One is the right to be in politics and maintain one’s religious beliefs. When Mitt Romney was running for the nomination last year, I spent some time on this blog defending his right to his Mormon faith, even though I happen to disagree with it. I felt he should be judged on his political stands rather than his religious beliefs. The same with Palin. A lot of people have jumped all over her faith whereas I think they should be looking at her political stands and her tenure as governor.

The other issue is the twisting of a candidate’s words to make them say things they did not mean. This is happening to candidates on both sides. I know we live in a sound bite society, but the candidates are constantly talking and the cameras are constantly rolling, and candidates are bound to make verbal gaffes or mis-speak or say things that can be taken out of context. This whole focus on a few phrases here and there (e.g. lipstick on a pig) detracts from the larger issues at hand.

I spent some time on these two instances of prayer from Palin (praying for the troops and praying about the pipeline) because I felt that people were unfairly characterizing these two statements to mean:

1) Palin believes the Iraq war is God’s plan (or a holy war), and
2) Palin thinks God instructed her to build the Alaskan pipeline.

That’s not what she meant, and it is unfair to take her unscripted remarks in a church setting and derive policy from them, especially when she has said that is not what she meant.

What’s a problem is seeing Godliness in political expediancy. I wonder why you work so hard to see Godliness in Sarah Palin — a woman who, as far as I can tell, simply goes to Church.