God & Country

Is Sarah Palin the Next James Dobson?

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December 2, 2009 RSS Feed Print
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By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Could Going Rogue establish Sarah Palin as a Christian Leader as much as it solidifies her status as a political player? I make the case in my most recent God & Country column from U.S. News Weekly.

Here's the top:

How much is Sarah Palin's new book tailored to evangelical Christian readers? Her writing partner for Going Rogue, Lynn Vincent, is a longtime editor at World magazine, which practices "biblical worldview journalism." Though the book is published by an imprint of HarperCollins, it is being distributed to Christian booksellers by Zondervan, the world's leading publisher of Bibles. And Going Rogue brims with testimony about Palin's Christian faith. Its opening pages relate how Palin's daughter Piper literally became the poster child for the antiabortion group Alaska Right to Life by posing for a picture with "pretend angel wings fastened to her soft shoulders."

The book's final paragraph, meanwhile, reads like an altar call, the part of a church service when pew sitters are invited to commit their lives to Christ. "I do know there is a God," the former Alaska governor writes. "My life is in his hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over."

Though most of the talk surrounding the release of Going Rogue revolves around how it affects Palin's standing as a political figure, including her chances of winning the White House, should she choose to run, the book is as much poised to heighten Palin's profile as a Christian leader. "It's a mistake to frame all this in the context of her potential candidacy," Mark DeMoss, one of the country's top Christian media specialists, says of Going Rogue. "She wants to tell her story and the story of her personal faith journey." At a time when politically conservative evangelicals lack a national figurehead, Palin's ability to connect with them could also deepen her appeal to a key part of the Republican base. "Christian audiences could respond to this like they did when George W. Bush talked about his faith," says John Green, a religion and politics expert at the University of Akron. "This community takes faith very seriously and likes people who talk about their faith journey."

Until now, that part of Palin's story has been mostly implied...

Read the full piece here.

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Christianity,
religion,
Sarah Palin

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I forgot one other thing. This is one of the reasons liberal jackasses like you make me want to vomit!! You sit there and throw stones at Ronald Reagan, who had a divorce, but fail to mention that he was very happily and faithfully married to Nancy for 52 years!!!! DID YOU GET THAT?? 52 YEARS!! Sure, he made a mistake more than a half century before and a marriage didn't work out, but morons like you refuse to take off your liberal vision goggles and look at the guy's entire life. I'd say that a man who stays faithfully married to someone for 52 years has every right and all the credibility he needs to talk about family values. You liberals make me sick!

Kevin of OK 4:31PM December 15, 2009

So now I'm a racist and hate the poor. I've been poor most of my life, but I don't expect all you bleeding heart liberals to pay my way. I'm on my way to becoming financially successful and have had absolutely NO government help!! I don't want someone else's money to be taken from them and given to me. That's what idiots like you want to do. So, while I make the money I'm making and become successful, I'll put it in places and investments that you communists pigs can't get your greedy hands on it and give it to the fat welfare mom with 4 kids from 3 different men because she's too fat and lazy to work for herself!! And if black people would wake up for once and look at who's really "keeping them down," they'll see that it's liberals like you who keep telling them they're too stupid to make it on their own and need a govt't handout. Conservatives like me say that they are talented and smart enough to make it on their own and they'll be so much better off than if they rely on the gov't! You really need to get some education and stop getting your ridiculous talking points from PMSNBC and that dufus Keith Olberman and whatever other commies they have on there and on CNN. One last thing, as far as Jimmy Carter goes, he used to be the worst president we ever had; but Obama has already far surpassed him and he's done it in only 11 months!! Remarkable!

Kevin of OK 4:24PM December 15, 2009

This is mostly to Kevin of OK. It seems that you think that Fox News is the new Gospel and Sarah Palin is above reproach because she says that she's a Christian. This game is played out, but some how small minded people make it work. Jimmy Carter was one of the most out spoken evangelical Christians, yet the Christian community hates him. Ronald Reagan, the only President with a divorce on his record while boasting about his family values, is your saviour and he went to the least amount of church services as a President. Give me a break. If you think poor people deserve as much attention as a CEO then you are a "God hating liberal". If you think Christ came to save people with dark skin as well as white people you are an "idiot" who "thinks more highly of Muslims than the Christian religion". Here's a wake up call...Jesus wasn't born in Texas and didn't die in Oklahoma.

I am a C, I am a C-H of KY 12:36AM December 06, 2009

God & Country

Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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