they’re completely out of touch with average Americans who peacefully practice their faith each and every day, and aren’t hurting anyone. But there are liberals who equate religious Americans with Islamic fundamentalists, and feel that they are two sides of the same coin. And then they bend over backwards to defend a pastor who tells his congregation not to pray for America's leaders, but rather declares those leaders the overseers of a fundamentally evil slave society and shouts to raucous applause “God Damn America!”
The news media is taking this hit campaign against Sarah Palin too far, and I sincerely hope that they keep it up. Because if the rest of America sees attack pieces like this one and feels as insulted and furious as I do, the outcry against them will be deafening. Liberal disdain for American values is on parade for all to see, their arrogant and hateful ideology stands naked before us. I would hope that conservatives seize this opportunity as a teaching moment and drive the point home. I want to see this article front and center and in the faces of every American. If this is the best that the left can muster against Governor Palin (and I can assure you that they're pulling out all the stops), then I say bring it on.
While these statements may be offensive to this “political operative” (whose words are a dead give-away that he’s a liberal political operative), anyone who has worshipped in a church of any stripe across this country would not only find them to be commonplace, but heartening. And there’s nothing threatening about that. To pray for our leaders in times of great national distress? To pray that America follows a righteous path, especially as our men and women in uniform go to war? Having worked and lived among liberals most of my adult life, I find it easy to believe that they would find these words shocking and uncomfortable. But that’s because they’re completely out of touch with average Americans who peacefully practice their faith each and every day, and aren’t hurting anyone. But there are liberals who equate religious Americans with Islamic fundamentalists, and feel that they are two sides of the same coin. And then they bend over backwards to defend a pastor who tells his congregation not to pray for America's leaders, but rather declares those leaders the overseers of a fundamentally evil slave society and shouts to raucous applause “God Damn America!”
The news media is taking this hit campaign against Sarah Palin too far, and I sincerely hope that they keep it up. Because if the rest of America sees attack pieces like this one and feels as insulted and furious as I do, the outcry against them will be deafening. Liberal disdain for American values is on parade for all to see, their arrogant and hateful ideology stands naked before us. I would hope that conservatives seize this opportunity as a teaching moment and drive the point home. I want to see this article front and center and in the faces of every American. If this is the best that the left can muster against Governor Palin (and I can assure you that they're pulling out all the stops), then I say bring it on.
Posts
5 comments:
A) I am hardly liberal, but also see fundamental Islam and fundamental Vhristianity as being two sides of the same coin - both very very dangerous, but one subversive, and the other merely destructive. This is aside the point.
B, and more to the point) It is telling how vicious and yet unfocused the attacks on Sarah Palin have been. The fact is, she is virtually spotless, and if her record is examined, she is far more a constitutional republican than a christian conservative, whatever her personal views may be.
The fact is that the media is offended and horrified that a relative unknown person with great integrity and no apparent ulterior motives has been thrust upon them in spectacular fashion. Hurrah for McCain making a move that is both shrewd and welcomed. Let's just hope that the American people can be trusted to realize the hollow smear attacks are just that, hollow.
It was telling when a Meet the Press commentator on Sunday 9/1/08 described Sarah Palin by saying, "she had actual opinions." This is the liberal world's greatest fear, people who thrive on principles and well-constructed opinions, not just media tag-lines and fashionable angst.
I need to work on not writing in this box before I submit - there is no editing option...hm
While I applaud Hariolor's defense of Governor Palin, I still am, and probably always will be, baffled by the equation of American Christians (I think Hariolor means to say Protestants, though he can correct me if I'm wrong) to Radical Islamists. Of course I acknowledge that there are fundamentalist Christians that are responsible for some horrific and terribly un-American things (abortion clinic bombings, for one), and those that promote and carry out those atrocious acts are rightly lumped into the same despicable class as Islamic fundamentalists. They are, however, the exception to the rule and represent a statistically insignificant minority.
One group practices their religion in an overwhelmingly peaceful fashion and promotes values that are functional for society, chief among them the sanctity of ALL life, while the other is a stagnated para-military movement that condones the murder of ANYONE to acheive its ends. There is no comparison here. While there are liberals and libertarians who feel that American Christians, in the context of the Religious Right, are eroding some of the core values of this nation and infrigning on social freedoms (and believe me, I agree with this argument on several counts), I respectfully don't see a correlation between the two and never will.
Mr Wheat et al,
The point that I seek to make, blown out of proportion with a degree of wry intent by myself in trademark fashion, is that both radical Islam and evangelical Christianity (by this I mean evangelical reform Catholics as well as Protestants of all colors) deal in the business of actively recruiting followers on a basis of combined emotional appeal and rhetorical dogma that borders on brainwashing, often backed up with heavily yet questionably researched theology. These converts are then often exploited for the economic benefit of their leaders, who then funnel that money into their own pockets and the pockets of politicians that support their views. This is true of both Islam and Christianity.
While I would cringe at anyone stating that many Christians are inclined to the sort of 9th century brutality that we see from fundamentalist Islam, it is nonetheless true that a frightening number of Protestant religions function as powerful political machines driving political agendas of questionable value (Zionist/Rapture-inspired foreign policy, scientifically crippling views on creation and human history, the list goes on and may be a topic for a later post if the need presents itself). I would distinguish these groups from most Catholics only in so far as modern Catholics are, as a rule, not actively evangelical, and based on anecdotal evidence at least, tend to enjoy greater intellectual independence from the official teachings of their Church.
I believe in the Midwest this phenomenon is not so apparent as in the deep South or Southwest, but I have a deep and intrinsic fear of any organization that seeks to bring large groups of people under a common banner. Even more so when that banner uses religion as the cry around which its followers must rally.
I would have to sadly agree that there are definately American factions of radical Christianity which, on principle if not action, resembles the mind-set of radical Islam. I see these on the fringes of our society, however, and while I believe they have interests in Washington, I run dry on examples on when these interests have significantly driven policy (at least policies which matter to me).
It is suprising they have received such little scrutiny, despite the fact that one of our presidential candidate spent twenty years as a member of one of these radical fringe churches...
John Kennedy was lambasted for his Catholicism... and I don't recall reading of any bishops of his time preaching of America's sins and our impending fiery punishment...
...then again I think today's media may actually agree with such a mind set.
Post a Comment