Like many Americans, I'm trying to learn a bit about Gov. Palin beyond the stories about her pregnant daughter. I ran across this video of her preaching that has me scratching my head just a bit. I am wondering what others make of it.
You would have guessed, rightly, that I have many concerns about her policy positions because I am a progressive and she is a conservative. But I also know that the coming of the kingdom is not the exclusive province of either conservatives or progressives. The best judgments we can usually make are after-the-fact assessments of what works and what doesn't.
But I am more concerned about her theology than her policy. It is certainly not Reformed (at least as contemporary Presbyterians -- PC(U.S.A.) -- understand that tradition), and seems much more apocalyptic than anything you would hear in mainline Protestantism. Indeed, I would suggest that she is a theocrat's dream candidate.
Of course, she will be running for vice president not pastor-in-chief. Then again, that may be just the problem. She said last summer that she really doesn't know exactly what the vice president does. Maybe she remains unclear.
I am not making any partisan claims or arguments here. I'm not questioning her fitness to be vice president, her experience or her judgment. I'm just raising a theological concern, which seems appropriate for one whose job is wrestling with just such concerns.
I guess what I really want is some job clarification for Gov. Palin.
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I too don't know that much about Gov. Palin, but let's be honest about her. Something seems quite wrong with her - her false claims to be against the "bridge to nowhere", and her jab at Obama's community service in Chicago as being something to jeer at - during the convention in St. Paul. It doesn't smell right to me that Sen. McCain would pick someone like her over others that are both: known well to him and to us, the citizens, the voters. When things don't smell right from the very beginning, they usually aren't right. Personally, I tried to be fair to GWB as long as I could during his first term in office, and that was a stretch given my previous voting history. But I don't think it is possible for me to "try" to be fair to Ms. Palin at this point. Her act seems to be just that, and I think McCain lowered the level of his campaign the instant he gave in and picked her over someone that he knew and trusted. Frankly, I am hoping that her evangelical connections end up costing her some of the swing votes as much as they gain her ticket's votes. Oh, for the nice boring candidates of yesteryear: Walter Mondale, Paul Simon.
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