Conservatives know full well that the mainstream media, which the Christian right believe to the core is the anti-Christian liberal media, and progressive political groups will seize on the pregnancy for various reasons, from questioning Palin’s parenting to the example of the inefficacy of abstinence only programs to prevent unwanted teen pregnancies. Each instance, regardless of how respectful and how distanced from Palin’s daughter, will be cast by Christian dominionists and Republicans working behind the scenes as an attack on Palin’s and her daughter’s Christian decision to keep the baby and marry the father. It will further be characterized as an attack on Christianity itself and the ability of Christians to base their public and private decisions on Christian principles.
Add to that the existing and clearly proper attacks on Palin for her other extreme, religious based statements and positions, and you have yet another way to attract Christians to the Republican ticket: the need to protect the very legality of religion in America, which is under attack by Democrats as shown by the awful slurs against this lovely Christian family and their devoted Christian daughter and soon to be son-in-law.
Yes, as strange as it seems for a religion that claims as its members the two most powerful people in the world and all four major candidates running to replace them, the entire Congressional leadership and the Supreme Court, Christian Dominionists do indeed believe that Christians in America are under siege from the Democrats, liberals and other secular humanists who really run America behind the scenes and who are especially powerful in the American media and educational systems. Christopher Hedges writes about this in his must-read book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.
One of the main columns of the Christian right’s attack is stoking fear of persecution, fear that the secular humanists in the liberal establishment and media are literally working to make Christianity illegal, or if not illegal, are trying to force it completely out of the public square. The odious movement leaders, such as James Dobson, argue that, unless Christians take over America and “return” it to its Christian “roots”, the infidels will prevail and Christians will have to hide their faith. I call this Christian Persecution Syndrome.
Sounds crazy, but it works like a charm to get Christian voters to the polls.
So, I would bet that the Republican cynics took a look at Palin’s pregnant minor daughter and saw neither a weakness overcome by other strengths nor a private family matter, but an ultra-cynical opportunity to use a child to rally the Christian troops against the God-hating liberal political, educational and media establishment. The War On The War On Christianity. Goddess help us all.
That’s my conclusion for this piece, but I also think Palin shows us how wildly mistaken many have been who predicted or pronounced the demise of the hard-core right wing extremists in the Christian political movement and the Republican party. I will post in the next couple days some more evidence for this and some suggestions on how we avoid becoming either a corporo-theocracy or a wholly dysfunctional society divided by money and a false God.
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