Monday, September 08, 2008

It's the hypocrisy, stupid

Sarah Palin didn't sell the jet on eBay, didn't oppose earmarks (in fact, got $1,000 per capita for her town and more for her state) and did not oppose the bridge for nowhere. But that's just starters for what is so profoundly wrong with this politician.

Let's be clear about this: Palin may invoke God and call herself a Christian all she wants, but the message of her words and her life is everything but. Palin appeals to the kind of person who is insecure enough to pursue a comforting smugness.

First of all, Palin and her cohorts all declare their pride in being American.

In Christianity, pride is one of the seven capital sins. In the biblical account of the Garde of Eden, the first human couple eats forbidden fruit (no apple is mentioned) in a bid to become as God. (And I have already noted the silliness of deriving luster from the place of one's birth.)

Second, Palin parades herself as Christian.

What did Jesus say about pride in one's religiosity? Here's a sample of what seems a refrain in the gospels:
And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face;  That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee. (Matthew 6:16-18)
Thirdly, as a Republican, she proclaims an agenda of wealth creation, bluster and pride, deprecating humor and utter disinterest and even disbelief in the notion that the world is not rife with injustice. To Palin every one similar to the people in that convention hall had a God-given entitlement to power and wealth and happiness at the expense of everyone else in the planet, or even the planet itself.

All of this is antithetical to Jesus "constitution" for his new realm, the Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-11; Luke 6:20-26), in which he exalts the poor, the meek, the mourning and those who hunger for justice; and reviles those who are rich, who are satisfied, who are laughing, who are blessed by men.

Palin may be a good Republican, but she has not shown the slightest inclination to live out the faith she claims.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is the caricature of all what I dislike in some Americans: pro-creationism, anti-abortion, pro guns, with yes, a thick lay of hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this Celilieaux. You've captured what I've been thinking and feeling about this woman since I heard her convention speech. I am working to make certain that everyone I know knows the truth about this woman.