Ray Fowler .org

Was Sarah Palin out of line with her prayer or simply following presidential precedent? On June 8, 2008 Sarah Palin prayed for our troops at Wasilla Assembly of God Church in Wasilla, Alaska. In a heavily edited interview broadcast September 11, 2008 Charles Gibson questioned Palin about the appropriateness of her words as a political candidate.

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

Well, yes and no. Gibson only quoted part of her words. Palin’s words come out very different when placed in context. Here are her exact words:

Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God’s plan. So, bless them with your prayers, your prayers of protection over our soldiers.

There is a big difference between claiming that something is God’s plan and praying that something we do lines up with God’s plan. Gibson accused Palin of doing the former, when she was actually doing the latter. As Palin explained to Gibson in the interview:

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

Palin has historical precedent for praying this way, as the following video makes clear. The video contains clips of former presidents Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln praying or requesting prayer for our nation in times of war. (As an aside, I get a little tired of the “media elite” mantra that gets thrown around as in this video, but the content of the historical clips is well worth a watch.)

(Video length: 4:52)

(HT: Instapundit)

TRANSCRIPTS FROM VIDEO:

Bill Clinton asks for God’s blessing on our troops (from Clinton’s address announcing air strikes in Iraq; December 16, 1998):

In the century we’re leaving, America has often made the difference between chaos and community, fear and hope. Now, in the new century, we’ll have a remarkable opportunity to shape a future more peaceful than the past, but only if we stand strong against the enemies of peace. Tonight, the United States is doing just that. May God bless and protect the brave men and women who are carrying out this vital mission and their families. And may God bless America.

John F. Kennedy prays for God’s blessing concerning the imminent Soviet threat (from Kennedy’s Inaugural Address; January 20, 1961):

The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forbears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God … (With a good conscience) our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt leads the nation in prayer on D-Day (from FDR’s radio address to the nation; June 6, 1944):

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization … O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; … faith in our united crusade … With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy … Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace … Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

Abraham Lincoln speaks about prayer, God and war (from Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address; Saturday, March 4, 1865):

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.

Back to the Gibson/Palin interview:

PALIN: But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie …

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, in my world view, is a grand — the grand plan.

GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?

PALIN: I don’t know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.

So, what do you think? Was Sarah Palin out of line with her prayer, or was she simply following presidential precedent?

LINKED: Ann Althouse (Thanks!)

Related posts:

• Palin, Prayer and Pipelines
• Journalists Code of Ethics
• Sunday at Sarah Palin’s Church
• Sarah Palin Roundup

Jordan at Worship Trench quotes Jonathan Edwards on why we sing in worship: “We sing in worship to engage and express our affections. There is no other reason to sing. If we aren’t dealing with our affections in worship, we might as well just read the lines of the songs dryly together in paragraph form without any music. We worship with music too because God has created music with a certain nature where it tends to move our affections deeply.” (modernized translation)

Jim Martin quotes Dallas Willard on spiritual transformation: “The central problem facing the contemporary church in the Western world and worldwide [is] the problem of how to routinely lead its members through a path of spiritual, moral, and personal transformation that brings them into authentic Christlikeness in every aspect of their lives … The local congreations, the places where Christians gather on a regular basis, must resume the practice of making the spiritual formation of their members into Christlikeness their primary goal, the aim which every one of its activities serves.”

Phil Ryken comments on the recent adoption of Sharia law by the British government. “According to The Sunday Times (9/14/08), the British government has incorporated Islamic law into the British legal system by establishing five sharia courts. The judgments of these courts are now enforceable with the full power of British law, running all the way up through the High Court. This is only the latest step in the Islamicization of Britain. The results will be especially damaging to women, since many of the disputes that end up before sharia tribunals are domestic, and the rights of women are dramatically restricted under Islamic law.”

Gizmodo reports on a mystery object observed by the Hubble Telescope. “The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn’t there before. In fact, they don’t even know where it is exactly located because it didn’t behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can’t be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It’s not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It’s something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don’t have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is.” (Go to Sky and Telescope: Hubble Finds a Mystery Object for more information.)

Greg Gilbert points to two conversations going on about What is the Gospel? “It seems to me that the two major camps in this conversation—those who say the Gospel is the good news that God is reconciling sinners to himself through the substitutionary death of Jesus (call them ‘A’) and those who say the gospel is the good news that God is going to renew and remake the whole world through Christ (‘B’)—are largely talking past one another. In other words, I don’t think the As and the Bs are answering the same question. Of course both of them say they’re answering the question ‘What is the gospel?’ and thus the tension between the two different answers. But I think if we pay close attention, we’ll see that they are actually answering two very different and equally biblical questions.”

A public lecture was once advertised under the title, “How to make your wife treat you like a king.” The lecture hall was absolutely packed out, with men from all sections of society waiting to hear where they were going wrong. Finally, the speaker stood up to address the packed and expectant gathering. “Gentleman,” he said to them, “the answer to the question being posed is every simple. If you want your wife to treat you like a king, there is one thing you must do: treat her like a queen.” (J. John, Ten, p. 118)

HT: Unashamed Workman

• Free Engineering Courses at Stanford. “For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.”
• Mob violence against IJM staff in Peru. “The mob of 300+ angry villagers forcibly accosted our staff and tied them up in the center of the village.” A young woman from our church recently completed an assignment with IJM in Thailand. It is dangerous work, and we prayed for her constantly.
• Thinking Biblically about the Banking Crisis. Justin Taylor interviews David Kotter on the current banking crisis.
• Don’t Check Your Portfolio! “New research shows that the less often investors check the value of their portfolios, the happier they are. And the wealthier they are, too.” Well, it might not hurt to look a little bit!
• Sarah Palin and Complementarianism. Denny Burke responds to David Gushee’s questions about complementarian Christians who support Sarah Palin’s bid for the Vice-Presidency.

Albert Mohler’s reflection on the recent power outage in Louisville, Kentucky reminded me of this (very sad) poem by Steve Turner.

“POWER CUT/ELECTRIC MARRIAGE” – by Steve Turner

When the lights
            went out
and the sounds
      died down
and the pictures
      stopped moving
there was nothing
left to say
      between Mr and Mrs.
Both forced within
the same dull radius
of candle flame
their silvered anniversary
barely showed a glint.
The stereogram had
now stopped its mad
                  singing.
There was no hot
coffee in which to
drown the need for
            conversation.
Television did not
feel bright enough
to play gooseberry
            that night.
Sheltering together
within the dull radius
                  of flame,
quartercentury lovers
wonder if it’s still
possible to be friends.
And on the night
electricity walked out
of their lives
there was nothing left to do
                        but sleep.

(Source: Steve Turner, Up To Date, pp. 28-29.)

I first read this Turner poem probably back in college days (early 1980’s). I found it incredibly sad then, and it has haunted me ever since.

Click here for more poems.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

In light of ABC’s recent editing of Charles Gibson’s interview with Gov. Sarah Palin, I thought it might be helpful to review The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. The Code outlines four major responsibilities for those in professional journalism: 1) seek truth and report it, 2) minimize harm, 3) act independently, and 4) be accountable. Here are some of the bullet points under the first heading.

Seek Truth and Report It:  Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Journalists should:

• Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
• Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
• Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
• Never plagiarize.
• Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
• Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.

So, according to the Journalists Code of Ethics, there should be no bias, distortion, misinformation, misrepresentation, oversimplification, stereotyping or advocacy in the news media. Hmmm. It seems that journalists from both sides of the political aisle would do well to review these guidelines for the remaining weeks of the election season. What do you think?

Note: Click here to see the edits made in the ABC interview with Palin.

Related posts:

• Palin, Prayer and Pipelines
• Palin, Prayer and Precedent
• Sunday at Sarah Palin’s Church
• Sarah Palin Roundup

• Questions? The NYC Library has answers.
• Christianity in a Nutshell. Michael Patton gives a good summary of Christianity in seven brief paragraphs.
• Was Jesus a Community Organizer? Allan Bevere responds.
• Church History Sites. Church history professor Chris Armstrong lists his favorite websites about church history.
• Children’s Christmas Plays. Looking for a children’s play for Christmas? Tony Kummer’s got links and information.

Trevin Wax has a great series of posts on Larry Witham’s book: A City upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History.

• Book Review: A City upon a Hill: Trevin reviews Witham’s book.
• Interview with Larry Witham (Part 1): Witham discusses the most influential preachers and sermons in American history.
• Interview with Larry Witham (Part 2): Witham discusses how preaching has developed in the United States over the centuries.

The Big Picture has some astounding photos of the destruction caused by Hurricane Ike in Haiti, Cuba and Texas.

(A single home left standing among debris from Hurricane Ike on September 14, 2008 in Gilchrist, Texas. David J. Phillip-Pool/Getty Images)

My heart goes out to those who are dealing with the aftermath of the storm. We personally went through Hurricane Andrew in Homestead, FL back in 1992, so I have an idea of the power of these storms. As bad as the storm was, living through the aftermath was much worse. It tooks months just to get electricity back and years for life to return to normal.

Yesterday’s message was called Telling the Next Generation, taken from Psalm 78:1-8. The main idea of the message was that we must tell the next generation about the Lord. Here is a brief outline of the message:

1. A call to attention
    – A call to listen and obey
    – The history of Israel set forth as a parable

2. The passing of the torch
    – Teach your children the works of God (what God has done)
    – Teach your children the word of God (what God has said)

3. The forging of a child’s faith
    – That they may learn to trust God
    – That they may remember God’s deeds
    – That they may keep God’s commands

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Justin Childers quotes Jim Eliff on the centrality of the cross in heaven. “One is taken aback by the emphasis on the cross in Revelation. Heaven does not ‘get over’ the cross, as if there are better things to think about … Heaven is not only Christocentric, it is cruci-centric, and quite blaring about it.”

John Mark Reynolds reflects on his son going off to college. “My son is at college. He is doing something, somewhere, and I don’t know what. I shouldn’t know. I wish I did know. I am glad I don’t know. Losing your child while gaining an adult son is confusing and clarifying. It is confusing to any attempt to cling to old ways and clarifying to the better self that loves God’s ways of organic growth and change.”

Justin Taylor tackles the question, How could God command genocide in the Old Testament? “The question is about what happens in the book of Joshua when God commands Israel to slaughter the Canaanites in order to occupy the Promised Land. It was a bloody war of total destruction where God used his people to execute his moral judgment against his wicked enemies. In moving toward an answer it will be helpful to think carefully about the building blocks of a Christian worldview related to God’s justice and mercy.”

Mark Roberts appreciates Michael Card’s use of original languages in his teaching ministry. “What I experienced with Michael Card this past weekend at Laity Lodge was a powerful reminder of why it’s so important for Ministers of Word and Sacrament to know and to use Greek and Hebrew (even if with the helpful crutch of a computer). Translations, no matter how good they might be, only get us so far in the task of biblical interpretation. One who can investigate the original languages has an unparalleled chance to find deeper truth.”

Tim Challies quotes Alexander Strauch from his book, Love or Die on the topic of love in the local church. “Christians cannot develop love by sitting at home alone on the couch watching TV preachers or by attending a weekly, one-hour church service. It is only through participation in “the household of God,” the local church (1 Tim, 3:15), with all of its weaknesses and faults, that love is taught, modeled, learned, tested, practiced, and matured. By dealing with difficult people, facing painful conflicts, forgiving hurts and injustices, reconciling estranged relationships, and helping needy members, our love is tested and matures.”

Hugh Hewitt offers up some encouraging words on the seventh anniversary of 9/11: “Prayers for the souls of those who died and for the comfort of their loved ones. Praise for the courage of the passengers on United Flight 93. Thanks to the first responders who immediately rushed to the Towers and the Pentagon, and to the tens of thousands from across the country who followed to help. Thanks to the men and women of the United States military and their civilian counterparts who have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to prevent another such attack.”

James Lileks’ words from the second anniversary of 9/11 are also worth repeating. “The picture at the top of this page is a sliver taken from a 9/11 camera feed. It’s the cloud that rolled through lower Manhatttan when the towers fell. Paper, steel, furniture, plastic, people. The man who took the picture inhaled the dust of the dead. Somewhere lodged in the lung of a New Yorker is an atom that once belonged to a man who went to work two years ago and never came back. His widow dreads today, because people will be coming and calling, and she’ll have to insist that she’s okay. It’s hard but last year was harder. The kids will be sad and distant, but they take their cues from her, and they sense that it’s hard – but that last year was harder. But what really kills her, really really kills her, is knowing that the youngest one doesn’t remember daddy at all anymore. And she’s the one who has his eyes.”

Ben Witherington posted a mammoth four-part review of Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church and then invited Frank to respond. The links are below.

Ben’s review:

• Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church– Part One
• Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church– Part Two
• Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church– Part Three
• Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church– Part Four

Frank’s response:

• Reimagining Church– A Frank Response Part One
• Reimagining Church– A Frank Response Part Two

Closing words from Ben and Frank:

• EPILOGUE TO A FRANK DISCUSSION
• A FRANK CODA

Ben has some strong critiques of Frank’s book and doesn’t pull any punches, yet the conversation remains respectful throughout. It is nice to see two Christians treating each other with civility and grace even when they disagree with each other — especially on the internet of all places!

Related post: Ben Witherington critiques Pagan Christianity