Praying For Pipelines Not My Kind Of Religion

I am a person of faith. A believer. Prayer is a part of my daily life. And I've had a rough week.

After my regular column ran in the paper down here in South Carolina last week all hell broke loose. It was a column in which I wrote that Sarah Palin should not be judged, as a person or as a parent, by her very young daughter's poor choices -- but that Palin's poor judgment was fair game. The compounding of one terrible mistake (teenage pregnancy) by another (marriage to a vulgar kid who's clearly not yet husband/father material) is not the kind of rational thinking we need in a vice president who's too close to the Oval Office for comfort. I also called into question Palin's slashing funds for pro-family, keep-your-baby services in Alaska. Pro-life, if that's your core belief, does not end the moment the accidental kid draws breath.

Irate Southern Christians had a field day with my phone number. I won't bore you with a string of individual quotes. Here's a "composite call". Comments in brackets are mine:

"Happy birthday, Linda! [Yes, it was my birthday]. How's your poor husband? I know his long illness has been just awful for you folks [My husband has been seriously ill with cardiomyopathy, and severely deficit-impaired from two major strokes, for the past five years]. I want you to know I'm praying for you to get what you deserve...

"...and you folks deserve to get sick and die [Yes, my husband is dying] after all the trash you've printed [sic] in the paper! Who do you think you are to say terrible things about good Christian people like sweet little Senator Palin [sic] and our president, who is a praying man [Jim Jones was a praying man right up to the minute he ordered his followers to force that poison-laced Kool-aid down their children's throats] and a genuine hero from Vietnam [sic]? And what do you have against rich people, anyway? [Greed trumping human need? Other than that, I'm fine with wealth]"

God is good. But not all Christians are -- well, Christian. If you get my drift.

I'm a believer. I'm a progressive Christian, which means the divine messages that sing inside my head are these:

"The last shall be first and the first shall be last..."

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."

I'm a person of faith and I've had a rough decade. One during which "the last" and "the least", "the meek" and "the peacemakers", have been rolled over by a trivialized right-wing God and the politicians that God serves. That God is an irate, petty fellow who is obsessed with political sexual lapses, but doesn't worry much about lies and the innocent casualties of a bad, greed-based war. He's a "Prosperity Gospel" deity who rewards the really, really good Christian with bigger houses, bigger cars, better parking spaces and plenty of cash, but doesn't worry much about poverty, homelessness, disease and needless death worldwide. He sure isn't fretting over nearly 50 million uninsured Americans who have no access to health care -- other than the McCain vaunted emergency-room-as-proof-no-American-is-really-uninsured excuse for ignoring the sick

Poor, sick folks wouldn't be poor, sick folks if they lived right. Good Christians, you know, want not.

Clearly, the right-wing God and liberal folks have been at odds about what's important for a decade or more.

I should have felt better when John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his soul mate. Jeeze. She's a self-proclaimed Bible Babe. We Southerners do, Lord, love our Bible. The Beatitudes -- all those "Blessed ares..." -- must be the cantata of Palin's conscience, the liturgy of her legislative agenda. This is a woman who knows the power of prayer.

She blew it. The Iraq war, she claims, is a "task from God." That's bad religion. But there's worse: She encouraged a crowd of fellow believers to pray for her pipeline project.

That's not just bad religion. That smacks of apostasy.

Mea culpa. Maybe it's me. I don't pray for pipelines. I don't pray for a raise or a better house. I don't pray for God to "Make a way, Lord, make a way!" for me to get what I want in life. Or what I want in politics.

Not when there's Darfur, where, a few short years ago, a two year old baby girl was gang raped by members of the Janjaweed. A two year old. A toddler. Gang raped by big, strapping, evil men who did it because they are evil and because they could. She was left with fistulas -- open, seeping holes -- from her tiny little female parts to her rectum. God only knows what other kind of permanent damage was done to that baby's heart, to her mind and to her spirit.

I never knew her name. I don't know what's become of her; whether she's dead or alive. But I pray for that child every day of my life. Every day. She is the focus of my prayers and has come to symbolize every child in pain, in want. She's come to symbolize every suffering soul on this earth; every man, woman and child who is victimized or cheated or ignored or hungry or sick or homeless or lost.

More people of faith than not pray for peace, for an end to poverty, disease and human suffering. Sarah Palin prays for pipelines. Others pray that those who do not agree with them will "get what they deserve". They deify war and wealth. They justify greed. Their God wants the good guys to have the big bomb, most of the world's oil and plenty of cash.

That's a mighty good reason to vote for the other guy; to vote Obama/Biden and know you're doing the best thing for your country, for yourself, for humankind. And it's a good reason to make a rational choice: Vote to separate cynical, self-serving, rancorous religiosity from good governance.

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Comments

[Zanti]

Good grief....

I greatly admire your courage. And I'm terribly sorry to hear about your husband.

I spend much of my time at 'Po defending religion against the broad and comic-book-style swipes by neo-atheists. Then, when I hear about "Christians" such as those you describe, naturally I feel a strong urge to join the atheist ranks. It's like, "Hold up--I changed my mind!"

Those lovely folks who left those messages had better hope, and hope hard, that Hell is merely a metaphor.

[GBartrem]

Linda, I enjoyed reading your article, I am also enjoying reading the responses to it. It's good to know that there are like minded christians out here. The Lord will show Ms. Palin for who she is, just as he does for all folks who use his name for ill-gotten gaines.

[schatsie]

Sarah Palin herself was pregnant when she got married... So why does this matter...

Because her daughter is now pregnant and unmarried - why would a mother let that happen to her own teenager.... This is parental negligence of the first order...

We do not know the family dynamics, does this mean the daughter thought she might as well get pregnant since she would be primarily responsible for raising her brother because her mother is stumping and spending her time in the tanning bed...

[gehmflor]

Thank you! Thank you, for writing this! This expresses my feelings and beliefs so well! I will recomend this article to my friends and family!
May these words encourage you:
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. " 2 Corinthians 4:8,9

[MarciL]

Great post, Linda!

[kathymiinPA]

Hi Linda. I am new to blogging and have never posted a comment before, but your post motivates me to write. I am so sorry that people who claim to be Christian have attacked you and your husband in this way. Since Jesus wants us to pray for our enemies, I will pray for them. But I am praying a much bigger and more fervent prayer for you and your husband to feel God's love and grace. We need more people like you in the media.We need the media to object to the hijacking of God by those who seek to use God and Christianity for personal marketing. We need the media to rail against people who use God as a reason to oppress others.
Thank you also for reminding us that there are issues bigger than presidential politics that all caring individuals should be considering. How do we address violence and oppression?
I will keep you in my prayers as I register voters this week. Stay strong- we ned you.

[amessenger]

How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all to plain that they were sorely mistaken. Lacking both practice and humility they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them.
It seems that God has told Sarah that Alaska will be the last vestige of Christian respite prior to the second coming and that it is her destiny
to be an integral part of all that. She is blind to any alternative viewpoint as the work of the devil and embraces the old testament's righteous sword of a justly angry lord,.....all the way to the gates of Armageddon, living that prophesied manifest destiny.
True Christianity aspires to patience and tolerance, love and kindness, the antithesis of proclaimed righteousness.

[Aliciamaria]

Please concider Palin's association with Pastor Muthee. Understanding Plain's faith and her apparent friendship with this man is critical. He built his reputation as a preacher on his ability to drive out a "witch" from his community in Kenya. Witch hunters have histoically not been strong advocates for women's issues.
Alicia

[Linda Hansen - Huffpost Blogger]

The "witch" Palin's friend/Bishop drove out was a woman. You're correct. He is certainly no women's advocate in any real sense of the word. Like equal pay or reproductive rights.

This is the "Man of God", according to Palin, who was so "bold"; who prayed "Make a way, Lord, make a way!" and helped her get elected -- without, as Palin herself said, "knowing what her plans were" or "what she would do when she won".

The real point it this: We're talking nutcase religiosity here. This should be enough to drive any rational believer in God to reject another four years of "God wants me to be president" ignorance/arrogance and hubris. And this is proof positive that the GOP's going up in fundamentalist rapture to get the far right vote has nothing to do with faith in God and everything to do with another power grab for greed.

Sarah Palin, born-again crook Tom DeLay, evangelical anti-gay gay Ted Haggard and those like them give all Christians a bad name.

[alt01]

This smacks not of "Lord, THY will be done, but MY will be done."

Apostacy, hypocracy, blasphemy, the list is endless...but she certainly knows how to use buzz words doesn't she?

As I've repeated ad nauseum...it's not what you say or what you believe, it's what you DO. And clearly what she does causes more harm than good.

[PioneerKing]

Mrs. Hansen:

I laughed so much reading your post.

Only someone of strong, righteous faith could endure the pain of your family and such hateful attacks, while maintaining a positive perspective and a sense of humor.

Regrettably, this is the state of religion in America. Christianity has become dominated by "agents of intolerence" whose only purpose has been to foment divisiveness through racism, bigotry, anti-Semtism and homophobia.

God be with you and you family.

[ButterflyWeed]

"Walk softly upon the Earth" is a core ethic of Native Americans and environmentalists. Are we the latest anti-progress terrorist enemies? To be blamed for joblessness and the economy? Boastful aerial wildlife hunting removes nature's bounty we seek to preserve.

Presuming to know God's will while using a political platform to impose "it" upon a troubled nation is offensive. When did Big Oil become America's God?

Palintology Built a Bridge to Nowhere. Democracy provides us a vote. When 'Good Christian' neighbors complain, it's because you're plucking a resonant chord. Keep it up Linda.

[demfriend]

There is something really odd that happens when I am confronted with people who "love Sarah Palin" while she scares me and even offends me when she works hard to make others do her bidding while using God's name. The odd bit is I remind them that prayer works for us all and the answers we get are not always the ones we want to get. weh it's the pro choice people I remind them God has allowed us humans to learn how to abort without coat hangers and back room "doctors" willing to kill us and make us infertile all in the name of money. Also God has allowed us to learn about genetics and making the choice not to bear the child who will suffer greatly in their lives and do this choice out of love for that child that they don't have to do that suffering. Palin's choices to pray for on camera will continue to show her poor judgement and that even though she might believe she speaks for God many who are extremely mentally ill think that too.

[Alliebeth]

I am not a Christian, but I know many who are exactly what you describe. They pray only for selfish wants and revenge on those who aren't just like them. I truly hope that I come across more Christians like you. You are the kind of Christian that I respect, and if all people of faith were like you the world would be a wonderful place.

[mikie63]

Prayer has been one of the most stupid things that religion has ever created. Only we poor humans can conceive of a god listening to our so called prayers. First of all, it was us who invented gods. And how can we think that this invention of ours wants to hear our talking to him?

At the funeral of my wonderful, loving wife, an elderly woman told me that my wifes death was gods will. I of course could not reply to this womans idiocy. I must assume that this christian god also had the will that Diane suffer so much before she died. I guess he also wanted me and our children to suffer and grieve as we did then and for evermore.

I actually feel sorry for the millions of religious people who have no clue that their beliefs are absolutely, unbelievably stupid and ignorant.

[Chip51]

That's almost as offensive as the phone calls Linda received, whether you believe in God or not. It seems that the millions of religious people may not be the only ignorant ones out there.

[DeanieMills]

Linda, submit this as your next regular newspaper column. Reveal the haters for what they are. Let them feel public shame for the nasty private hating they did to you.

God bless your sweet husband. I know he is your biggest fan and strongest supporter, and he has suffered terribly, as have you, watching him suffer.

I have long believed that Sarah Palin sacrificed her children on the altar of her ambition. As a Marine mom, I know no more stressful thing to endure than sending your child to war, and I know how desperately much they are in need of your support during that time. And though I've never had a pregnant teenager, I can only imagine the private miseries of a girl paraded on national TV for her poor decision, but I do know how desperately much she will be needing her mother in these next few months. And a four-month old special needs infant...again, a stressful family situation, and one in which the child needs all you can give him, every moment of every day.

She turned away from all of them to take on a task she knew was over her abilities, and then used them as PR photo-ops for political purposes.

Tell me again...exactly HOW is that Christian?

[TishiJo]

My prayers are with you and your husband, Linda and I too am haunted with the pain of those children in the world who are victims of evil. I have put my faith in Senator Obama and Senator Biden to lead this country because I believe they're genuine Christians and will truly try to make the world a better place.