Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow on Sarah Palin's faith

If you want to know why I cannot bring myself to call the base of the Republican party Christians, and instead use the term Christianist, a new poll helps explain why:

A new poll released Thursday (Sept. 11) finds that nearly six in 10 white Southern evangelicals believe torture is justified, but their views can shift when they consider the Christian principle of the golden rule.

The poll, commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University, found that 57 percent of respondents said torture can be often or sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists. Thirty-eight percent said it was never or rarely justified.
Southern evangelicals are therefore the mainstay of the torture regime in this country. The only point at which they even balk at torturing people who haven't been subject to minimal due process is when they are reminded that this could come back to hurt Americans. The idea that torture is immoral in itself seems alien to a majority of the millions who lined up to see Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ. Since the South was built on torture-slavery, this is not that historically surprising. Many ancestors of today's Christianists tortured African-Americans routinely. But the extent of Southern evangelicals support for violating one of the core moral absolutes of Christianity is striking.

Southern evangelicals always cite Scripture when arguing that homosexuals should be jailed or sent to therapy or denied basic rights in their marriages. But on torture, they don't cite Scripture:

The new poll found that 44 percent of white Southern vangelicals rely on life experiences and common sense to determine their views about torture. A lower percentage, 28 percent, said they relied on Christian teachings or beliefs.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/southern-evange....
When the subject of homosexuality came up, Charles Gibson asked the following question:

GIBSON: Homosexuality, genetic or learned?

PALIN: Oh, I don't -- I don't know, but I'm not one to judge and, you know, I'm from a family and from a community with many, many members of many diverse backgrounds and I'm not going to judge someone on whether they believe that homosexuality is a choice or genetic. I'm not going to judge them.
In fact, Palin does judge homosexuals in as extreme a fashion as you can imagine:

Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer. "You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has worshipped for about six years... She opposes gay marriage and spousal rights for gay couples. Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the "Love Won Out" Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.
There is no way that a person who is indifferent to the question of whether homosexuality is a choice or genetic can support a conference of crackpots, psychological renegades and far-right Christianists seeking to "cure" gay people. Palin is on record seeking to strip gay couples of all rights in their relationships, although she was forced by constitutional mandate to grant equal benefits to gay couples who are employees of the state government in Alaska. She supported a non-binding referendum for an Alaskan constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples:

Ultimately, she said, she supports denying those [health and retirement] benefits through a constitutional amendment, if that's what the public wants.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-lies-of-s-7....

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[bmorelilyo]

yes and gods will is an alaskan pipeline lol. praise him/her/it/they/us. lol i'd rather be rational

[freedomsfart]

Olbermann isn't criticizing Palin for praying in a church; he is pointing out the fact that she believes she was elected governor because of the will of some god, and that this same god cares about oil-pipelines. She is a religious nut-case and would be very dangerous with her end-times mentality and finger on the nuclear button.

[cocoinfinity1]

And this is real news? Morons

[AnchorageDentist]

Wow wee, I don't know what to say.

[SoINeedAName48]

Oh, my ... those Talibangelical christianists most definitely are SCARY people!

[monsieurpickles]

This is ridiculous. If the church speaks in tongues or prays God's will on every little thing doesn't matter.

[commify]

You see, this is why I can't stand idiots.  All they do is hijack my religion and try and use it for their own right-wing ends, whether those ends dovetail with Christianity or not.

[badmovebaker]

Haha, he talks about speaking in tongues... and then check him out at 2:24.

[ikerzgrove]

The only thing charismatic about Palin is that she is apart of the charismatic movement, which is crappy as hell and a shithole of a demonic movement... She's quick to call William Ayers an unrepentant domestic terrorist, but she can't call a Christian man who shot a man an abortion doctor and not call that a domestic "Christian" terrorist. Same with the Westboro Baptist Cult.

[averylbrooks]

People are watching MSNBC? Its hard for me to watch any of the so-called cable news channels. If I ever do hit on them I try and stick to CNN headline news. I have my own opinion, don't really need to listen to some blow heart go on and on about their ideology.

Oh, CSPAN is a great place to get an update on politics. If liberals really care about Sarah Palin this much, they are really misguided. Its like the conservatives being obsessed with Rev Wright. Both completely worthless topics.

[JH335163]

In this country, a lot of people do not think critically about dogma. That's one the main problems in this country.

[cannfy]

I don't think they were criticizing her faith. The question is her ability to seperate church and state which is what our country was founded on. Unfortunately, that seperation has been squashed over the last 30 years.

By the way, I don't know Keith's background, but Rachel was raised Catholic and I think her comments indicated that she prays, but that it doesn't solve everything.