{"id":623,"date":"2009-11-18T15:07:48","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T15:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/sarah-palin-flawed-human.html"},"modified":"2009-11-18T15:07:48","modified_gmt":"2009-11-18T15:07:48","slug":"sarah-palin-flawed-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/11\/sarah-palin-flawed-human.html","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin – Flawed, Human"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

In a post called\u00a0Sarah Palin’s rogue Christianity, Sally Quin<\/a>n asks some hard questions of Sarah Palin intended to point out the\u00a0inconsistencies\u00a0of her faith\u00a0commitments. I haven’t read the book but reading these questions makes me think of the hard test that faith puts on all of our lives. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Unsolved paradoxes lead us to poignant\u00a0places where we are forced to exercise something a seminary student recently called intellectual\u00a0humility. \u00a0 We believe things happen for a reason, but then we don’t believe that God’s hand was in our own defeat (you hear very few Republicans saying that God favored Barack Obama just as very few Democrats would have said that George Bush was God’s favored son). \u00a0If Quinn’s post indicates anything it is that Sarah Palin is a very human, very flawed individual. \u00a0Just like the rest of us. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are some of the questions that Sally Quinn asks Sarah Palin at On Faith at Washingtonpost.com:<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/h1>\n

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

In her new book Sarah Palin writes that one summer at Bible
\nCamp she “put my life in my creator’s hands and trust Him as I sought my
\nlife’s path.” For Palin, this grand divine plan was “a natural
\nprogression.” She writes. And later, “I don’t believe in
\ncoincidences.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Which leads me to ask:<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>What does she believe is God’s plan for her? Does she have
\nany free will or is everything preordained. Can she see something coming and
\nchange her mind despite God’s plans for her?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Did God plan for her to become Governor of Alaska. If so,
\ndid God plan for her to step down. Did God plan for her to run for Vice
\nPresident? If so why did she and McCain lose?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Did God plan for her to have a child with Down’s Syndrome?
\nIf so why did she consider an abortion? Did God plan for her to have a huge
\nwardrobe? Then why did she apologize for it?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Did God plan for her to do the Katie Couric and Charlie
\nGibson interviews and be humiliated by them. Did God plan for her to allow
\nherself to be forced, against her will to do those interviews? If so then why
\ncomplain?<\/span>
Did God plan for her daughter Bristol to get pregnant while
\nshe was a teenager? Why was she then not thrilled. Did God plan for Bristol to
\nget engaged and then break up, only to be left a single mother, dropping out of
\nschool?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span>Did God plan for Levi Johnson to be the father of her
\ngrandchild? Did God plan for Levi Johnson, who she now calls Ricky Hollywood,
\nto pose nude for Playgirl and go into “porn” as she told Oprah. If
\nso, why does she find it heartbreaking???I find it all very confusing.\u00a0??Certainly
\nPalin could say that God planned for her to publish a book that would be a
\nhuge, bestseller, go on Oprah, and make an enormous amount of money. Why would
\nGod choose her? Why would God look at the suffering around the world of so many
\nmillions and say, Sarah, I’m going to give you all of this.\u00a0??Perhaps God
\nwants more out of Sarah Palin.<\/span>
You would think that God would ask of her to live her life
\nas an example to others of a compassionate loving, caring person. One of the
\nmost powerful examples of God’s love in the Bible is that of forgiveness.
\nTurning the other cheek.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


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

But Palin’s book is a screed against everyone who ever
\ndone her wrong.<\/span>
She is angry at the campaign staffer for “forcing her
\nto do things she didn’t want to do”, she is angry at the media for asking
\nher questions she couldn’t answer. She is angry at the father of her grandson
\nfor being a foolish teenager. She has used this book and all of her Christian
\ncharity to do nothing but settle scores. She names names and calls ’em like she
\nsee ’em. And she doesn’t see ’em the way God might. They are all of his
\nchildren.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


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

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More of Sarah Palin’s Rogue Christianity\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a post called\u00a0Sarah Palin’s rogue Christianity, Sally Quinn asks some hard questions of Sarah Palin intended to point out the\u00a0inconsistencies\u00a0of her faith\u00a0commitments. I haven’t read the book but reading these questions makes me think of the hard test that faith puts on all of our lives. \u00a0 Unsolved paradoxes lead us to poignant\u00a0places where…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,13,390],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-evangelicals","category-gender"],"yoast_head":"\nSarah Palin - Flawed, Human - 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\/2009\/11\/sarah-palin-flawed-human.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sarah Palin - Flawed, Human - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a post called\u00a0Sarah Palin’s rogue Christianity, Sally Quinn asks some hard questions of Sarah Palin intended to point out the\u00a0inconsistencies\u00a0of her faith\u00a0commitments. 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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\/623","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=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}