When John McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be his vice-presidential running mate for his presidential campaign, an unusual amount of scrutiny and criticism ensued. This is partly because Sarah Palin was an unexpected choice and partly because Sarah Palin comes with a lot of negative baggage — at least if you support secular government, reason, and science. For the conservative evangelicals, Palin's support for creationism, Christian Nationalism, and religious warfare are most welcome.
1. Would Sarah Palin as a Vice-President Matter?
Unless your name is Dick Cheney, vice-presidents have little power or influence over national policy, so in principle Sarah Palin's anti-secular, anti-science views shouldn't matter. There are two reasons why they matter very much, though. First, picking Sarah Palin for vice-president tells us more about John McCain's priorities. Even if he doesn't agree with all her views, he at least considers those views too unimportant to keep her off his ticket. Second, John McCain is old enough that voters should seriously consider whether he could live through two terms. Some Christian Nationalists have expressed the hope that God would strike down John McCain in order to make Palin the President. Can America survive a Sarah Palin presidency?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.
3. Sarah Palin & Holy War, Religious Crusades
In a speech to high school kids at her church, Sarah Palin said: "Pray...that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [our military men and women] out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we are praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." Do we need leaders who believe they are following God's plan when invading other nations, especially Muslim nations? Some say that Palin was merely expressing hope that politicians are following God's will, but shouldn't they follow the will of the people? Either way, Sarah Palin is a politician expressing more interest in obeying what she thinks her god wants than in serving the interests and will of the people she represents.4. Sarah Palin Supports Censorship and Banning Books
According to former Wasilla mayor John Stein] says that she became mayor, Palin sought to inject her religious beliefs into her policy. For example, some conservative Christians in Wasilla objected to the language in some of the books in the public library, so she "asked the library how she could go about banning books." Librarian Mary Ellen Baker was aghast and apparently was unwilling to support Palin's censorship efforts because news reports from the time say that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.Can anyone rise to a position of power or influence within the Republican Party without first avowing opposition to basic science in the name of religious ideology and anti-intellectual superstition? That seems unlikely and Sarah Palin, vice-presidential nominee chosen by John McCain, reinforces this impression through her defense of creationism against evolution. Although Palin never had much of a chance to put her desires into practice, we have clear evidence of what she wanted.
6. Sarah Palin on Sex Education: Sarah Palin Pushes Abstinence-Only Education
Sarah Palin opposes schools teaching children anything about any form of contraception. In accordance with the 2008 Republican Party platform, she supports only teaching children abstaining from sexual activity, despite acknowledging the fact that "more than 3 million American teenagers contract sexually transmitted diseases" and the need "to help teens make healthy choices." John McCain agrees, voting to increase funding for abstinence-only programs and to cut funding for family planning and teen pregnancy prevention programs. If Sarah Palin wants America to live under abstinence-only rules, it's legitimate to ask how well that's worked out for her family. As it turns out, not so well.
