The Palin Paradox: Does Her Candidacy Mark the Death of the Christian Right?

Sarah Palin's political and religious and religio-political background is the stuff of Christian right dreams. Raised in a Pentecostal Church, running for Mayor of town of 4000 by opposing abortion (is that a mayoral issue?), claiming to be its "first" Christian Mayor and ousting a 3-term incumbent (Lutheran, aren't they Christians too?), Palin saw "God's plan" in her political destiny as she later did in the war in Iraq. Her opposition to abortion is nearly absolute, allowing an exception only for the life of the mother.

Despite John McCain's consistent record denying women the right to make this most personal decision themselves, the Christian right never accepted him. Perhaps, it was because McCain does not have a fire-and-brimstone style, or perhaps it is because he did not accompany his anti-choice position with opprobrium against different lifestyles, or perhaps it was his embrace of the evil mainstream media. Or, maybe, they were not sure they really controlled him.

Whatever the reasons, choosing Palin erased all Christian right hesitation. Although he really wanted to choose Lieberman, McCain kowtowed to the Christian right and then one-upped them by going all the way for Sarah Palin. He was controllable. He went immediately from outcast to hero.

Enter, daughter Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. The Christian right had to make a quick choice (choice?!) -- either applaud the pregnancy or dump Palin.

By choosing to applaud the pregnancy, and to take the line of Steve Schmidt, "life happens", the Christian right ceded most of the claptrap they have been preaching for 30 years. No longer can they rail against big-town, or Hollywood, or Washington DC (read, experts) or New York (read, Jewish) or San Francisco (read, gay) "values" as the cause of peoples' "misbehavior" and social disintegration. No longer can they even call it misbehavior. No longer can they wring their hands about poor role models for children, about out-of-wedlock sex being a sin against God, about how books can be the devil's work.

No longer are testosterone and estradiol the devil's hormones; from now on, they are God's.

It is has been a tough few years for the Christian right. From the Reverend Teddy Haggard's secret gay life to Mark Foley's diddling House pages and the cover up, to Ralph Reed's (Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition dude) promotion of gambling... there is not much remaining about which they can claim righteous indignation.

What currency do they now have to rail against sex education in the schools as the cause of promiscuity? Or, vaccination of teenage girls against HPV (cause of both genital warts and cervical cancer that the vaccine can protect against) as leading to promiscuity? Or, even, the absence of Church and prayer as the cause for moral disintegration?

Because the Palin family had it all. No sex education in the Wassila schools. No vaccinations against HPV. If Mayor Palin could not get dangerous books out of the library, you can bet they were not at her home. A Pentecostal Church preaching righteousness, speaking in tongues -- and a bit of end of times eschatology just so they had something to look forward to in life.

What's left, then, for the Christian right is abortion. Although there were links of Tom DeLay to the abortions practices on the Mariana Islands (to keep the low-wage imported Chinese workers able to work), it never received publicity while "hot tub Tom" was still a prominent political figure the Christian right had to defend. And, Sarah carrying her Down Syndrome baby to term, and Bristol's becoming a mom at 17 rather than choosing an abortion enables the Christian right to retain its anti-choice message without a hiccough.

By being forced by circumstance to embrace Sarah Palin, the Christian right is acknowledging that "legitimate" families are not just the "mom&dad&buddy&sis" of the 1950s, but have morphed into a variety of shapes and forms that all need to be supported and accommodated.

None of this is to say, of course, that unwed teen pregnancies should not be discouraged. They should. Nor is it to argue that one parent homes should be encouraged. They should not. But, the fire-and-brimstone approach used by the Christian right to denigrate other peoples' circumstances should no longer have any currency.

Instead of accusing, perhaps we can be understanding. Instead of making up facts to fit our beliefs, perhaps we can look at the best information available, and start making some good policy. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can start a dialogue instead of a shouting match.

There was one overlooked part of Sarah Palin's announcement of her daughter's pregnancy. She said that her daughter had decided to carry the child to term. She later remarked that no one had pressured her daughter to do so.

I take Sarah at her word. Is it not wonderful, and will this not be a happier baby and marital circumstance, that they all had these unpressured choices? The issue is not abortion vs carrying to term, it is who gets to make that choice. Sarah Palin would have the government choose. My vote is for Bristol Palin.

I, for one, wish Bristol Palin and her husband-to-be a very healthy and happy child, a happy and meaningful life together, and a return to the anonymity they so richly deserve.

Comments

[daffey]

This was hilarious! It was like reading an article by Archie Bunker about life in the African-American community. This is what happens when someone bases their understanding of things on stereotypes. It’s only preaching to the choir, and usually nobody cares about that except the choir. Obviously Paul knows next to nothing about the Christian faith in general, or the Christian Right in particular. The CR need only lean on the emphasis to forgive. Stronger was the argument that they were not acting in line with their faith during Bill Clinton’s romps in the Oval Office (though they could always appeal to an employee violating the peoples’ trust). But here, they need only say they are forgiving, as they always should forgive. End of debate. If anything, this empowers and strengthens the Right, for they are able to show grace and forgiveness, and do so in a politically expedient way.

By the way, each and every time Sarah’s daughter is dragged into the discussion, Obama’s poll numbers quake. Those who wish Obama to win had best drop this hot potato. Too many people remember the Left’s protective care of keeping Chelsea out of the media spotlight not too long ago. It just looks like someone ready to beat up a child for political power. And that appears far worse than someone willing to forgive for political power.

[research]

These GOP would arrest Jesus for protesting.

[dkerrice2861]

The hypocrasy of it all is that these people think they are Holier than thou, damn other people to hell for their sins and claim they are doing Gods work. Little do they know, but they are the biggest sinners of them all! If one truly believes in God and believes in HIS word (and I do), you would not be so ready to accept the word of the simple man standing at the pulpit. The person who stands up there and preaches to you is merely expressing his own interpretation of the bible and yet you linger on every word he says. There is so much corruption in the churches(of ALL beliefs) and yet you place your trust in them. Somewhere along the way people have been so badly influenced by their political, social, and cultural views they have forgotten who God really is.
You claim to love God, but yet you use his name by saying it is his will, just to further your own agendas and to justify your own beliefs or sins. Palin gave a speech to students and said "Iraq was Gods war" and that building the pipe line was "Gods will." I got news for you, but Iraq was mans war and his own stupidity, NOTGod..... and the pipe line is not Gods will, but mans greed.

[SShaw490]

Having been raised as a Texas Baptist - the most virulent "evangelical" sect to ever disgrace the Earth - I can say that Palin certainly has sliced away the last vestiges of moderate Christians from the core Fundamentalists in America. Her support is found among those who see their religion as the centerpiece of the American culture, and fully intend to legislate it here - and, via wars without end, in the world at large. When Sarah Palin says that Iraq is "a task from God" and her pastor talks about Iraq being a war on the Christian faith, they're not kidding - they seriously believe that Iraq is a Crusade and mission from God. And they think a war in Iran would be, a war in Russia would be, and so on.

But most Christians are appalled at that kind of thing, in the same way that they're appalled at snake handlers, speaking in tongues, being slain in the spirit, drinking poison, and all those other carnival side show expressions of Christianity that reduce a religion founded on peace and joy to one that is centered on hatred, oppression, suspicion, greed and violence. They take a religion that was founded on the light within each person and twist it to a celebration of the darkest corners of the human psyche. Most Christians understand that. Look for the Sarah Factor to have peaked in the week after the announcement that McCain chose her, and drop steadily into the low 40s

[Tiberon]

You misunderstand the Christian Right's flexible relationship to their own agenda. They give themselves infinite credit for Meaning Well. They may fall down and fail their own standards constantly, but hey, they feel bad about it.

However, politicalization of the Chritian Right has resulted in a lot less feeling bad about their own sins, and a lot more condemning of others, whose real crime is not giving lip service to a draconian moral philosophy based on shame/forgiveness, but daring to accept human foibles as a given to be controlled by a rational balance between freedom and the need to protect others. That we don't feel the need for formalized forgiveness is what makes us immoral in the minds of the Christian Right.

[terramartom]

Good Bye Mrs Palin. Have a nice life back in Beautiful Alaska. Bag some Moose, beat down some non-believers, take your kids to a Hockey game, and keep your religious convictions to yourself.

[creationwaits]

Saying that "life happens" is not the same thing as applauding the pregnancy. It's saying life happens. I absolutely think the Christian moral teachings are the best around, but even if we taught them and taught them well to every single person in America, thinks like pregnancies to unmarried women will still happen. Of course we can still call it misbehavior, because even the best among us do things that are wrong. We even do things we ourselves know are wrong.

"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
-Romans 7:14-15

[serena1313]

Interestingly enough some Evangelicals are unhappy about Palin. A lot of them believe a woman's place is in the home and do not believe a woman rule over men is out of the question. However, getting one of their own in power is more important..

Sydney Blumenthal wrote that the Council for National Policy "vetted" Sarah Palin. The group consists of Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. They are the extreme-re­ligious-fa­r-right wing of the Republican Party. Palin believes Iraq is a Holy War, creationism ought to be taught in school and believes in abstinence only.

Candidates' children have nothing to do with how the candidate will govern. However this is a referendum on the failure of abstinence only programmes. They simply do not work. Since Bush made abstinence only a cornerstone of his presidency, teenage pregnancies increased exponentially to 750,000 a year.

It is not fair to promote abstinence only. Let's face it some teenagers will have sex. To reduce the number of (unwanted) pregnancies (and abortions) give them the tools to prevent more from ruining their future. But that won't happen with McCain and Palin.

Just remember McCain put country last when he sold-out to religious groups. But for them, getting Palin into the WH is a dream come true; They have been waiting to establish a theocracy. Iam very serious.

If that does not disturb voters, I don't know what will!

[Bonafidelity]

This is one of the few countries (the USA) in the world that one has to try to convince each other and the world that we are christians. In most countries in the world the general public are convinced who christians are, in China and Australia for example, not because of what they say but because of how they live, consistent with the Bible. So what is wrong with our Christianity in the United States? Nothing, we are just not practicing christians...we are not. I am very glad that "christians" in the last few days had to shelf their dogmas, pounding pulpits, and soap boxes and embrace Mrs Palin's daughter who is pregnant out of wedlock...a family that stood for all the dogmas...and blame everything secular to the ills of society...and not the church. Wow! so there is really now a death to the far religious right...to near center...and there is more to come. I think that God has a sense of humor...a way of humbling us...if you please. Now we can talk about issues...take responsibility for what happens...and realize that life is bigger than us and frankly we as christians do not have all the answers. Let us be humans again and leave heaven to God and His angelic beings, because if we try to play God on earth, we will never make it..frankly we cannot...we are just in the wrong location...EARTH.

[zippywpinhead]

no longer? don't count on it- these people are the masters of hypocrisy. the blatant contradictions won't even slow them down...

[Querent]

What you say is obvious and clear--- except Repubbicuns don't believe in logic, and they don't require consistency of themselves. They believe in one set of rules for themselves, and another one for everybody else. And they get to make up both sets, pretending they are "biblical".

[BottomLine2008]

"Life happens." I love it! Way to go, Steve Schmidt.

[sposton]

Any talk of death of Christian right is premature. They will continue for the same reasons they exist. Intellectual inconsistencies and outright prevarications do not phase them. How come we don't encounter a similar Christian right phenomenon in other mature democracies? And can anyone explain to me why a liberal Massachusetts has lower rates of social ills than any of the bible belt states? Judging by their rhetoric this would seem to be an absolute impossibility. General meanness, hubris and hypocrisy seem to be their main qualities.

[drbill21]

The Palins and the Christian right have NEVER said that Bristol's behavior was not a sin against God. In fact, I am quite confident they would say it was. Briston sinned. Period. She has no excuse (nor does her boyfriend). However, despite that presumably impulsive failure, they have followed that mistake by taking appropriate responsibility. THAT is what is being applauded.. So it is not hypocritical for them to continue to condemn the "values" of the larger culture because that culture makes it harder for families like the Palins to communicate their values effectively.

(to be continued)

[drbill21]

(continued from previous post)

That is why the comments regarding sex education in the schools are misguided -- it assumes that pregnancy is the problem when it is not. I am quite confident that Bristol knew how babies were made. Her problem was not birth control but self control.

The reason the Christian Right appears to condemn similarly situated individuals (e.g. Jamie Lynn Spears) is because their conduct is CONSISTENT with their values. In other words, Spears appears to be intentionally and unapologetically immoral because her "lifestyle" (and that of her sister) and career promote immorality whereas the Palin's family does not.

Thus the following comment is completely misguided:

"By choosing to applaud the pregnancy, and to take the line of Steve Schmidt, "life happens", the Christian right ceded most of the claptrap they have been preaching for 30 years. No longer can they rail against big-town, or Hollywood, or Washington DC (read, experts) or New York (read, Jewish) or San Francisco (read, gay) "values" as the cause of peoples' "misbehavior" and social disintegration. No longer can they even call it misbehavior. No longer can they wring their hands about poor role models for children, about out-of-wedlock sex being a sin against God, about how books can be the devil's work."

(to be continued)

[drbill21]

This whole argument seems to be a common misconception of secularists towards Christians.

Bristol's mistake was not in getting pregnant, but in having sex. The reason Palin and the "Christian Right" support Bristol is because the conception of human life is ALWAYS a good thing. The circumstances surrounding that conception may not be good or ideal but the pregnancy is NEVER the problem -- the premarital teenage sex is.

The Christian Right gives Palin and her daughter the benefit of the doubt that Bristol's conduct was not due to failure of knowing what was right, but a failure of not doing what was right. They assume that both Sarah and her daughter agree that what she did was wrong and has made the appropriate confession to such. However, failure is not hypocrisy. Therefore, the Christian community rallies to the Palins' defense, not because they excuse Bristol's conduct but because the family has chosen to be open about this failure and take responsibility for the future consequences, instead of compounding the error by punishing the baby. Again, the baby is not the problem here. Teenage pregnancy is not the problem... teen sex is. One gets the sense from secularists that were it not for pregnancy and disease, they would have no objections to teen premarital sex.

(to be continued)