In Palin’s Life and Politics, Goal to Follow God’s Will

I stopped for a cup of coffee at Starbucks today. They have the NY Times on their news rack. I always look to see what they are writing about; opposition research you may call it.

Today's Times has a front page story with the above headline. A mere 50 years ago that would have been a positive thing. Today, that headline is supposed to scare the "bejesus" out of the typical Times reader.

Here's the point of the story:

Ms. Palin’s religious life — what she believes and how her beliefs intersect or not with her life in public office in Alaska — has become a topic of intense interest and scrutiny across the political spectrum as she has risen from relative obscurity to become Senator John McCain’s running mate.

Why would that be?

There does not seem to be the same "intense interest" by the NY Times about Obama's religious beliefs and how they intersect with his life. This despite the fact that Obama was a 20 year member and generous contributor to Reverend Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright.

For example, Jodi Kantor has this article A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith on the relationship of Obama and Wright. Published on April 30, 2007, the article was mostly laudatory. While acknowledging that Wright was into Liberation Theology and may make whites “uncomfortable” it emphasized the close relations the two had and there was no hint that Obama's religion was going to become an issue.


Fast forward a year later and the Wright controversy explodes in full fury. Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney write a story An Angry Obama Renounces Ties to His Ex-Pastor that appears on April 30, 2008. It brushes over, without actually quoting, the controversial remarks of Wright and deals primarily with the political fallout for Obama.

But there is no hint – not one word - how his beliefs intersect or not with his life in public office. Not a hint of a discussion of how Obama and his family could have attended this church for 20 years and been affected by Wright’s preaching. Even after Obama himself described Wright as his “spiritual mentor.”

The fact is that the associations that people have influence their thoughts and actions. It is legitimate to ask if someone wants to follow God’s will. And it’s legitimate to ask what they believe God’s will is. By listening to what is said by their “spiritual mentors” we get a glimpse of that. So far, I am not disturbed by what Palin’s former pastor Paul Riley has to say. I’m utterly appalled by what Obama’s spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright has to say.