It’s always been easy to spot the truly godly among us. They’re the ones hated with intense passion. About the only current exception to this dictum I can think of is Billy Graham, and even he’s had an occasional brickbat thrown his way.
Why do the godly arouse such ire? They stand as living proof to the fallen of their own failure. The godly are a light shining on the darkness of hearts turned away from God, exposing by comparison the corrupt nature of such beings. The godly anger the ungodly because they alone acknowledge their failures and failings, stating without hesitation their total reliance on God’s mercy, grace, and love for the forgiveness and healing without which they could not live. The godly are living testimony to the existence of God; examples of His love and perfection. No wonder they are despised by those who like Stoker’s Dracula weaken and fail when exposed not to the light, but rather by the light.
The amount of sheer vitriol hurled at Sarah Palin since John McCain named her as his running mate has made quite clear that her actively practiced faith in Christ is authentic. She has been accused of everything from faking a pregnancy to cover her daughter’s — more on that in a moment — to lying about every aspect of her personal and public life. She has been called every vile name in the book. Her record and profession of beliefs both political and personal have been assailed with no regard for verifying the charges leveled against her. Any shred, scrap or whisper of scandal both real and imagined, invariably the latter, has been dredged up and put on display. One would think looking at it all Ms. Palin is Mephistopheles’ Maid Marian.
Actually, she is a blessed handmaiden of God.
Ms. Palin didn’t have ‘run for national office’ on her list of things to do with her life. She saw a need in her hometown and decided to try and fill it, first by running for city council and then for mayor. She saw a need in her home state and decided to fill it by running for governor. She did all this while raising a family, in and of itself a challenge but for her carrying additional burdens. When she learned four months into her pregnancy with her fifth child he would be born with Down’s Syndrome, she didn’t disown him or distance herself from him through the most brutal method available, namely abortion. She said her unborn child would be born and loved, and that was that. When her teenage daughter did what comes naturally to teenagers, namely make a mistake, she didn’t disown her or distance herself from her. She said the unborn child will be born and loved, and that was that. Her reward has been being hated all the more by the left’s fringe and aggressively disparaged by the media as a hypocrite rendered unable to lead by both her daughter’s pregnancy and her own child’s special needs. Strange that an entity which for decades has preached equality of the sexes and that women were capable of doing anything men could should now mount a whispering campaign that this particular woman’s place should be at home taking care of the children and nowhere else. Actually, not strange. Rather, another example of the media’s disingenuousness.
If one wishes to oppose Ms. Palin on political/ideological grounds, fine. State your case. Detail your beliefs, document the reasons behind these beliefs, outline the proper course of action based on these beliefs. Reasoned argument is always welcome. There has been precious little of this since she was introduced to the nation and the world. Instead, we have seen pure hatred at its most pathetic. If this is all the left has to offer, the left has nothing to offer.
For Ms. Palin, my prayer is she will find strength in her faith to not only continue being a witness by being faithful to Christ but a loving mother and devoted wife who sees a need and is doing her best to try and fill it. Ignore the naysayers; she’s doing so quite well, thank you. As to the haters…
… she can take comfort she’s in Good company.
