Sarah Palin: Culture Warrior! ---->

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Sarah Palin on Religion, Science, Secularism, Church/State Separation

By Austin Cline, About.com

Sarah Palin & Holy War, Religious Crusades

In a speech to high school kids at her church, Sarah Palin said: "Pray...that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." Do we need leaders who believe they are following God's plan when invading other nations, especially Muslim nations? Some say that Palin was merely expressing hope that politicians are following God's will, but shouldn't they follow the will of the people? Either way, Sarah Palin is a politician expressing more interest in obeying what she thinks her god wants than in serving the interests and will of the people she represents.





Sarah Palin on Sex Education: Sarah Palin Pushes Abstinence-Only Education

Sarah Palin opposes schools teaching children anything about any form of contraception. In accordance with the 2008 Republican Party platform, she supports only teaching children abstaining from sexual activity, despite acknowledging the fact that "more than 3 million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases" and the need "to help teens make healthy choices." John McCain agrees, voting to increase funding for abstinence-only programs and to cut funding for family planning and teen pregnancy prevention programs. If Sarah Palin wants America to live under abstinence-only rules, it's legitimate to ask how well that's worked out for her family. As it turns out, not so well.





Sarah Palin Supports Censorship and Banning Books

According to former Wasilla mayor John Stein] says that she became mayor, Palin sought to inject her religious beliefs into her policy. For example, some conservative Christians in Wasilla objected to the language in some of the books in the public library, so she "asked the library how she could go about banning books." Librarian Mary Ellen Baker was aghast and apparently was unwilling to support Palin's censorship efforts because news reports from the time say that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.


Sarah Palin & Creationism: Sarah Palin Supports Creationism, Intelligent Design

Can anyone rise to a position of power or influence within the Republican Party without first avowing opposition to basic science in the name of religious ideology and anti-intellectual superstition? That seems unlikely and Sarah Palin, vice-presidential nominee chosen by John McCain, reinforces this impression through her defense of creationism against evolution. Although Palin never had much of a chance to put her desires into practice, we have clear evidence of what she wanted.

http://atheism.about.com/od/sarahpalinreligion/tp/SarahPalinReligionScience.htm

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1. Palin, Culture Warrior continued ...

Why Is Palin Such a Good Liar For God?

Frank Schaeffer
October 6, 2008

If lies will help her win, Palin believes God's will is being done. McCain just wants to win an election. Palin has bigger fish to fry. Her "call" is to restore America to its "Christian heritage."

The election of 2008 is best be understood as (what I and all sane Americans hope) is the last gasp of the desperate born-again religious movement that that has been running America into the ground for the last eight years. A pessimist might see it otherwise. Maybe it's the first shot in the next phase of our internal wars of religion, otherwise known as the culture wars, wherein an ignorant hate-filled, frightened American minority is trying to impose on the United States its own version of religion, in the same way that Saudi fanatics have imposed strict Islam on their unfortunate fellow citizens.

Palin was actually correct when, in her debate with Senator Biden, she said we need to stand up and "fight for freedom." What she didn't mention was that the greatest threat to American freedom is coming from the unhinged religious fanatics who are feeding on her poisonous lies, re-energized by a vision of overt "he's not like us!" racist politics on behalf of their God.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/why-palin-is-such-a-good_b_132043.html


Sarah Palin Sparks Revival of the Culture War

By Jay Tolson
September 23, 2008

... a lineup of once reluctant conservative Christians came out forcefully for the Republican ticket. Even Dobson said that he was now on board. And when Palin addressed the convention, she wasted no time in making her role clear: Alluding to Obama's controversial remarks about working-class Americans who turn to guns and God when the economy sours, she presented herself as proof that his characterization was not only false but condescending. Proof, furthermore, that he was out of touch with God-fearing heartland America.

In fact, says James Davison Hunter, a sociologist at the University of Virginia and the first scholar to apply the culture-war concept to the American scene, that war had never really gone away but had only moved into the background. The Palin pick, he says, returned it to the foreground, where it now shares the limelight (and headlines) with the economy and the war.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/09/23/sarah-palin-sparks-revival-of-the-culture-war.html


The culture war: It's back!

By Gary Kamiya
Sept. 15, 2008

Palin represents the reappearance of the one part of Bush that never died -- the culture warrior. Democrats may have forgotten about the notorious red state-blue state divide, or hoped that the failures of the last eight years had made it go away. But it hasn't. It's been there all along. If Palin catapults McCain to victory, it will be revealed to be the most powerful and enduring force in American politics. And that fact will raise serious questions about the viability of American democracy itself.

The GOP appealed to Joe Six-Pack by harping on cultural issues like the "three Gs," gods, guns and gays.

If what America wants is a more uninformed, more right-wing, equally macho version of Bush, Palin's the perfect choice.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/palin_interview/


Palin's Party

By Michelle Goldberg

"To understand Sarah Palin, you have to realize that she is a religious fundamentalist," said Howard Bess, a retired liberal Baptist minister living in Palmer. "The structure of her understanding of life is no different from a Muslim fundamentalist."

Palin's nomination, and the energy she has injected into the GOP, show that, once again, reports of the death of the Christian right have been greatly exaggerated.

Palin--who opposes gay rights, believes abortion should be banned even in cases of rape and incest, and supports the teaching of creationism--wasn't known as a leader in Alaska's religious right, but she clearly had ties to it, and to some of the more extreme fundamentalists in the United States. As has been widely reported, her husband, Todd, was a member of the separatist Alaskan Independence Party. She reportedly attended the party's 1994 convention, and as governor she gave a video address to the group's gathering this year in Fairbanks. Less well-known are the Alaskan Independence Party's ties to the theocratic Constitution Party--a vice chair of the former is the state representative for the latter. According to its platform, the Constitution Party aims "to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations" and advocates criminalizing gay sex and abolishing Social Security.

Like McCain, Palin appears to believe that the United States is a Christian nation. As governor, she signed a resolution declaring October 21-27 Christian Heritage Week in Alaska, in order to remind Alaskans of "the role Christianity has played in our rich heritage."

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081013/goldberg

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2. A Palin Theocracy

A Palin Theocracy

Palin is a radical right-wing fundamentalist Christian who would love to create a theocracy. She believes we are living in the "end times" which will result in a bloody inferno from which only true Christians will be saved. Palin recently attended a service in her Wasilla Bible Church run by David Brickner, who runs Jews for Jesus, a group the Anti-Defamation League criticizes for its "aggressive and deceptive" proselytizing of Jews. Those who don't accept Jesus as their savior will burn in Hell, according to Palin's brand of theology.

As Governor of Alaska, Palin asked her congregation to pray for the natural gas pipeline, which she characterized as "God's will." She thinks the war in Iraq is a "task that is from God." Palin has pushed for creationism to be taught in schools, and she opposes stem cell research.

McCain would also love to inject a heavy dose of Christianity into his administration. A year ago, he declared, "The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/a-palin-theocracy_b_125557.html

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3. continued

Sarah Palin Exceptionalism, Theocracy and Hurricanes

October 7th, 2008

The most obvious problem in Sarah Palin’s political affiliation with the John Winthrop school of political philosophy: The problem of theocracy.

Theocracy is a form of government that predates democracy and is incompatible with it. In theocracy, religious elites, not freely elected officials, control the government. That’s just what John Winthrop called for in his speech. John Winthrop was not just any Puritan preacher, after all. He was the both the religious and secular leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Winthrop called for the creation in America of a theocratic government: “a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical.” In this theocracy, the religious government would have the right to enforce religious laws even in private household matters. “The public must oversway all private respects,” Winthrop wrote. In speaking of Winthrop’s sermon, and its American exceptionalist idea that the legitimacy of government is established by God, Sarah Palin is suggesting that she support’s Winthrop’s theocratic agenda for America.

Let’s remember a couple of things: First, it’s Sarah Palin who has drawn attention to this connection between her own political career and the political philosophy of John Winthrop, and she’s done so over and over again. Secondly, although John Winthrop himself has been dead for hundreds of years, Winthrop’s ideas have been kept very much alive by authoritarian American Christian groups.

http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/10/07/sarah-palin-exceptionalism-theocracy-and-hurricanes/



Palin's Scary Folksy Style Theocracy with a Wink and a Betcha

October 7th, 2008

McCain signals Radical Evangelicals that he will if elected take them seriously & push for policies to achieve their agenda of a more " Christian America ".

Here's some choice bits from Arianna Huffington's editorial response to the debate VP Debate:McCain's Big Gamble Comes Up Snake Eyes/Huffington Post /Oct. 3,2008

http://gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.com/2008/10/palins-scary-folksy-style-theocracy.html

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4. and, she's a maverick!....K&R.....great post!....n/t

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5. a maverick, a hockey-mom, and a vessel of God to boot, dontchyaknow!

Palin's "Chosen Vessels of God."

Just hours before last week's vice-presidential debate, Stephen Strang, founder of the Charisma publishing giant, highlighted an account by an Ohio pastor who claimed to have had a revelation of Palin as Esther. Pastor Mark Arnold, of Life Covenant Church in Monroe, Ohio, approached Todd and Sarah Palin at a campaign stop in Lebanon, Ohio, and made them cry with his prophecy of Palin as Esther.

Arnold claims that God told him to tell Palin, who encountered him in the rope line, that "God wants you to know that you are a present day Esther!" Palin, Arnold says, immediately began to cry. "The news and nay-sayers and criticizers are going to be very hateful toward you," Arnold continued, "and in the days ahead they are going to turn up the heat ... but do not fear." You are a "present day Esther," Arnold told Palin, and God "has chosen you to reign." Then Arnold made Todd Palin cry, too, and McCain shook his hand and gave him a "deep look of understanding." Sure.

"When I got to my car I sat there for quite a long time," Arnold concluded, "knowing the GOD of the Universe had just used me to deliver a message confirming to Sarah and Todd to realize they are truly chosen vessels of God."

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_100808

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6. "Seven Mountains" and the "Joel's Army" plan for takeover

"Seven Mountains" and the "Joel's Army" plan for takeover

by dogemperor

Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 01:56:50 PM PDT

And now you see just WHY Palin is so damn dangerous--and why there's things like imprecatory prayers for McCain's death. Palin is seen, literally, as one of their Chosen--one of the few that, in their view, is sufficiently "in line" with Joel's Army theology to establish their own little Republic of Gilead, where anyone who doesn't toe the line will be driven out or killed.

The sad thing is...this is just scratching the surface as to the depths of connections with Palin, McCain, and Joel's Army stuff. (In fact, just today Ruth at Talk to Action has posted on how the links may go prior to Palin's political career--a subject we will be going into much deeper detail on in the days and weeks to come.) In future posts, we will reveal more info on how deep the rabbit-hole goes (and it goes very deep indeed)--issues which could have very real implications for the US and the world at large, especially considering that not only will Palin be a heartbeat away from the Presidency if McCain is elected--but McCain himself is likely to lend an ear to these folks, if his prior associations with Hagee and Parsley are any clue. In fact, there are some indications that McCain still has associations with Hagee via Joe Lieberman--indicating that the ties aren't so much broken as hidden.

And that could be a Very, Very Bad Thing Indeed for America and the world.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/7/165650/170

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7. Connecticut Ruling Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: October 10, 2008

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, reversing a lower court decision that had concluded that the civil unions legalized in the state three years ago had offered the same rights and benefits as marriage.

With the 4-to-3 ruling, Connecticut becomes the third state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. California legalized gay marriage in May 2008, and Massachusetts in 2004.

“Today is really a great day for equality in Connecticut,” said Bennett Klein, senior lawyer at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which argued the case before the Supreme Court. “Today’s decision really fulfills the hopes and dreams of gay and lesbian couples in Connecticut to live as full and equal citizens.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/nyregion/11marriage.html