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Sarah Palin’s religious beliefs about the “Last Days” have received almost no attention in mainstream media and as a campaign issue. Beyond a brief mention in a Saturday Night Live skit, Sarah Palin’s religion has been treated as off-limits. Part of the problem is that most reporters don’t understand fundamentalist religious beliefs enough to ask good questions.
As one who spent years in the Assemblies of God, I have been profoundly concerned by evidence of her religious beliefs, and how they affect every aspect of her life. She believes clearly that she has been called by God to usher in the End Times. Her statements about Russia, Israel, the Middle East, her lack of concern about global warming, her view of the world as divided into good and evil have been clear to anyone who recognizes how much they are shaped by her religion.
All of this, and much more, are laid out in an outstanding article by Marlene Winell, Ph.D., Sarah Palin, Warrior Princess for God
The article begins:
Palin is on a mission from God and she’s fighting a spiritual war. While that may sound extreme, it is exactly the mindset she has. It fits the bible-believing fundamentalist/evangelical subculture she is part of and it fits her language and behavior. Most people who have not been a “born-again” true believer do not realize what all of this really means. But the idea of Palin serving in high office is alarming to many former believers. Having been there myself, including an upbringing in the Assemblies of God Church, I will try to connect the dots and explain why this is serious.
The problem is not Palin’s attitude on specific issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, censorship, war, or even global warming, serious as these are. Nor is it about peculiar beliefs on creation, dinosaurs, God’s intervention on a gas pipeline, or Jesus coming back.The problem is her mindset as a whole and her identity within that. A fundamentalist or evangelical believes the Bible is the literal word of God. Everything else flows from that. True believers view the world differently. They live in a different reality-one that is dangerous to humankind and Planet Earth. more
For a video about Sarah Palin’s religious beliefs, “Palin’s Apocalypse,” see the video in the article An Letter to Sarah Palin, self-annointed Chromefishtian Leader from a former member of her religious cult.
As a former fundamentalist, I’d like to call you on what you are doing. The media has called you “opaque” about your religion, but some of us can connect the dots.
This is not about disrespecting your private beliefs. However, your religion matters to us because it matters to you. You have done and said things that indicate you are a born-again, literal Bible-believing, fundamentalist Christian. This is the most important thing about you and you have not been honest about it.
Most people who have never been entrenched in the subculture of fundamentalist Christianity may not understand what this really means, but I do. Like you, I was raised in the Assemblies of God and I was a zealous part of the Jesus Movement. Like you, my life was consumed with seeking God’s will for my life and awaiting the imminent return of Jesus. The Atheist’s Way: An Open Letter to Sarah Palin
Religious views matter because they are worldviews, which shape political decisions. Ever since Sarah Palin was plucked from national obscurity to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate, I have been amazed and disturbed that Sarah Palin’s religious views have been mostly ignored, and treated as a private matter.
If anyone’s views in this presidential election are truly dangerous, it is the views of the hockey mom from Wasilla, who sees herself as God’s anointed, sent by God to hasten Armageddon. I’ll end with these words from Marlene Winell:
All of this certainty and fantasy in today’s complex world is dangerous indeed. We must not have a Vice-President suffering from such delusion – even if millions of others suffer the delusion with her. There was a time when all of humanity thought the world was flat. Today, the stakes for such massive error are much higher. A Bible-believing true believer is like a bird in a large cage of other birds, waiting for a day of release and in the meantime taking charge of the cage. But there is something very wrong about the picture. The ruling bird does not take the community or health inside the cage seriously.
So I have a message for you, Sarah, Warrior Princess for God, from all of us who know what you are up to. How dare you presume to take responsibility for our country and our planet when you, in your own mind, do not consider this home? I mean home for the long haul, not just until your rescue arrives from space. How dare you look forward to Christ’s return, leaving your public office empty like a scene from the movie, Left Behind? Sarah Palin, Warrior Princess for God
Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson
November 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Dr.Stevenson,
Thank you for having written this. I don’t know all that much about the U.S. though I do have some friends living there. I’m from Holland and glad I just read your article. Scary! Are there many who think like that in the U.S.? I know Bush was thinking along those lines as well. Not good. Not healthy for Americans or for the world at large. Shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the White House. But that’ll take time…and lots of articles like this.
My very best wishes.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hi Sekoja,
Thanks for your comment.
I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been immersed in a business project, and completely focused on that.
I can’t give you exact numbers but many American Christians do think this way.
I can tell you that the 16 “Left Behind” novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have sold 65 million copies. They are based Christian dispensationalist End Times theology.
Here are a couple of articles about the Left Behind series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind_(series)
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html
I agree with you that it is all scary, and even scarier to think that American national and international policy could be influenced by such ideas. There is evidence that at least some policy decisions by some political leaders already have been based on these ideas.
My real concern is that very little of this was made public during the election campaign, partly because few members of the media know enough about dispensationalism to write substantive articles. The other reason is that Sarah Palin is a smart enough politician to know that her beliefs are not mainstream, and so she has been careful to position herself as simply a devout Christian woman, without being specific about her dispensationalist, End Time beliefs.
Did you read my earlier blog post, “John McCain Jilts The Evangelicals and Chooses Sarah Palin From The Assemblies of God”
http://kalindarosestevenson.com/main/john-mccain-evangelicals-sarah-palin-assemblies-of-god_197
As part of this article, I refer to how Assemblies of God churches have renamed themselves, and how Sarah Palin claims to attend a non-denominational church, which is in fact an Assemblies of God church.
All the best,
Kalinda Rose Stevenson