Palin, Position, Piety, & Politics

What do all of these things have in common? The Religious/political Conservative agenda in this election.

This entry is not a critique on Gov. Sarah Palin, rather, a critique of the inconsistencies of many Christians (mainly those calling themselves "Conservative" or the "Religious Right") who have jumped on the Palin Bandwagon. It is interesting to me that these people who are now heralding in a female VP (and possible leader of this nation if something were to happen to McCain) are so hypocritical. These are people who won't let women lead their churches but will back a woman VP. This is the group that lauds Stay-at-home moms, yet heralds a mom with 5 kids (and a grandchild on the way) who is going for the second most ambitious political position in America.

Don't get me wrong, I personally have no problem with any of these things that Palin has done. I applaud ambitious women, and support their career oriented goals. But I also support ordained women pastors, and don't believe that every woman is supposed to be a stay-at-home mother. I applaud her response to her daughter's commitment to her pregnancy, but I also don't promote abstinence only education.

In a post today in Slate Magazine, there was a post in the section: xx factor xxtra: Women writing about politics, etc. Entitled: What Scarlet Letter?Why Christian conservatives have only admiration for Sarah Palin. By Hanna Rosin

This entry brings out some very good questions/thoughts on the
inconsitencies of those religious concervitives that are in the political
game. I suggest reading the whole article for context, but here is a
section:

Some of this reaction can be explained just by listing the religious
right's priorities in order. In the pantheon of family values, avoiding abortion
sits at the top, above marriage or staying home to raise your children.
Conservatives have spent the last 30 years seeding the country with crisis
pregnancy centers dedicated to convincing young women not to abort their babies,
regardless of their personal situations. The fact that Britney Spears' younger
sister made the same decision to keep her pregnancy at 17 and that Juno was a
hit movie only adds an unexpected glamour to the choice.

But this explanation takes you only so far. What's missing from the
conservative reaction is still remarkable. Just 15 years ago, a different
Republican vice president was ripping into the creators of Murphy Brown for
flaunting a working woman who chose to become a single mother. This time around,
there's no stigma, no shame, no sin attached to what Dan Quayle would once have
mockingly called Bristol Palin's "lifestyle" choices. In fact, so cavalier are
conservatives about Sarah Palin's wreck of a home life that they make the rest
of us look stuffy and slow-witted by comparison. "I think a hard-working,
well-organized C.E.O. type can handle it very well," said Phyllis Schlafly, of
the Eagle Forum.

Suddenly it's the Obamas, with their oh-so-perfect
marriage and their Dick Van Dyke in the evenings and their two boringly innocent
young girls, who seem like the fuddy-duddies.
What happened? How did the
culture war get flipped on its head?

It amazes me that those people that abhor teen pregnancies, and teach abstinence only Sexual Education, NOW respond lovingly saying, "At least she didn't choose to abort the child." I agree that I am glad she is keeping the child, and that Palin didn't abort her DS child... But I also don't have a hierarchy of sins (at least I try very hard not to do so). I try to be consistent. But then again, I also believe to be "pro-life" means you can't be in favor of the death penalty either. So what do I know?

I am not a political expert... But I do love ANY situation (and it happens a lot in the political arena) where these people can change their colors to maintain their grasp around the throat of America. These people that are being interviewed saying the proper response to Palin's daughter is to respond with love and compassion.... I am so there with you! But these are the first people to kick a person out of a church for being gay, or responding to the homosexual community with "love and compassion".

This is the group of people that says a strong family has the woman at home with the kids, and the dad providing for the family. But here they are getting air-time saying how wonderful it is to have a woman with the "same values as me". And, as Rosin mentions in her article, the candidate's demonstrating the "core family systems" are now the ones at which we should be shaking our fingers.

I wish Palin luck in her career. She is going to be a fighter, and a charismatic contender on her ticket. I simply question a "faith" or "religion" that changes its "core values" in order to gain/maintain position and power...esp. a religion that spouts humility and sacrifice as the basis of its beliefs.

And they call postmoderns "wishy-washy" in their beliefs!

your thoughts?