A Sobering Piece

Mrs. Chancey from Ladies Against Feminism just wrote a timely article on a very sobering piece from Katha Pollitt regarding Sarah Palin's role in the recent election. Both Mrs. Chancey's response to this article and the article itself are must-reads. From Katha Pollitt's article:

...Second, Palin's presence on the Republican ticket forced family-values conservatives to give public support to working mothers, equal marriages, pregnant teens and their much-maligned parents. Talk-show frothers, Christian zealots and professional antifeminists--Rush Limbaugh and Phyllis Schlafly--insisted that a mother of five, including a "special-needs" newborn, could perfectly well manage governing a state (a really big state, as we were frequently reminded), while simultaneously running for veep and, who knows, field-dressing a moose. No one said she belonged at home. No one said she was neglecting her husband or failing to be appropriately submissive to him. No one blamed her for 17-year-old Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy or hard-partying high-school-dropout boyfriend. No one even wondered out loud why Bristol wasn't getting married before the baby arrived. All these things have officially morphed from sins to "challenges," just part of normal family life. No matter how strategic this newfound broadmindedness is, it will not be easy to row away from it. Thanks to Sarah, ladies, we can do just about anything we want as long as we don't have an abortion.

Third, while Palin did not win the Hillary vote, the love she got from Republican women, including very conservative, traditional women, shows that what I like to call the feminism of everyday life is taking hold across the spectrum. That old frilly-doormat model of femininity is gone: even women who stay home and attend churches that bar women from the clergy thrill to the idea of women being all that they can be and taking their rightful place in the public realm. Like everyone else, they want respect and power, and now, finally, thanks to the women's movement they despise, they may actually get some... 

Click here to read the entire article.

I really have nothing much to add to Mrs. Chancey's timely words on the subject, or to Ms. Pollitt's article, but I did want to talk a little bit about the battle cry of many American Christians on the topic of Governor Palin, now that the election battle is just about over. "We cannot judge our sister in the Lord!" 

Consider this: Barack Obama, however counter his life might run to the gospel message, also claims to be a Christian. But did we God-fearing believers not judge him? We judged his dangerous policies, we judged his unsavory associations, we judged his birth records... As well we should have. If we are going to elect any man or woman to lead us as a nation, it behooves us to show discernment when we evaluate our leaders. 

Matthew 7:1-5 says:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye' when there is a log in your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Later on in this passage, we are told: 

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them b y their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Wo every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20)

Now, as I've said before, I'm no master of exegesis, but, blessedly for me, I go to a church with two elders that certainly are. What we were taught when we went through 1 John and touched on this massage in Matthew was that it is a Christian's duty to judge. 1 John is full of advice and admonitions as to how we judge ourselves to be sure we are in the faith; Matthew 7:15-20 is an admonition to be able to know a tree by it's fruit... we are to judge the fruit (I must make a not here: only God can judge the heart; we can only see the fruit)! Matthew 7:1-7, however, tells us to beware; if we do not take the log out of our own eye before trying to take the speck out of our brother's eye, then we have failed. 

People judge. It is apart of our everyday life. We form opinions on this or that, strong ones or weak ones; we evaluate the facts at hand, as well we should! We are called to be people of wisdom and discernment. 

I'll go out on a limb here and say that one of the reasons that Christians saw it as a sin to judge the actions of Governor Palin and not to judge the actions and policies President-Elect Obama was because that judgment hit a little too close to home for us. It is easy to point the finger at a man whose policies seem to scoff at God, yet who insists that he is a Christian; it is a bit harder to point the finger at the "career woman," the "soft-core" feminist, the woman next door... the woman in the mirror. And if Governor Palin is the woman in the mirror, then it's hard to judge her because we shouldn't... we've got a log in our own eye. 

On the subject of Governor Palin, it has never been my wish to judge her actions in a manner that is not pleasing to God. I have strived not to attack her personally, not to judge her motives, for I cannot see her heart, not to make assumptions about her personal life, and not to exaggerate the facts or let my own opinions cloud my perception of what I believe is a very charming, forthright, well-intentioned woman with refreshing political policies. I cannot see her every day life, I cannot closely examine the fruit of her labors. All I can see is Titus 2:3-5, which commands women to be keepers of their homes, and to teach the younger women to be and do likewise. I can see Isaiah 3:12. I can see Sarah Palin in her own words, and in the words of those who know her best. I can see her public life, and what she has allowed us to see of her private life. And I can see the obvious:

The world sees that we are hypocrites, because as Christians, we have failed to evaluate the consequences of our decisions and our opinions. We have failed to judge rightly, to do our research, to guard our hearts and our homes against the lusts of the world. We have failed to see what was right in front of us, to see what even the world could see! This has little to do with Governor Palin, Senator McCain, President-Elect Obama,  or the much-forgotten Senator Joe Biden as people, and everything to do with how we Christians view the Word of God and live out His precepts.

Praise God, however, that, as we fail and as we falter, He is faithful to pick us up, to dust us off, and to use our imperfections to bring Him glory. Praise the Lord for second chances; praise Him for His mercy.