Sarah Palin: Un-Christian behavior? by Douglas Todd

[trueblue2007]

Sarah Palin: Un-Christian behavior?

I have been one of the journalists focusing on the Pentecostal beliefs of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Her form of Christian faith dictates against birth control, homosexuality and denies global warming. It advocates for Creationism and seeing both the Iraq war and the imminent end of the world as God's will.

But the new Alaskan governor's actions in office may be just as important, even more important, than her stated religious beliefs. Jesus brought the world one of its most profound teachings when he said: By their fruits shall you know them.

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They've found that throughout her political career Palin has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance.

The New York Times discovered when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture in Alaska, Palin appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages. When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.

Palin is also currently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power. The investigation centers on whether Palin tried to fire a state trooper who had recently divorced from her sister. Palin has said she will not to cooperate with the investigation.


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Readers will have to take seriously the kind of things journalists are starting to uncover about Palin, who has said she'd like to be president one day. Many U.S. evangelicals are very excited about having one of their own just a heartbeat from the presidency (as the woman who would take over if 72-year-old John McCain became president and then suffered serious health problems).

But they'll want to think through if she has been acting in Alaska the way they would expect of an authentic Christian.

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2008/09/20/sarah-palin-un-christian-behavior.aspx