Jews Beware, Palin is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

For over a year, I have immersed myself into all things Palin. I have listened to a multitude of interviews given by Sarah Palin, read many blogs, reviewed articles and listened to news programs to learn all I could about the celebrity, Sarah Palin. Painful as it was, I even read “Going Rogue”. I thought I had seen her do all that a person could do to offend, but I was wrong.  Palin’s unbridled audacity has amazed me once again. On her Facebook page Palin posted a note wishing all Jewish people a Happy Passover.  Superficially, it is a nice note.  However I was amazed that Palin would pretend to embrace or respect Judaism, when she doesn’t. If you only read her note, you might think I am being too harsh, so let me explain.

My husband is Jewish and we have celebrated Passover together for at least 27 years.  I was raised Catholic, and while I haven’t converted, my kids are all being raised Jewish.  In my home we celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays, and respect the right of everyone to celebrate their chosen faith.  Even though I don’t agree with Palin’s view of religion, I respect her right to worship as she deems appropriate.  She fails to respect beliefs different than her own.  Palin’s feigned respect for Judaism is misleading and insulting.

Reform Jews, which constitute the majority of Jews in this country, allow women to become leaders of their communities, including being Rabbis.  Evangelicals teach that a woman should be subservient to her husband. Jews embrace, and include in their congregations people who are gay and lesbian.  Palin’s church teaches that homosexuality is something they should seek to “overcome”. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837918,00.html.  If homosexuals would just pray harder, they would miraculously turn into heterosexuals.  Jews do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, and Evangelicals, like Palin, believe that a person can’t go to heaven unless they believe Jesus to be the son of God.  I guess Sarah believes that my husband and kids are going to hell.  It is these differences in religious belief that caused me to question the sincerity of Palin in wishing all Jews a “Happy Passover”.

The following are things you should know about Palin’s religious beliefs:

1.  One of the preachers in Palin’s church, is proud of the fact that he went to Africa, hunted witches, found some, and banned them from the town.  Halleluiah!   www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg –

2.  The executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Ira Forman, cited the “cultural distance” between Palin and almost all American Jews.

“She’s totally out of step with the American Jewish community,” he said. “She is against reproductive freedom – even against abortion in the case of rape and incest. She has said that climate change is not man-made. She has said that she would favor teaching creationism in the schools. These are all way, way, way outside the mainstream.”

3. Palin has a connection to Jews for Jesus and she has supported anti-Israel Congressman Ron Paul as reported by the National Jewish Democratic Council. http://njdc.typepad.com/Palin_Fact_Sheet.pdf

4. During the limited time Palin was Governor she signed a proclamation during Christian Heritage Week in October, which stated in part:

“WHEREAS, the celebration of Christian Heritage Week, October 21-27, 2007, reminds Alaskans of the role Christianity has played in our rich heritage. Many truly great men and women of America, giants in the structuring of American history, were Christians of caliber and integrity who did not hesitate to express their faith. Some of their legacies are evidenced as follows…WHEREAS, George Washington enunciated, “animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and conducting ourselves as the faithful subjects of our free government, we may enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity.”

(If you would like to read the full text of the proclamation, See, http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/09/palins-christian-heritage-week.html)

5. Sarah Palin’s churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949 and illustrated in the documentary, “Jesus Camp”.http://www.republicansforobama.org/node/2059,  http://bogartmedia-now.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-palins-church-remember-jesus-camp.html

6.  Palin seems to believe that everything happens because it is God’s plan.  Thus, she didn’t have to worry that she wasn’t prepared or qualified to be the Vice President because it was God’s plan that she be selected. (“Game Change”)

7. Sermons given at Palin’s church, Wasilla Bible Church, clearly depict anti-Jewish mindset.  For example, consider the sermon of David Brickner, “The Jerusalem Dilemma”, Wasilla Bible Church, 8/17/08

Brinker stated the following in his sermon:

“In fact, Israelis don’t even know how to say Jesus’ name in Hebrew, which is Yeshua, but they call Him ‘Yeshu.’ And Yeshu…it’s a name that…it’s not really a name. It’s a name that was given to Jesus by medieval rabbis who wanted to actually pronounce a malediction, a curse, on Him. And so ‘Yeshu’ is actually an acrostic for “Yimach

Sh’mo V’zichro,” from the Psalms, a malediction that says “May his name and memory be blotted out.”

God never forces His way on human beings. And so because Jerusalem was unwilling to receive His grace, judgment was coming. He says, “Look, your house has left you desolate!” What did He mean by that? Remember where He is. He’s standing in the temple there in Jerusalem, the place where God had promised, through Moses, “There I will meet with you, there I will hear your prayers, and there I will forgive your sin.” And now Jesus in that temple, just before going to the cross, says, ‘From now on this place is desolate.’ And Jesus’ words have echoed down through the centuries. Not a generation after He uttered this promise, Titus and his Roman legions marched into that city and destroyed both the city and the temple. And from that day until this very present there has been no temple, and there is therefore no sacrifice in Judaism. Only we could sacrifice in…the only place was in the temple. And therefore there has been, and there is today, no confidence of atonement, no confidence of forgiveness. If you were to stand outside of a synagogue on the day of atonement and ask those leaving the service, “Did God hear your prayers? Were your sins forgiven on this most holy of all days?” the answer would be, “I hope. I hope, but who can know?” Who indeed but those of us who have come under the wings of the Almighty, who’ve entered into that place of grace where forgiveness is assured for the dilemma of human life.

‘You will not see Me until you can acknowledge Me as the One who’s come, as the stone once rejected by the builders, but now the chief, until you say “Jesus, You’re the Messiah!”’

http://www.wasillabible.org/sermon_files/2008_Transcripts/The%20Jerusalem%20Dilemma.pdf

When my family conducts our Passover Seder, the last page of our prayer book includes a concluding prayer:

“…And let us pray that all humankind, freed from violence and from wrong, and united in an eternal covenant of mutual esteem and love, will celebrate a universal Passover in the name of the God of Freedom.”

Sarah Palin does not seem to adhere to the notion that all of humankind should be freed from violence and wrong when she herself inspired violence by posting targets on her Facebook page identifying those Congressmen who voted for health care reform, and making a reference to “re-loading”.  I don’t think Palin knows what a “covenant of mutual esteem and love” would include.  Even if she “loves her neighbor”, there are no Jewish Temples in Wasilla, so Jews wouldn’t fall under the strict definition of “her neighbor”.