{"id":211,"date":"2008-10-18T22:37:30","date_gmt":"2008-10-18T22:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/republican-exceptionaism.html"},"modified":"2008-10-18T22:37:30","modified_gmt":"2008-10-18T22:37:30","slug":"republican-exceptionaism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2008\/10\/republican-exceptionaism.html","title":{"rendered":"Republican Exceptionalism: Idolizing Ideology"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Oct 2nd, Sarah Palin ended the Vice Presidential debate by voicing her strong belief in American exceptionalism<\/a>, – that America has a unique blessing by God and a special  <\/span>mission to the world.  <\/span> <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Just a couple weeks later this belief has been clarified – she meant Republican exceptionalism.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

In recent days it is clear from the emerging rhetoric of Sarah Palin and her doppelganger Congresswoman  <\/span>Bachmann that it is not really all <\/i>of America that is blessed by God or fully comprehends God’s mission for this country.  <\/span>Only Republicans.  <\/span>Sarah Palin exclaimed last Thursday to a crowd in Greensboro North Carolina that she is so glad to be in the pro-American part of the country<\/a>, by which she means those parts which agree with her.  <\/span>Likewise, Congresswoman Bachmann is putting on her best Joe McCarthy just in time for Halloween by seeking an investigation of every member of congress to find out if her colleagues are “pro-America or anti-America<\/a>.”  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

The gist of these attacks is that if a person or a group of people aren’t for the Republicans then they are ant-American.  <\/span>And by the extension of American exceptionalism – these same people are anti God and God’s mission.  <\/span>This was recently oddly backed up by their Republican clergyman Arnold Conrad who invoked the God of the universe at a political rally<\/a> with a perverse plea for a McCain victory:<\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god–whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah–that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,” <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure if threatening God is a good strategy.  <\/font><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

But what is more disturbing is the current litmus test of God and Country which idolizing their own ideology and sets up their own party as the golden calf.  If McCain does lose, will Palin, Bachmann, and Conrad be willing to entertain the thought that God has withheld favor because of their ridiculous and hateful campaign and remember that neither party owns this country – or God.  <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Oct 2nd, Sarah Palin ended the Vice Presidential debate by voicing her strong belief in American exceptionalism, – that America has a unique blessing by God and a special  mission to the world.      Just a couple weeks later this belief has been clarified – she meant Republican exceptionalism.   In recent days it is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-08"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublican Exceptionalism: Idolizing Ideology - 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\/republican-exceptionaism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican Exceptionalism: Idolizing Ideology - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}