Sarah Palin Photo By Sean Gardner Reuters "We hear of a judge's ruling that our National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional," said Palin. "I think we'll be challenging that one. God truly has shed his grace on thee -- on this country," Palin told the attendees at the conference. "He's blessed us, and we better not blow it."
Is America a Christian nation? Sarah Palin said that it's "mind-boggling" to suggest otherwise.
But in a recent interview with ABCNews correspondents Teddy Davis and Matt Loffman, Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said;
"It's incredibly hypocritical that Sarah Palin, who disapproves of government involvement in just about anything, now suddenly wants the government to help people be religious. It is wildly inconsistent with her views on limited government to get the government involved in matters of faith."
Lynn was reacting to remarks Palin gave to the Louisville conference one day after U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, in Wisconsin, ruled that the National Day of Prayer created in 1952 by Congress, violated the First Amendment. In her ruling Judge Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue or practice magic.
ABCNews reports that in her remarks to the conference, Palin also took aim at President Obama without specifically mentioning his name:
"And then, hearing any leader declare that America isn't a Christian nation and poking an ally like Israel in the eye, it's mind-boggling to see some of our nation's actions recently, but politics truly is a topic for another day."
A written transcript of a speech given by then Senator Barack Obama posted at BarackObama.com of the June 2006 keynote address at the Call to Renewal Conference indicated that Obama had written that (emphasis added) "We are no longer just a Christian nation, but we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation..."
Palin, who used to attend the Assembly of God church and is currently not a member of any church, used her speech to reject the notion that God and state should be kept separate.
"Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers," said Palin. "And George Washington, he saw faith in God as basic to life. In Washington's farewell address, he wrote 'Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, religion, faith, morality are indispensible supports,'" she continued. "So Women of Joy, remember that, and remember that even today this nation needs you."
A spokesman for the Secular Coalition for America told ABCNews that Palin is misconstruing the founders' intent on matters of church and state.
"While the founders' views on religion varied from person to person, there is no doubt that they believed strongly that religion had no place in government," said Paul Fidalgo, the communications manager for the Secular Coalition for America. "John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli which stated in no uncertain terms that the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. Our Constitution established a secular government and has no mention of Jesus, Christianity, or a god of any kind, despite the false message spread by figures such as Sarah Palin who claim that America was founded as a Christian nation," Fidalgo continued.
Palin told the women in attendance, whom she referred to as a "mom of faith movement," that they should not listen to critics who would make them feel that their movement is "all a low-cost brand of ignorance."
"Really, it's just the opposite," said Palin. "And I think the more we're involved, the more we're going to rock this world."
The problem with thinking such as this, as voiced by the former Governor, is that it gives licence to persons to discriminate against those who do not subscribe to Christian doctrine or those who profess to be Christian to take hard-line positions based on narrow interpretations of so-called biblical morality and codes of conduct and apply it as 'law' which results in legalised forms of prejudice, bias, and hate speech cloaked in so-called Christian principles.
The absolute truth, unvarnished and examined under the microscope of historical fact is that Christian dogma and doctrine as applied narrowly and such as advocated by Palin, Tea-Party types, and the so-called American Family friendly organisations, actually serves to do little more than demonise and marginalise human beings based on quite questionable doctrines and theological principles. Worse, it sets a precedent that it's acceptable behaviour to condemn LGBT persons, persons of other religious beliefs, and those who in fact hold no deity in regard.
The founding fathers of the American Republic absolutely did not wish to have this situation come to fruition. Palin and her ideological political views mixed with twisted Christian doctrine is precisely what they envisioned as a corruption of individual liberties and freedoms. They were learned men who needed only to look back at the history of the religious strife that had engulfed and plagued Europe or more notably the example of the great Inquisition.
Christianity, Islam, even Judaism have long bloody histories and when coupled with governmental forms, have destroyed many a nation and more than once caused massive disruptions to the advancement and betterment of humanity as a species.
Religions, can be effective as a cause for good, however, when theological doctrine becomes twisted an distorted, not unlike those views espoused by Palin, or her peers in the far conservative political right, religion becomes a tool of oppression and persecution used against those who run afoul of the so-called 'pure' doctrines and theology.
This is not what the American framers of its constitution had in mind at all. I personally find myself becoming more and more repulsed by this thinking as well as find it frightening, very.
This is not what the American framers of its constitution had in mind at all. I personally find myself becoming more and more repulsed by this thinking as well as find it frightening, very.
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