How other look at us

I find it interesting from time to time to read something or talk to someone who is so totally outside the realm of my world as a follower of Christ (and a Pentecostal one at that).

It shows me what some think of us or how they view us.

Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy is bringing this to the forefront like nothing I have seen in recent years.

As you know by know, Sarah Palin grew up in an Assemblies of God church. She "speaks" the same language we do.

We understand her when she says that "God speaks to her."

We nod our heads in agreements as we listen to her articulate that she prays before every decision.

Yet his language, the language of being a Christ-follower is so foreign to many in the secular culture we live in that one might as well be speaking Chinese to a group of people in South Alabama.

Listen to the words of Sam Harris, an avowed atheist, from his article, "When Atheists Attack," in Newsweek magazine.

"In speaking before her church about her son going to war in Iraq, Palin urged the congregation to pray "that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God; that's what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan."

When asked about these remarks in her interview with Gibson, Palin successfully dodged the issue of her religious beliefs by claiming that she had been merely echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln.

The New York Times later dubbed her response "absurd." It was worse than absurd; it was a lie calculated to conceal the true character of her religious infatuations.

Every detail that has emerged about Palin's life in Alaska suggests that she is as devout and literal-minded in her Christian dogmatism as any man or woman in the land. Given her long affiliation with the Assemblies of God church, Palin very likely believes that Biblical prophecy is an infallible guide to future events and that we are living in the "end times."

Which is to say she very likely thinks that human history will soon unravel in a foreordained cataclysm of war and bad weather. Undoubtedly Palin believes that this will be a good thing—as all true Christians will be lifted bodily into the sky to make merry with Jesus, while all nonbelievers, Jews, Methodists and other rabble will be punished for eternity in a lake of fire.

Like many Pentecostals, Palin may even imagine that she and her fellow parishioners enjoy the power of prophecy themselves. Otherwise, what could she have meant when declaring to her congregation that "God's going to tell you what is going on, and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you"?

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy "baptism in the Holy Spirit," "miraculous healings" and "the gift of tongues."

Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds."

Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?"

My answer to Sam Harris, is yes, we do want our leaders to think about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say, "All options remain on the table." We do want someone who is in touch with God.

And let's not forget that it was Hillary Rodham Clinton who back in 1996 admitted to holding conversations with Elenaor Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi as a therapeutic release, and Nancy Reagan sharing that she consulted the stars (astrology) in making major decisions.

All of us come from some kind of presuppositional background. Why not a background of being in connection with a higher power, the creator of the universe himself?

Besides, who else am I to believe in - Sam Harris?