The Biblical moral issues in the Palin candidacy

Dr. Albert Mohler has been addressing some of the problems that have been raised about Sarah Palin's nomination for Vice President in relation to what the Bible says or doesn't say about women's roles in the world and in the church.

I've wondered about this question too. I thought there was a Biblical guideline for women's leadership in the world, however, at least a hint of one, and one which is not very positive, where it says something about women leaders being a curse by God on a nation. Of course Dr. Mohler would probably know off the top of his head if there is such a direct statement in the Bible, but I was unable to find it if there is. I did find this, however: Isaiah 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.

As a positive model there was Deborah in the time of the Judges, however, who seems to have arisen in a period of weak men. Otherwise the only women I recall the Bible describing as leaders were Athaliah in Judah and in an indirect way Jezebel in Israel. Not happy examples, either of them, and it does keep the question alive in my mind. Perhaps because Israel is in a sense a type of the church I shouldn't be looking there for examples of national leadership anyway.

One way I've resolved it in my own mind is on the Deborah model, that female leadership is not God's best for a nation, but that a woman could in some times be a better leader than a man, especially in this fallen world. Male leadership in the world is also not answerable to the Christian pattern, and we shouldn't make our standard applicable only to women. As Dr. Mohler says, the first Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher are both good examples of strong women leaders who were good for their nation.

Many of us think this could very well come to describe Sarah Palin. I know that NOBODY could have inspired the conservative Republican base as she has done. I think of her as God's gift to us right now, even answer to prayer for the revival of this nation. She is immensely talented and more completely representative of the conservative position than any political officeholder has been in years.

She is still a young woman with the responsibilities of family, but from my own research on her I have no doubt she can handle both family and the responsibility of office -- she's been doing so for years now and she has plenty of family help with it as well.

I have not completely resolved these questions, but I do think of her as a God-given exception, not a model for what women should aspire to in general.

I do, however, think it was not a good move for her to say only positive supportive things and ask for privacy in the situation of the revelation of her daughter's pregnancy. It's an understandable reaction but not a good move. As a Christian and a supporter of abstinence-only she should not leave any impression of condoning premarital sex at all. Some acknowledgment of the sin involved is required of her in her position and I think she should still find a way to make this acknowledgment.

9/16: (Heard Dr. Mohler on this subject this past weekend, and he apparently doesn't think she should do anything more than she did. I don't know. Perhaps in such a personal situation, one can't.)

Blog Title Changed

OK, I changed the title of this blog just now. I wasn't sticking to the kind of material that would have justified calling it World's End Blog or anything similar. The material is becoming eclectic. Now I'll feel freer to talk about whatever is on my mind.

I once had another blog with the title Faith's Corner, but it was focused on the creation-evolution debate and I finally gave it up. Since it was on another provider site I was able to use the same name here.

Discovered a vast graveyard of abandoned Blogs out there.

I finally realized that I can't just turn off my thoughts about the political situation and especially Sarah Palin's sudden and very welcome appearance on the scene, so I decided to put up a new blog to focus on that for a while. I decided I wanted to focus especially on prayer for her and her family and McCain and family as well because the left has been just unbelievably vicious lately. I may link to it from here when I have it set up.

In seeking a new URL (internet address) for the blog, I discovered that most of the terms I thought of have already been used. Normally I just keep looking until I hit on one that's free but this time I decided to seek out those blogs with those addresses, figuring they might be bloggers I'd want to get to know.

What I found out is that of eleven I checked, only ONE is currently functioning. All the others were started a few years ago and abandoned after only a few posts, in some cases no posts at all. These are all URLs using the word "prayer" or some Biblical phrase, and two of them were started by pastors. Does this mean that the vast majority of blogs at Blogger and Wordpress are defunct, that the ones that are alive and well are the minority? Or is it something peculiar to the Biblical and Christian blogs that they are started and abandoned more frequently than others?

It was interesting to discover so many abandoned blogs because I too had started a couple of blogs a few years ago that I had abandoned. One of them I abandoned only because I had a computer disaster that disabled my internet connection and couldn't access the blog after that. Couldn't even contact Blogger to explain the problem because they required my old email address in order to contact them, which I no longer had. So I dropped that blog altogether after a couple of posts. It's still accessible for viewing but not for managing and editing. Believe me, I tried everything to get to it and get help from Blogger. It's a difficult situation to explain and it would take a very long post to try so I'm not going to say more.

But the other blog just died because I wasn't inspired enough to keep it up. I have to suppose that is the case with the majority of others' abandoned blogs. I had been writing prolifically online for years at various message boards so thought a blog would come naturally, but had to face that at least at that time I needed the stimulation of others' views to inspire me. With my current blog I thought that might also be the case but I'm treating it more as a personal diary and don't run out of things to say for that reason.

Conservative politics; Women in politics

I don't want my blog to become a political blog, but some attention has to be paid to developments in this election campaign because they are so unusual and unexpected. Sarah Palin is about as unexpected as you can get, a strong self-possessed articulate likeable woman, a REAL Christian who obeys the Lord -- instead of the usual Christian-in-name-only -- with all the right conservative ideals and political savvy to boot. Conservatives are amazed at this gift to their cause out of the blue. A friend believes she is answer to prayer. This may be. I posted a while back on the weekly prayer for revival in the nation various evangelical groups have been engaged in, that's planned to go at least through the election and perhaps through Christmas. I wouldn't discount the idea that God has heard and provided help for the conservative cause.

Why would He hear particularly for the cause of just one political party? Well, it does seem to me that the cause is a good cause and the prayers are for the increase of the good in it. The focus is on returning America to its pre-Marxist condition, to homely values and strengths, as opposed to the sin-promoting values of the other party, abortion in particular, gay marriage in particular, and above all socialism, which is a form of theft and bondage, stealing from some of the people to provide for others and taking personal choice and responsibility out of our hands.

Oh it's not that the Republican party is so pure, by a long shot. Plenty of Republicans rationalize murder of the unborn, and gay marriage too, and even support some socialist causes, just fewer of them than in the other party. There's also sometimes a macho tone to the Republican party and conservatives in general, that emphasizes, perhaps overemphasizes, armed defense of the nation and a sort of chest-thumping vengeance against the nation's enemies. Since American causes generally really are good causes, to help and defend others, and not the theft of foreign land or national power over others, we can support a strong military readiness up to a point, but I've heard a little too much "nuke 'em" from the Right as the solution to everything. I suppose it's an understandable natural reaction when the country has been attacked, but even then it certainly can't be the shout of a Christian. We aren't to have natural reactions, we're to learn the power of spiritual actions in obedience to Christ that contradict our natural impulses. Die to self, hate your own life, turn the other cheek, resist not evil, remember? Vengeance is the Lord's, not ours.

A Christian has to remember that our enemies are human beings who need the gospel of Christ above all, and sometimes that is hard to reconcile with any armed defense for any reason. We should even consider whether Jesus is really for the life of a soldier among His own. It can be argued both ways, and I've usually argued in favor of the soldier, but in the last year or so have been seeing more of a conflict with the Kingdom of God in any armed defense.

We take it for granted these days that there is no conflict, and American soldiers are often true Christians. Emails go around all the time showing them in prayer and there's no doubt in my mind it's all quite genuine. The question is exactly where and how to apply Jesus' commands to turn the other cheek and not resist evil. Surely they are not addressed to nations; Jesus didn't talk to nations, who are part of the fallen world. He talked to individuals, those who seek to obey Him. It's individuals who serve as soldiers, and if they are living for Christ how can they kill anyone?

It's not that we simply don't kill, but we have different weapons against our enemies, AND we are to understand who our enemies are in a different way than the world does. The weapons of our warfare are not physical but spiritual. We fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in heavenly places. And in His strength we DO win our battles. Enemies convert into friends or are rendered unable to fight.

Anyway, it's something I've been thinking about for some time. There is a caricature of the argument against war that is sheer foolishness, it seems to me, that comes from the left: that the nation should simply abandon all military attempts to bring justice to foreign situations because it's inherently unjust or none of our business and so on. It certainly IS our business if foreign powers hate us and are gaining the means to do us harm, apart from the fact that our motives really ARE good motives. Beyond that, unbelievers have nothing with which to fight EXCEPT physical means, so to pull back leaves the nation completely vulnerable to enemies. But Christians do have other weapons. If we are living by His Spirit, we can count on protection from God.

In any case it appears to me that there's no doubt that there are more true Christians on the conservative side of the political arguments because there are more issues a Christian can support on the conservative side. Certainly not all, and I strongly considered not voting at all this time until Sarah Palin came along.

So maybe Sarah Palin is answer to prayer. She certainly strengthens the Republican ticket, to put it mildly.

But I've also been thinking about the rightness of a woman in office in general, and in specific the rightness of a woman in office with young children. Of course she's been in the Governor's office in Alaska for a couple of years and before that the Mayor's office in a small town in Alaska. I don't think we have a clear picture exactly how that was worked out, except that her husband took a year off to help.

How different will the Vice Presidency be? The campaign is sure to be intense and time-consuming but that's only for two months. Seems to me I remember seeing something she said a while back when she was one of many being considered for the office, that she wasn't sure the Vice Presidency would give her enough work to do and she needs to have plenty to do. That may mean she can handle a lot of work on top of dealing with family life or it may mean that she is sacrificing her family. It's probably both to some extent and I'm not clear what proportion of both it may be.

One answer I have to my own questions is that Sarah Palin is unique. She's simply the best out there right now. We don't have to judge all family situations by hers, and what she has done for the conservative cause in a few short days simply by her speech-making ability and attractive presence and ability to connect with people is truly phenomenal.

The Bible shows that, although women have the ability to rule, God put men in that role, yet it also shows that sometimes He puts women in that role nevertheless. When the men aren't rising to the occasion. When the prophets were weak in Israel, there would be a woman prophet. When the kings were weak, there would be a strong woman ruling -- for good or ill.

Beyond that there is the practical matter of a woman's having the job of taking care of children. It's not that men can't do it, it's that women were given that role, and in most situations in history the men are needed elsewhere. How can anyone argue with this? Yet we have lots of women in office today. This is supposed to be "progress" for the nation. It's certainly a victory for feminism. But unfortunately it's no doubt also a sign of the general weakening of the nation that women are taking those roles. Certainly the righteous alternative is NOT the macho attitude that is so likely to surface in reaction against such a situation. It was the macho attitude in the first place that provoked women into the feminist reaction. Victory over THAT is fine with me, but in a perfect world there would not be such conflict and such extremes on either side of it.

P.S. I checked Dr. Laura's site today, not having followed her for a few years now, just wanting to see what she had to say about Sarah Palin, and found her denouncing her as a mother of five children for taking on such a demanding job. I've often found Dr. Laura's opinions congenial with my own, and I agree with her general concern in this case too, but only her GENERAL concern. I think she errs in not seeing the uniqueness of this situation, the uniqueness of the need for a powerful boost to the conservative cause and the lack of anyone else who could have done what Sarah Palin has done, the uniqueness of Sarah Palin herself, perhaps even the uniqueness of her family situation in which the children have many caretakers and will most likely be a great deal with their mother in this endeavor anyway. And Sarah herself isn't going to be completely swallowed up by the kind of job the Vice Presidency is.

Sarah Palin needs a LOT of prayer

Here's a video of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, visiting the Assembly of God church in Wasilla, Alaska, that she grew up in. It must be recent because she says her son Track is soon to go to Iraq, and that's scheduled for September 11, as of today just a week away. She sounds very young here (Lots of "cool" and "you guys"), not quite the same persona we've seen at the Republican Convention, but not inconsistent with it either I hasten to add. Her Christian commitment is made very clear in any case.

It's of the utmost importance that Christians pray for her protection. She's already under attack and it's not going to let up. There is at least one website calling for increased security for her because she's such a threat to the leftist establishment, and that's good but of course the attack she has been going through is fundamentally spiritual. It has reached a pitch even unusual for the left, and it's easy to suspect that it could inspire someone to try to kill her. This is clearly demonic, this is spiritual warfare. Besides praying for her protection, and her family's protection, and McCain's too, we should pray that God would restrain her enemies, interfere with their plans and so on.

And thank Him for letting us have her. We don't deserve this good woman in our political life, but God has had mercy on us in giving her to us.

Sept 5: Friend Z, who has a very popular conservative political blog, has posted a Psalm for Sarah today, as a great example of how to pray for her.

Sarah Palin's speech:

Loose ends, hurricanes, politics, Bible versions

Well, New Orleans wasn't God's target this time after all. I do wonder however if prayer might have deflected it because if you look at a map of Gustav's track you can see that it made a little jog to the West just as it passed that city as if intentionally keeping some distance from it. Certainly there was a lot of prayer out there.

Then there's the scandal about Sarah Palin's daughter that just reared its ugly head. Obama is right, the families of politicians should be out of bounds for news hounds, it's nobody's business but the family's, but that isn't going to happen in our news-mad age. Of course the sexual acting out of a child of a Christian does disappoint, but more disappointing was the response of her parents. I personally think some disappointment on their part should have been expressed in some quiet way -- Palin is good with the words, I'm sure she could have found the right ones --along with the family support for the daughter in spite of it of course. But all we got was the support part, and the support was overboard in my opinion. Could have done without the enthusiasm, the "beautiful daughter" part and how proud they are of her and the grandchild to come. Seems to me that just feeds the liberal position that there's nothing wrong with sex outside marriage. No disappointment, no sanctions, no consequences, except of course she'll have to grow up sooner than anticipated etc. Weak. Too bad.

I'm stalled on the Bible versions topic, don't know for how long, got into a debate on another board, this time with a new versions defender for a change instead of a King-James-Only defender. Unfortunately made me appreciate just how dug in people are in the new versions. Then talked to a friend who trusts in her Revised Standard Version and thinks it's particularly trustworthy because whenever the pastor gives the translation of a passage that he says is the best rendering of the Greek, it's the same one she has in her RSV. Of course he's consulting with the same texts her Bible is based on but I thought better of trying to explain that. Encountering such entrenched belief in people I know to be truly Christians makes my effort on the subject seem a lost cause. I don't think I'll give up but I'll probably take a breather.

Got back into some good recent teachings by Zac Poonen in the meantime -- always inspiring, and I need spiritual bolstering after getting too involved in intellectual debate. http://rlcfchurch.org/ (go to "Sermons").