For the first 12 years of my life, I was taken to Sunday School in a Pentecostal church in rural Virginia. I remember as if it were yesterday sitting in my little classroom and having the crap scared out of me in the name of Jesus...the Second Coming, the Tribulation, death for non-believers. But there are good things that I took away from the experience—love of family, love of mankind, respect for the earth, and doing into others as you would have them do unto you.
But I am not so sure Sarah Palin has learned the "good" lessons of Pentecostal Christianity.
From an interview on NPR yesterday with Margaret Poloma, at the University of Akron, has written several books on Pentecostalism and is herself a Pentecostal Christian, we find explanations for some serious policy issues with Palin:
- Iraq War is a "task from God".
Poloma says some people might hear that and say Palin believes this is a holy war, or that Pentecostals think this is a holy war.
"I would think it's fair to say. Yes," Poloma says.
One reason, Poloma says, is that most Pentecostals believe Islam is a false religion.
- Pray for direction in public policy
Pentecostals believe God routinely intervenes in human affairs and Palin sounded like a Pentecostal when she asked people at Wasilla Assembly of God to pray about building a gas pipeline through Alaska.
- Abstinence only sex ed, questionable views on teaching birth control, no choice even for victims of rape and incest
Darrell Bock, a New Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, says some Pentecostals hold to their convictions in the face of opposition because they believe they are in tune with the will of God.
"What faith does in this case is fuel a sense of mission and direction," Bock says. "It can also produce a little element of certainty about that direction."
Religion is personal, but it becomes an issue when it is obviously driving a political agenda that is out of synch with America. We have lived for almost 8 years with an ideologue in the White House. We cannot afford another one that thinks you can justify anything because you are in touch with God.
NPR