Okay, so Sarah Palin is the mother of five, including a baby with Down syndrome.
Amazingly, the very qualities I think make her a brilliant choice are the things that people like Jenny Chancey and the Vision Forum crowd are carping on now.
Sometimes Christians amaze me - that they get so one-track in the legalistic structure they've added to their religion that they forget that our God is a God of grace, redemption and most of all
**SURPRISES**
Throughout history He has chosen people to lead who were not worthy or qualified in the eyes of others. Almost as though He were testing not only the leaders He chose, but the ones who would benefit from their leadership.
He chose a shepherd boy to slay a giant and replace a king. He chose a poor Jewish girl to become a queen and through her intercession save her people. He chose a virgin to give birth to the Savior.
Think about the buzz among the most righteous people then. Ask yourself where you would have weighed in on the issue. Would you have blocked David from fighting Goliath? Would you have told Joseph not to marry Mary?
My message to Jennie and her devotees is to get over yourselves. God is not running the world based on Doug Phillips' teachings. He is still running the world the way He sees fit. And you are locked into a world perspective that does not allow Him to step outside the box you've created, the script He is supposed to follow.
I see Sarah Palin as an Esther - someone who is the perfect and only person who could have galvanized the part of the vote that was languishing in boredom - or despair, as I was. I was so depressed after seeing the lies and cultish events taking place at the DNC convention, I went to bed without watching past the first five minutes of Obama's film bio.
To wake up to the news of McCain's announcement was an unexpected joy. And I see it as a gift from God for all of us. But as with all of the gifts He gives us, there will be those who because of hard hearts and legalism will not want to receive it.
I don't think Sarah Palin went looking for this job. I think God went looking for her. I don't think she went looking for the governorship either. I think her story demonstrates that she was not driven by a lust for power or elected office, but a desire to serve others.
And this is how God has seen fit for her to do it.
With a media fawning all over Obama - think Chris Matthews and the tingle he says he feels up his leg when Obama speaks - and a gullible populace easily whipped up by appeals to envy and bitterness, conservatives need someone compelling, authentic and real to represent them. McCain's nomination of Palin captured America's attention at a critical moment - brought people back to reality.
This is reality folks: a mother of five children, including a baby with Down syndrome.
How will she do it all? Ask any megamom blogging and caring for a family - how do we do it all? She obviously will have a lot of help. She probably can stop doing laundry and cooking meals for a while. She will undoubtedly prioritize and let those things go in favor of spending time with her kids and seeing to her official duties. She will probably have Trigg crawling around her office. And the physical therapist will come to them rather than having to schlep Trigg everywhere.
Let's face it moms - a lot of our time goes to work that I've always taught we should enjoy. But minus that work, Palin will have just as much time for her kids as she would have if she were a housewife too.
Jennie Chancey spends a lot of time telling moms that they shouldn't send their daughters to college - while she uses her own college education via her writing skills. She tells them to be concerned only with domestic duties while she maintains a pretty fancy blog.
Like many people who become involved in a legalistic subculture - or even a government system like socialism - she is one of the ones at the top who enjoy freedoms they would deny to others. Unfortunately, the world is full of followers and some leaders take advantage of that. In doing so they become hypocrites.
I hope this event will open the eyes of some of those followers to see that God is so much bigger, more magnificent, more loving, and more full of surprises - like giving us babies with Down syndrome and unexpected assignments - than Jennie Chancey and the other Vision Forum leaders have ever experienced.
When you're bound by legalism and gracelessness, when you are busy condemning and judging and making more rules to lock your followers into your system, your eyes are on the ground. Read the Bible, Jennie. Look up to your Heavenly Father. He is not answering to your bidding. And neither should anyone else.
Thank God for Sarah Palin's obedience.
For such a time as this. . . .
~~~~~~
For more background, see (* marks past run-ins with Jennie Chancey):
Legalism and Christian Cults
The Doug Phillips controversy
The Doug Phillips controversy - Take 2
*The Doug Phillips controversy: Why my link was removed from Ladies Against Feminism
The Doug Phillips controversy: What does it mean to be a Christian leader?
*Doug Phillips - Take 5
The Cult Test
Doug Phillips reconciliation breakdown
Okay, so Sarah Palin is the mother of five, including a baby with Down syndrome.
Amazingly, the very qualities I think make her a brilliant choice are the things that people like Jenny Chancey and the Vision Forum crowd are carping on now.
Sometimes Christians amaze me - that they get so one-track in the legalistic structure they've added to their religion that they forget that our God is a God of grace, redemption and most of all
Throughout history He has chosen people to lead who were not worthy or qualified in the eyes of others. Almost as though He were testing not only the leaders He chose, but the ones who would benefit from their leadership.
He chose a shepherd boy to slay a giant and replace a king. He chose a poor Jewish girl to become a queen and through her intercession save her people. He chose a virgin to give birth to the Savior.
Think about the buzz among the most righteous people then. Ask yourself where you would have weighed in on the issue. Would you have blocked David from fighting Goliath? Would you have told Joseph not to marry Mary?
My message to Jennie and her devotees is to get over yourselves. God is not running the world based on Doug Phillips' teachings. He is still running the world the way He sees fit. And you are locked into a world perspective that does not allow Him to step outside the box you've created, the script He is supposed to follow.
I see Sarah Palin as an Esther - someone who is the perfect and only person who could have galvanized the part of the vote that was languishing in boredom - or despair, as I was. I was so depressed after seeing the lies and cultish events taking place at the DNC convention, I went to bed without watching past the first five minutes of Obama's film bio.
To wake up to the news of McCain's announcement was an unexpected joy. And I see it as a gift from God for all of us. But as with all of the gifts He gives us, there will be those who because of hard hearts and legalism will not want to receive it.
I don't think Sarah Palin went looking for this job. I think God went looking for her. I don't think she went looking for the governorship either. I think her story demonstrates that she was not driven by a lust for power or elected office, but a desire to serve others.
And this is how God has seen fit for her to do it.
With a media fawning all over Obama - think Chris Matthews and the tingle he says he feels up his leg when Obama speaks - and a gullible populace easily whipped up by appeals to envy and bitterness, conservatives need someone compelling, authentic and real to represent them. McCain's nomination of Palin captured America's attention at a critical moment - brought people back to reality.
This is reality folks: a mother of five children, including a baby with Down syndrome.
How will she do it all? Ask any megamom blogging and caring for a family - how do we do it all? She obviously will have a lot of help. She probably can stop doing laundry and cooking meals for a while. She will undoubtedly prioritize and let those things go in favor of spending time with her kids and seeing to her official duties. She will probably have Trigg crawling around her office. And the physical therapist will come to them rather than having to schlep Trigg everywhere.
Let's face it moms - a lot of our time goes to work that I've always taught we should enjoy. But minus that work, Palin will have just as much time for her kids as she would have if she were a housewife too.
Jennie Chancey spends a lot of time telling moms that they shouldn't send their daughters to college - while she uses her own college education via her writing skills. She tells them to be concerned only with domestic duties while she maintains a pretty fancy blog.
Like many people who become involved in a legalistic subculture - or even a government system like socialism - she is one of the ones at the top who enjoy freedoms they would deny to others. Unfortunately, the world is full of followers and some leaders take advantage of that. In doing so they become hypocrites.
I hope this event will open the eyes of some of those followers to see that God is so much bigger, more magnificent, more loving, and more full of surprises - like giving us babies with Down syndrome and unexpected assignments - than Jennie Chancey and the other Vision Forum leaders have ever experienced.
When you're bound by legalism and gracelessness, when you are busy condemning and judging and making more rules to lock your followers into your system, your eyes are on the ground. Read the Bible, Jennie. Look up to your Heavenly Father. He is not answering to your bidding. And neither should anyone else.
Thank God for Sarah Palin's obedience.
For such a time as this. . . .
~~~~~~
For more background, see (* marks past run-ins with Jennie Chancey):
Legalism and Christian Cults
The Doug Phillips controversy
The Doug Phillips controversy - Take 2
*The Doug Phillips controversy: Why my link was removed from Ladies Against Feminism
The Doug Phillips controversy: What does it mean to be a Christian leader?
*Doug Phillips - Take 5
The Cult Test
Doug Phillips reconciliation breakdown