Sarah Palin<\/span>‘s address last night at the Republican National Convention.
\nWe call on her not only as a political figure, but also as a prominent
\nChristian, to commit herself to campaigning in good faith, with a
\nstrong commitment to truth-telling.<\/p>\n As Christians, we
\nare called to be respectful and loving toward our neighbors, honoring
\ntheir intentions even if we disagree. We are also called to be truthful
\nin all things, to “put away falsehood” (Eph 4:25) and refrain from
\nslandering, belittling, or speaking out of contempt for anyone.<\/p>\n
If these are the standards God has set for us in our personal lives,
\nour church communities, and our neighborhoods, how much more so should
\nthey be for those of us who choose to be in the public eye?
\nShouldn’t we expect our brothers and sisters in politics to also speak
\nthe truth in love and to extend respect and goodwill even to those who
\ndisagree with them?<\/p>\n
Sarah Palin has shaped much of her
\nlife around her Christian faith.[1] It has been continually suggested
\nthat one of the major reasons John McCain
\nchose Palin as his running-mate was her Christian faith and her ability
\nto energize evangelical Christian voters. Thus, it is not a stretch to
\nsay that Palin has been thrust into the position of being one of the
\nmore visible faces of Christianity in today’s political scene.<\/p>\n
As such, she has a calling higher than her responsibility to her
\nparty’s victory in November – a calling to represent Christ in the
\nworld. This is why her speech at the Republican National Convention
\nlast night was so disappointing to us at the Matthew 25 Network.<\/p>\n
To be blunt, we saw very little of Christ’s love in Sarah Palin’s
\nspeech last night, as she heaped contempt on those who disagree with
\nher politically, while offering no vision for how to resolve the
\ncritical issues facing Americans today like job loss, health care,
\ngrowing child poverty rates and the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n
In questioning not only Barack Obama’s
\npolicies but also his motivations, and mocking his career, Palin went
\nfar beyond what could be considered acceptable disagreement and into
\nwhat looked like open hatred for her political opponents. The name of
\nChrist should never be associated with hate or contempt for one’s
\nfellow human being, but last night, in Sarah Palin, we believe it was.<\/p>\n
Moreover, as has been documented by major media sources including the
\nAssociated Press [2], Palin engaged in falsehoods not only about her
\nown record, but about Barack Obama’s record as a State Senator and as a
\nU.S. Senator. As Christians, we are called throughout Scripture to
\nspeak the whole truth, to put away falsehood, to bear true witness even
\nwhen it hurts our own interests. The name of Christ should never be
\nassociated with falsehoods or deception, but last night, in Sarah
\nPalin, we believe it was.<\/p>\n
As a prominent face of Christians in politics, Sarah Palin is called to
\ndo more than represent her party – she is tasked to represent Christ to
\nthe world. We in the Matthew 25 Network call on Gov. Sarah Palin to
\nrepudiate her attitude of contempt towards her political opponents and
\ntell the whole truth – if not for the sake of a more honorable
\npolitics, then for the sake of our Christian witness in the world.<\/p>\n
Senator McCain
\nis no less responsible because he selected Gov. Palin and praised her
\nspeech, and he claims to be a Christian as well. It is ill-fitting to
\nuse Christian identity
\nand language for one’s political advantage without seeking to live up
\nto that high calling. Ultimately, as the Presidential candidate,
\nGovernor Palin’s tone and infidelity to truth reflect negatively on
\nSenator McCain as well.<\/p>\n
\n[1] – TIME Magazine interview,
\nhttp:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/printout\/0,8816,1837536,00.html<\/a>
\n[2] – “Attacks, praise stretch truth,” International Herald-Tribune.
\nhttp:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2008\/09\/04\/america\/CVN-Fact-Check.php<\/a> \n<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. UPDATE: You can sign the statement here. So far more than 1,400 have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\n
Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. UPDATE: You can sign the statement here. So far more than 1,400 have…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-04T16:06:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mara Vanderslice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech - Progressive Revival","og_description":"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. UPDATE: You can sign the statement here. So far more than 1,400 have…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2008-09-04T16:06:36+00:00","author":"Mara Vanderslice","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html","name":"Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-09-04T16:06:36+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-04T16:06:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/d528e4d292ba39f3c0b499eb052d9c09"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/09\/matthew-25-releases-statement.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 25 Releases Statement on Palin Speech"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/d528e4d292ba39f3c0b499eb052d9c09","name":"Mara Vanderslice","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a2a\/a2a304576a8a3cc32a25835b4fe51bc2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a2a\/a2a304576a8a3cc32a25835b4fe51bc2x96.jpg","caption":"Mara Vanderslice"},"description":"Mara Vanderslice is the organizing force behind the Matthew 25 Network. Prior to founding Matthew 25, Mara worked with Common Good Strategies, a political consulting firm that worked on connecting elected officials, candidates and state parties with America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diverse religious communities. CGS worked on numerous successful political campaigns in 2006. Prior to that, Mara was the Director of Religious Outreach for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign. Mara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work has been profiled in The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Washington Post, ABC News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Mara also appeared as a guest on The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/mvanderslice"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}