isn't fit to govern the country, at least according to a snide piece by CNN that purports to highlight little known facts about Palin but in fact makes a point to single out the one unusual feature of the church in which she grew up. The Assemblies of God churches practice speaking in tongues. It's not clear, CNN opines, whether Palin herself ever adopted this practice.
No, religious freedom, er, choice in America is only for those who either choose what's popular (whatever that might be) or who choose nothing at all a la humanism/athiesm.
Anyone with a faith outside the mainstream of Protestantism is suspect, unless they are Muslim in which case we must fall all over ourselves to not offend.
Who knows but that Palin might suddenly start speaking in gibberish while in the midst of, say, a state dinner to honor the Queen of England, right?
No, a Pentecostal is just too risky.
And yet, we've taken risks before and done pretty well. We've had John Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president whose decision to run for the Top Dog spot caused all manner of backroom twitter and outright condemnation. A Catholic in the White House? Surely he would take his marching orders from the Pope!
Yes, we all know how that turned out --strong enforcement of civil rights laws, creation of the Peace Corps, the space race, the adept handling of the Cuban missile crisis. If Kennedy in fact took instruction on national government from the then-Pope then I can only say that Pope did a bang-up job. Kennedy was one of the most popular presidents of our time.
Next?
Ah, yes. My used-to-be favorite presidential contender who I will always maintain got booted from the running because of his Mormon religion. Never mind that he'd governed a state, run a major corporation, and been married to the same woman for a really long time.
Noooo. His ancestors were polygamists, critics said. If Romney was elected he'd probably take his instructions from the LDS Church. We'd have Mormons running the country!
And we wouldn't want a people known in the modern day for their charity, staunch love of country, support of politically incorrect organizations like the Boy Scouts of America, and their embrace of children and families in general having any real say over the affairs of the rest of us. No sirree.
No Pentecostals. No Mormons. Even Joe Lieberman as independent as he is was questioned about how he'd handle Jewish holy days back when he ran as Al Gore's VP. (Tell us, Mr. Lieberman, would you refuse to handle a national crisis if it happened in, say, the middle of Passover?)
Guess that pretty much rules out practicing Jews, right?
Okay, so no Pentecostals, no Mormons, no Jews, no Evangelical Christians (let's not forget Mike Huckabee was heavily scrutinized for his religious beliefs, too).
The list just keeps growing.
But where is the mainstream media's investigation of Barack Obama, a man who apparently can't decide with which religion he wants to be associated? Raised a Muslim? Maybe, maybe not. Raised a Christian? Maybe, maybe not. Spent 20 years in a Christian church that preached vitriol against America from its pulpit? A documented fact. A little schizophrenic when it comes to his faith? Uh huh. Hey, Barack, just pick something and stick with it.
Look, the Left in America is always touting diversity, as if this concept alone is the magic bullet for all that ails us. But why, when it comes to religion, is the silence from that end of the spectrum so deafening?
If skin color -- in this case, Obama's -- is the measure of a diverse nation that we should all be adopting then we are in more trouble than a lot of folks realize.
A person's skin says pretty much nothing about how they think or what affects the working of their moral compass. On the other hand their adherence to a body of religious doctrine -- of whatever variety -- speaks volumes. I personally like the idea of a presidency and cabinet in which people from a smorgasbord of religious perspectives unite on common issues. We have an ecumenical Congress, why can't we have an ecumenical White House, too?
Sarah Palin's Pentecostal upbringing doesn't give me a moment's pause, nor did Romney's Mormonism, Huckabee's fundamentalist Christianity, or Lieberman's Judaism.
If the candidate is moral, law-abiding, keeping respectable company, not harming children or causing them to be harmed, and in general trying to live by the Golden Rule, then this voter is satisfied. Those are the qualities I want my children to manifest and I expect no less from my elected leaders.
If Palin can prove she's got all that then I don't care where she hangs her Bible and neither should anyone else.
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