God, Sarah Palin, Gas, Peggy Noonan
September 3rd, 2008 by Steven GardnerThere is a YouTube video circulating of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin speaking in the Wasilla church she grew up in.
There is a furor afoot and I would venture to guess that it is probably way unfounded in one sense, but perhaps well founded in the other.
After seeing the video I Googled “Palin Iraq.” The first entry was a MarketWatch story, a Wall Street Journal effort.
“The war in Iraq is part of God’s plan, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in June in a speech at her former church.
“Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate whose son will deploy to Iraq in a few weeks, told the students that ‘our national leaders, are sending [the troops] out on a task that is from God.’”
If you watch the video, you could assume that is exactly what she meant. I don’t think it’s true, though. Here’s the full quote, which for me offers much more context:
“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”
To me she’s not saying the Iraq War is right with God. She’s urging people to pray that it will be (or even continue to be, perhaps). I’ve been around a church enough to be sensitive to how people pray for things and to get when I think they’re crossing a line that none of us can know. I don’t think Palin is crossing that line in the Iraq comment. I’ll allow that someone might find a place where she crossed it elsewhere. I just don’t think she did here.
The other quote referenced in the MarketWatch story, though, sounded and read to me exactly as the reporter wrote:
Earlier, she exhorted the students to pray for pipeline, saying “we can work together to make sure God’s will is done.” She said God wanted to extract natural resources.
The quote I wrote down was:
“I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built.”
If she had ended it there, you could argue that what she’s saying is that it will need to be God’s will for the people and the companies to unify. But then she added, “So pray for that.” That, to me, sounds like she’s wanting people to pray for that unification specifically so the gas line will be built. There’s no “If it be Your will,” in there.
Of course, what God or Sarah Palin say may not matter as much as what Peggy Noonan says.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Peggy Noonan should go back to speech writing. At least she was good at that.
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I asked god who I should vote for yesterday, and she didn’t reply. So I’m assuming that I’m supposed to vote for Obama… because activist judges seem to fit within my impression of a divine figure pretty nicely.
September 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Are you saying that “She’s urging people to pray that” “the Iraq War [will be] right with God”? What does this mean? Does she believe that God thinks that wars are all right?
If she does think that God sanctifies war, I would like to send her a copy of Mark Twain’s “War Prayer”. It would be singularly useful for a person who held such beliefs.
As Blaise Pascal wrote in one of his “Pensées”: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I think most of us like to believe there may be a divine plan behind challenges set before us and if that gives comfort to the families of those who serve…so what?
My father once told me that if it weren’t for religion and churches the world would be in chaos.
Few of us would like to test that theory…I wouldn’t.
Peggy Noonan writes for a living…found a tidbit and sold her story.
She also wrote the following for The Wall Street Journal…some interesting ideas.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110003143
“…I see the modern Democratic Party as the party of snobs. I wonder why your much-proclaimed compassion is distributed on such a limited basis–to this pressure group, that minority group, this special interest group. …”
(Hmmm…we could test that idea here and now. The SK/PO Commissioner who pushed for the special interest dog park…Democrat?
And the four NK school board members who voted to fire the teachers and keep the swimming pool…Democrats?
And the KS who supported the decision…Democratic lean?)
She also wrote the following…not pertinent to this blog…but interesting…
“… Those who oppose gun rights are more like the kind of people who …would write a sensitive essay about how it felt to come face to face with one’s existential powerlessness when faced with the sudden force of a sick man who alas shot two kids right in front of me. You may mean to be helpful in the abstract, but you are not helpful in the particular…”
Sharon O’Hara
September 3rd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Thanks Steve for sharing the whole quote . I totally understood what she was saying . I come from a similiar faith background . I was asked to open a political Convention in prayer a few years back . I prayed that we would lead lives and support our neigbors in a way that were concerned about being on the side of God , and not that God was on our side . If I was short quoted , or f I was quoting , It could have been seen as saying republicans or policies were more Godly then others . As if !!!
Abraham Lincoln is quoted similiarly . Yep me and Abe . ;0)
More evil and more people have died in the last 100 years due to governments that were non religious and anti any religion since the history has been recorded Philip . I know too many athestists or agnostics to believe they are a problem Phil, and some I might add that have show shown more concern of others then I . I admire those traits in any person , its not religion or non belief, its extremism and lack of respect for others that is the problem.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Wow, Steve, I didn’t realize how biased and partisan you were. Interesting that you can take sides like this in a presidential election. Interesting. I’ll think I’ll stop reading.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Maybe before you stop reading you could do me the courtesy of explaining to me how I’m being partisan.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Steven, you erred by giving the context and pointing out the apparent error in the attack.
Here is how you do it in a “nonpartisan” way:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNulPSqaP1eyysv8ENJWhk0ZSrPgD92VJPL00
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”
See? Completely unbiased and impartial reporting must never step on the lines of the people attempting the baseless smear.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I’m starting to feel sorry for you, Steven, since you’re getting fire from all directions. (…yours truly being one of the flame throwers)
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I had to look up her views Steve . Because you stated you did not think, which means she could have been upset that you did not defend Palin to the hilt and say it was just smear, or that she was believing it was defintely smear and you her the benefit of the doubt when yu saw t in context .
Mary appears quite to the left . If it makes you feel better I always figure you slant left, but you are fair . The older I get that becomes more important actually . Besides regardless of how we slant , being fair always sets up a conversation that enlightens both sides .
Mike how do you do that smiley thing .
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Sorry about the flipping typos
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Mike,
The heat is probably good for me.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Mick,
You said
That’s because there were more people in the last 100 years than in all of recorded history.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Hey Mick, Which Governments? I have a real hard time believing that.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Steve- Noonan said it, most of them are thinking it.
September 11th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
ABC’s Charles Gibson doesn’t understand, but what’s worse is his assertion that his excerpt from her statement conveys her “exact words” even when she questioned it.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5782924&page=1
GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?
PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.
GIBSON: Exact words.