{"id":177,"date":"2008-10-02T09:44:30","date_gmt":"2008-10-02T09:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/sarah-palin-religionless-chris.html"},"modified":"2008-10-02T09:44:30","modified_gmt":"2008-10-02T09:44:30","slug":"sarah-palin-religionless-chris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/sarah-palin-religionless-chris.html","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin: Religionless Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who’s afraid of Sarah Palin? And her faith? I’m one of those who thinks all the hand-wringing about her supposedly ideological right-wing faith is way overblown. Could she be a right-wing religious ideologue if in office? Perhaps she’d follow the script if that’s what she was told to do. But what really emerges from a review of her statements about faith and policy is that there really isn’t much connection, and efforts to connect her Pentecostal upbringing (which she has admittedly been running away from, and fast) to speaking in tongues or “Third Wave” theology winds up not only as cheap shots, but as pretty thin: I’m not sure she understand all that stuff any better than I do. Or Bonhoeffer (or Barth) for that matter. But she might want to check them out. As it stands now, her version of “religionless” faith comes off as an all too typical American believer who doesn’t reckon with tradition or faith in public life; yes, Biden and Pelosi aren’t exactly Aquinas and Augustine. But I’m not sure how Palin’s “values” connect with public policy, if it all.<\/p>\n

Palin has in previous campaigns said she’s for teaching creationism, but won’t push it, said she’s for abstinence-only sex ed, then said she’s “pro-contraception” sex ed, and said she’s “pro-life” but won’t push policies against abortion. In another segment (NYT transcript<\/a> here and Christianity Today here<\/a>) from her Couric interviews, Palin again does this dance.<\/p>\n

\n

Ms. Couric: If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: I am pro-life. And I’m unapologetic in my position that I am pro-life. And I understand there are good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion, and when it should be allowed. Do I respect people’s opinions on this? Now, I would counsel to choose life. I would also like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to take it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want them, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, and adoptions made easier.<\/p>\n

Ms. Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?<\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: I’m saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you’re asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That’s nothing I would ever support.<\/p>\n

Ms. Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?<\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and safe, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …<\/p>\n

Ms. Couric: And so you don’t believe in the morning-after pill?<\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: … I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven’t spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.<\/p>\n

Ms. Couric: I’m sorry, I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning-after pill?<\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: Personally, and this isn’t McCain-Palin policy …<\/p>\n

Ms. Couric: No, that’s OK, I’m just asking you.<\/p>\n

Ms. Palin: But personally, I would not choose to participate in that kind of contraception.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Palin also endorsed the “right to privacy”<\/a> that is the underpinning of Roe v. Wade, and I don’t think this was a trick question, as Couric explained it to her very gently and carefully. That should give abortion opponents fits, no?<\/p>\n

Or this on evolution and teaching creationism:<\/p>\n

\n

Couric: Do you believe evolution should be taught as an accepted scientific principle or as one of several theories?<\/p>\n

Palin: Oh, I think it should be taught as an accepted principle. And, as you know, I say that also as the daughter of a school teacher, a science teacher, who has really instilled in me a respect for science. It should be taught in our schools. And I won’t deny that I see the hand of God in this beautiful creation that is Earth. But that is not part of the state policy or a local curriculum in a school district. Science should be taught it science class.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Palin’s most Falwell-esque remark may be her view that homosexuality is a choice. Mark Silk has more on Palin’s interview<\/a> with right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt and her view that she doesn’t belong to any church, but that people are mocking her faith.<\/p>\n

In any case, does this sound like a Warrior Queen of the Religious Right? Or like political pragmatism and a nice faith-based gloss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who’s afraid of Sarah Palin? And her faith? I’m one of those who thinks all the hand-wringing about her supposedly ideological right-wing faith is way overblown. Could she be a right-wing religious ideologue if in office? Perhaps she’d follow the script if that’s what she was told to do. But what really emerges from a review of her statements…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12,36,1,13,9,3],"tags":[37,187,186,188,189,85,83],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-catholics","category-defining-progressive","category-election-08","category-evangelicals","category-religion-in-the-public-square","category-u-s-constitution","tag-abortion-2","tag-barth","tag-bonhoeffer","tag-couric","tag-creationism","tag-religious-right","tag-sarah-palin"],"yoast_head":"\nSarah Palin: Religionless Christian? - 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\/10\/sarah-palin-religionless-chris.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sarah Palin: Religionless Christian? - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who’s afraid of Sarah Palin? 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He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","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\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}