Sep 07 2008
Palin’s church promotes converting gays
[AP]
Gov. Sarah Palin’s church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.
“You’ll be encouraged by the power of God’s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,” according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years.
Palin’s conservative Christian views have energized that part of the GOP electorate, which was lukewarm to John McCain’s candidacy before he named her as his vice presidential choice. She is staunchly anti-abortion, opposing exceptions for rape and incest, and opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples.
Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the “Love Won Out” Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.
Read more here.
[From me]
So what! I agree with her church. God can change anyone through the power of prayer. I make no apologies for telling people about Jesus and what He can do for their life. It is who I am. I think it is who Palin is too. The media just doesn’t like Palin. They are looking for anything to trash her. If Sen. Obama’s former pastor’s views didn’t matter then neither should Palin’s church. Give me a break!
What do you think?
15 responses so far
You might be right.
Did Obama answer lots of questions about this? Did the press pour over the sermons? Did Hillary and the Right make a lot of assumptions about him based on his membership in the church? How long did the inquiries last? Wasn’t it something like 3 weeks?
If so, then her associations should be fair game. Yes or no?
If the country has seen the woman for all of 9 days, isn’t there more to her than a 35 minute speech?
Thanks for writing about this.
Any woman who supports the death penalty for humans AND moose just has to be trustworthy in everything.
But seriously, this claim that homosexuals can be changed is dubious, to say the least. If they don’t change, what next? The death penalty for them, as well?
Lots of gays have changed - see this guy - http://gcmwatch.wordpress.com/ , for example.
Good for her church! If someone is offended that a CHURCH would pray for people to turn from behavior that God was spectacularly clear in labeling as sinful, then they are 100% clueless about churches. The churches that should be embarrassed are the one who don’t pray for sinners to repent.
Comparing her church to Wright’s is comical. In fact, I hope people listen to every sermon her church every did. Sounds like they have much, much better doctrine than Wright and don’t ask God to damn America.
Neil’s last blog post..God told you what?!
While no one is perfect…Gov. Palin seems to be the real deal so far. I hope the media will continue to evaluate her, her governing, her life, her family, and her church. Let them search. I don’t care. As they search, what I care about is that they not make up stuff! We all know the national media wouldn’t do that to either Obama, Biden, McCain, or Palin! Yeah right!
So far we know that Obama holds little regard for the Scripture, we’ve seen his speech about the Bible. We know that Biden plagurized his speeches when he previously ran for president–and caused him to withdraw from the race. We know that McCain has gone from the middle to the right to attract conversative republicans…so far, Gov. Palin seems to be the only one consistent in her views and values.
I hope the media, republicans and democrats take notice. What a refreshing day that would be!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..I’m Wondering About Worship Today
No, No, No, No! This is not what needed to come out right now. UGH! The when the liberal part of the press hears about a Love Won Out conference. It is always spun to make people see Christians as haters. Focus on the Family has media savvy people and they deal with local opposition with these conferences every time. Why didn’t they postpone this event till after the election? I’m so disappointed with the not thinking ahead about this. The families who could have been helped through this may not attend now. The conferences are intended to be a safe environment that will now not have that. This church is not going to be ministering to the community now that it has allowed the media in on this event.
Not to mention, I didn’t want this topic in the dialogue with my family when talking about Sarcastic Sarah. Now, prayers are going to have to be for Love to heard instead of Love winning.
Obama’s former pastor’s views didn’t matter?! Give me a break!
I still here conservatives bring up Reverand Wright on a regular basis.
Palin’s church is relevant to the extent that it reflects her views and the extent to which those views might impact policy decisions. Obama was forced to spend a lot of time answering questions about Reverand Wright and Palin should expect to have to answer questions, too.
Personally, I am curious about Palin requesting prayers for an oil and gas pipeline. Although I consider myself an agnostic today, I never did believe in a God who made known His opinion on pipelines to state governors. I happen to believe that successful governance requires a fair helping of pragmatism and flexibility, which may not be possible if a president believes that God is dictating policy positions on every issue.
Vinny’s last blog post..Palin’s Hockey Rink
Kevin,
I’d like to hear what you think about this blog post written by a Baptist church-state expert and former director of the Pew Forum on Religion. It is titled Basic Scrutiny of Palin and Religion: Fair and Foul
Rogers is about as fair and balanced as they come. I don’t like what the media did to Obama regarding Jeremiah Wright. However, Palin has drawn connections between her religious belief and how she governs. But the McCain campaign is unwilling to discuss Palin’s religious beliefs with the media. Palin need not answer every question about her faith. But, as Rogers notes, “a candidate whose faith has been put in play by a campaign and who has suggested that there are connections between her religious beliefs and governance cannot simply turn away the questions aimed at probing those connections. ”
Big Daddy Weave’s last blog post..John Lewis was a Community Organizer. MLK too.
BDW,
Excellent article! I agree - certain “issues”, whether Palin speaks in tongues or not for instance, is irrelevant. How she would govern and what would inform her decisions (see her views on Alaska’s pipeline as end-times issue for example) is more to the point than her religious beliefs per se. My sense so far is that her fundamentalist views would dominate her decision process, but its hard to know when she’s been holding her cards so close to the vest (signs of an authoritarian? maybe). If I’m right about Palin, it raises issues for me about McCain’s own decision-making process. Personally, I’m looking forward to more press scrutiny and to the debates.
BDW,
Thanks for the link. I would say it was a fair article. I said the same thing about Obama’s former pastor. You can’t blame a candidate for everything someone else says.
The truth is no natter what side of the political spectrum we are on, we see candidates through our own lenses.
Kevin Bussey’s last blog post..Tutu says Church obsessed with gays
Kevin,
I wouldn’t say it’s the same between Palin and Obama - while Obama attended his church and seemed to accept its views, Palin’s talk at her church sounded like she not only accepts its views, but endorses them enthusiastically and wholeheartedly. I would be very surprised to see if she later disassociates herself from her pastor as Obama did his.
A3,
I don’t know why she should distance herself. I agree with what she believes.
Kevin Bussey’s last blog post..Tutu says Church obsessed with gays
Kevin,
I agree, I don’t think Palin will distance herself because she seems to openly advocate the teachings of her church (that Alaska and the oil pipeline will play a major role in the End Times, for example). That’s why I feel that comparing how the press treats her church ties vs. how it treats Obama’s church ties is not a fair comparison. I would say that Palin’s religious beliefs are more germane to her candidacy than Obama’s religious beliefs are to his.
A3,
So what do you think about Obama’s slip about “my Muslim faith?”
Kevin Bussey’s last blog post..Tutu says Church obsessed with gays
Kevin,
I don’t believe that he’s a Muslim or that he ever was. However, I wouldn’t mind it if he was as long as he didn’t base his decisions on the dictates of Islam.
[…] Posted on October 27, 2008 by Neil One of the objections to Sarah Palin’s church was that they consider homosexual behavior to be a sin (sort of like most churches in the world) […]