Christian right throws Palin under the church bus

Conservative Christian leaders are forming a chorus to denounce John McCain's pick of a working mother for his Vice President. They're saying that Palin is sacrificing her family on the altar of her career and shows "anti-family" values. They further argue that this effort to win the pro-family political argument is dismissive of pro-family values.

As I suggested in my earlier post, John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate was ill-advised. Some 26 percent of Americans have indicated that they will not vote for a woman for president. Those 26 percent, I surmised, would mostly come from the right, and I was right.

Yes, voters—conservative, moderate, and liberal—extremely turned off by Palin's extreme lack of experience.

Yes, voters are concerned that an unknown, like Palin, would be one heartbeat away from the presidency (especially considering McCain's age and cancer history).

Yes, voters are perplexed by Palin's dangerous hardline stances on every matter, including women's choice, health care, energy, gun control, the environment, sex education, and the teaching creationism in public schools.

Yes, they're concerned by the abuse-of-power investigation against her.

But now, as I predicted, even the hard-right evangelicals are dismissing her candidacy. In fact, their leaders and vocal members are strongly voicing that McCain's pick was "anti-family." This is sad and unfortunate, but let's just say that McCain should have seen this coming.

There's much more below the fold:

This Internet entry by the well-respected conservative preacher Voddie Baucham shows that the Christian right is very unhappy wit the Palin pick. They see it as an "anti-family" choice by John McCain. Here are some excerpts from his blog piece:

I don’t see this as a pro-family pick at all! Moreover, I believe the conservative fervor over this pick shows how politicized Christians have become at the expense of maintaining a prophetic voice. I believe that Mr. McCain has proven with his VP pick that he is pro-victory, not pro-family. In fact, I believe this was the anti-family pick.

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation in the article is Mrs. Palin’s recent decision to travel for work (against her doctor’s orders) in the final days of her pregnancy.

It gets better:

Not only do I believe that a pro-family candidate would prefer to see Mrs. Palin at home taking care of her children, I believe a pro-family candidate would also avoid validating and advancing our culture’s desire to completely erase gender roles.

And then Baucham goes for the kill:

In an effort to win the pro-family political argument, we are sacrificing the pro-family biblical argument. In essence, the message being sent to women by conservative Christians backing McCain/Palin is, "It’s ok to sacrifice your family on the altar of your career; just don’t have an abortion." How pro-family is that?

And it's not just Baucham. Look around and you'll find conservative voices rising against the notion of a woman as Vice President. There are way too many to cite on this blog, but I'll quote from one more.

Mrs. Palin has five children; one of whom is four months old with special needs. The job of vice president is a 24/7 job. So, too, is motherhood. If you give any time at all to anything else but motherhood, you, mom, have to rob an equivalent amount of time from mothering.

Mrs. Palin has agreed to hand in her motherhood membership by agreeing to a full time job which will replace the time she has for her children. D.N.A does not spell mom, Mrs. Palin. Children spell mom: T.I.M.E.
Michael Corenhas endorsed McCain’s choice. He has bowed to Nebuchanezzar’s image and lost all credibility in my eyes. He used to be a staunch ally in the battle against radical liberalism and now he has become the object of ridicule by his left wing peers.

Mrs. Palin is on the verge of sacrificing her family on the altar of the government of man. I pray that her priorities become properly re-arranged before it’s too late. She may very well be a great governor but there’s a mighty difference between running a state with less than one million people and becoming the most powerful woman in the world at the expense of your children.

I hope the two persons I mentioned at the beginning will stay true to their message that motherhood is not for sale to the highest bidder, even if the bidder is your country.

As much as I abhore what Palin stands for, I think it's wrong for the Christian Right to throw Palin under the church bus. Palin should not be marginalized and judged by the right as being a poor mother and bad Christian role model. She, like Obama, McCain, and Biden, should be judged by American voters purely on her viewpoints and readiness to hold one of the highest elective offices in the land.

But, I also want to say: "I told you so."