In principle, the sermons preached in a politician's church shouldn't be a political issue, but religious believers themselves insist on making their religion an issue so those sermons and teachings can't be ignored. If politicians are going to present their religion and religious beliefs to the voting public as part of their qualifications for office, then we should dissect everything taught by their religion and in their churches to see what constitutes the foundations of their worldview.
This will make some politicians uncomfortable, but I think that's only because they would rather tell the public only the good things they can find in their religious background in order to make themselves look better. They don't want to talk about anything too negative or unpleasant and they certainly don't us asking uncomfortable questions about those beliefs, but that's precisely what we should do until politicians are willing to set aside religion completely as a political matter, both the bits they like and the bits they don't.
Even religious believers themselves sometimes seem to recognize the need to scrutinize a candidate's religious background and community, at least when it comes to their political opponents. Conservatives were vociferous in their attacks on Barack Obama's church, so why shouldn't their own churches be looked at with a more critical eye? It's not too hard to find unpleasant religious teachings in conservative churches where pastors attack science, church/state separation, liberty, and modernity.
Nico Pitney and Sam Stein detail some of the things preached by Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God where Sarah Palin and her family worshipped for several years:
- critics of President Bush will be banished to hell
- questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven
- charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war "contending for your faith"
- Jesus "operated from that position of war mode."
- "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."
- He also claims to have received direct "words of knowledge" from God, providing him information about past events in other people's lives.
What does it say about a church's politics when they consign to eternal torture and damnation anyone who dares criticize a mere political leader? This fuses politics and religion to a degree rarely seen even among Christian Nationalists. It's hardly surprising that such a church would also teach that Jesus — supposedly the "prince of peace" — would adopt a perspective of war and violence against brown foreigners.
Ken Silverstein and Sebastian Jones quote some of the ideas preached by David Pepper, senior pastor at Church on the Rock in Palin's hometown of Wasilla:
- From an November 25, 2007 sermon: “The purpose for the United States is… to glorify God. This nation is a Christian nation.”
- From an October 28, 2007 sermon: “God will not be mocked. I don’t care what the ACLU says. God will not be mocked. I don’t care what atheists say. God will not be mocked. I don’t care what’s going on in the nation today with so much horrific rebellion and sin and things that take place. God will not be mocked. Judgment Day is coming. Where do you stand?”
- From an October 28, 2007 sermon: “Just giving in a little bit is a disastrous thing…You can’t serve both man and God. It is one or the other.”
If the purpose of America is to "glorify God," then it can't be to secure liberty or freedom — and it's hardly necessary for leaders to worry about liberty and freedom. So long as America's leaders are "glorifying" God, then they are doing their job and that's OK. Is this what we really want from the people we elect? It's what Sarah Palin has been taught.
They also quote Mike Rose, senior pastor of the Juneau Christian Center where Palin and her family have worshipped since 2006:
- From a July 8, 2007 sermon: “Those that die without Christ have a horrible, horrible surprise.”
- From a July 28, 2007 sermon: “Do you believe we’re in the last days? After listening to Newt Gingrich and the prime minister of Israel and a number of others at our gathering, I became convinced, and I have been convinced for some time. We are living in the last days. These are incredible times to live in.”
The first quote should remind us that orthodox Christianity denies any real legitimacy to other religions: if you aren't a Christian when you die, you simply have no hope for the afterlife. Liberal Christians have tried to get away from this, but it's an indelible part of Christian tradition. The second quote, though, is much more of a minority viewpoint in modern Christianity: not that there will be an "end times" at some point, but that the current times are the end times. Lots of Christians have thought this at various points through history and all have been wrong. Mike Rose is wrong as well, just as he is wrong about everything else in his religion.
Simply being wrong isn't necessarily a big deal because we are all wrong at some point, but when reading his glee about the "last days" we should remember that people like Rose believe that it's a time when the majority of humanity suffers greatly, civilization is destroyed, and only the lucky few can avoid eternal damnation. Being happy about this on the same moral level as being happy that one is among the lucky few to avoid Auschwitz, and it's the sort of religious teaching which Sarah Palin has been absorbing for the past couple of years. Do we really want America to be run by people who look forward with happiness to Armageddon?
