A Washington Post "On Faith" religion blogger, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is so affected by PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) that she has launched a hate-filled screed against Palin's religion. This might seem an uncharacteristic thing for an ordained minister to do but not when you find out a bit more about Our Miss Brooks. Her bio on the Washington Post site describes Thistlethwaite's area of expertise as "contextual theologies of liberation." Liberation theology which is another way of saying Marxism wrapped in a phony religious wrapper to make it seem more palatable. Thistlethwaite launches a distinctly un-Christian snarky attack upon Palin right from the start of her blog (emphasis mine):
"Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord." So says the Christian scriptures in Ephesians, 5:22. What I would like to know, first of all, is who is going to have the final authority as Vice-President if Sarah Palin is elected, Palin or her husband? In fact, I think the first order of business with Palin is to ask her to give the same kind of speech that was demanded of John F. Kennedy re his Catholicism. Kennedy said he would obey the Constitution over the Pope. Will Palin obey the Constitution over her husband?
You see where Thistlethwaite is coming from? Of course, Brooks would never think of asking that question of Nancy Pelosi...or Hillary. Brooks continues plummeting into the depths with a direct attack on Palin's religion:
Palin, the presumptive Republican vice-presidential candidate, belongs to an Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world. Members of the Assemblies of God believe that the Bible in its entirety is verbally inspired by God, is the revelation of God to humanity and is "the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct." That means, in a literal reading of scripture, that the authority in the Palin family rests with her husband.
The "evangelical base" who are reported to be so "energized" by Palin's nomination as vice-president need to ante up here. Do they believe in the literal word of scripture or not? And if they believe in the literal word of scripture, then they need to demand that the we vet not only Sarah Palin, but more importantly, her husband, Todd Palin. Todd, by the way, works for British Petroleum.
And Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, by the way, works for the leftwing Center For American Progress. Thistlethwaite continues her highly partisan attack with an assault upon all those who don't buy into the credo of Global Warming Alarmism:
But the "wives be subject to your husbands" problem is far from my only concern with Palin as vice-president. She is even to the right of many Evangelical Christians on global warming. Palin does not believe (and believe is the operative word here, since facts do not seem to enter in to her judgment) that global warming is caused by human activity.
...This fundamentalist position on the environment is closely related to Palin's contempt for science and her advocacy of the teaching of creationism alongside traditional science. In a televised debate in 2006, Palin said she supported teaching both creationism and evolution in public schools. Creationism, as is well-known, refers to the religious belief that the world as we see it today, human life, the earth and indeed the entire universe, was created by God in its current form. It is the religiously-motivated rejection of the science of evolution.
Thistlethwaite is hardly finished with her PDS rage against Palin:
Palin, in addressing students graduating from a program at her home church, Wasilla Assembly of God, in June of this year, described the war in Iraq in messianic terms. Iraq is a way in which the United States was carrying out the will of God, according to Palin. She exhorted the graduates, "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God...That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."
Astonishingly, God is also to be exhorted, according to Palin, in order to get a $30 billion dollar national gas pipeline built that she wanted for Alaska. "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said. She has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuse (ANWR) to drilling.
Gasp! Palin has effectively broke through a deadlock of many years and arranged for a $30 billion "national" gas pipeline to be built. And how dare she promote oil and natural gas resource development at a time when our nation desperately needs it. Thistlethwaite has wandered far afield from matters of religion to politics but that is what really interests her in the first place.
Think even a liberation theology type would hesitate to attack Sarah Palin's family at least for the sake of appearances? Not Thistelthwaite. Feel the hate:
She is, as a Christian conservative/fundamentalist, anti-abortion, even in the case of rape or incest, though supporting abortion when the life of the mother is at stake. She says she is a "firm supporter of abstinence-only education in schools," according to CNN in 2006. When running for governor, she wrote, "Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," in response to a questionnaire by the Eagle Forum Alaska. Abstinence-only programs have been shown to be ineffective in preventing teen pregnancy, a fact that Palin has just proven in her own family and the unmarried pregnancy of her 17-year old daughter.
Yes, yes, I know Barack Obama has said that families should be off limits in the campaign, but I don't think this is an issue just of Palin's personal life and that of her family. It stands to reason that people should be asked to justify their policy positions, such as abstinence-only sex education, and it stands to reason that people should be asked whether they learn from experience.
Thisthlethwaite concludes with a tirade over the thought of Sarah Palin as one day becoming president. Something the United Church of Christ minister simply cannot tolerate:
Now look. Do you really want this again in the White House? Given John McCain's age and health, we have to take Sarah Palin very seriously not only as a vice-president, but also as a possible president. And this is true of any vice-president, in truth.
I can tell you flat out I don't want somebody else in the White House who mouths conservative Christian views, takes us into faith-based wars, will cave in to the oil lobbies and who does not even understand modern science.
Really, women have achieved true equality when I can honestly say there's no way I could support this person for leadership of our country.
Note to Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite: You just made the job of Obama's evangelical outreach Religious Affairs Adviser, Shaun "Jesus Was An Illegal Alien" Casey, quite a bit harder in his effort to fool Christians into supporting the Lightworker.
