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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Dan Gilgoff
Sarah Palin (© Donna Grethen)
The former governor's book brims with testimony of her Christian faith
How much is Sarah Palin's new book tailored to evangelical Christian readers? Her writing partner for
Going Rogue
, Lynn Vincent, is a longtime editor at
The book's final paragraph, meanwhile, reads like an altar call, the part of a church service when pew sitters are invited to commit their lives to Christ. "I do know there is a God," the former Alaska governor writes. "My life is in his hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over."
Though most of the talk surrounding the release of Going Rogue revolves around how it affects Palin's standing as a political figure, including her chances of winning the
Until now, that part of Palin's story has been mostly implied.
As John McCain's vice presidential running mate last year, she generally avoided talk of her faith and its influence on her politics. But word of her decision to carry her pregnancy to term despite knowing her son Trig would be born with Down syndrome was an inspiration to antiabortion activists, mostly Roman Catholics and evangelicals. News that Palin's unwed teen daughter Bristol was pregnant and would give birth had a similar effect. "[The Palins] should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values," Focus on the Family's James Dobson said at the time, "but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances."
After the campaign, Palin began opening up about her evangelical beliefs.
"I'm going to choose the creator's idea of perfection over society's definition of perfection any day," she told an Indiana Right to Life dinner in April, discussing the decision to forgo an abortion and have Trig. Her first big political speech outside Alaska after Election Day, it was sprinkled with religious imagery, including references to the Declaration of Independence as a "holy text" and to the "hand of the creator" in sculpting Alaska's dramatic landscape.
Going Rogue fleshes out Palin's faith narrative.
She describes her decision to undergo baptism in a lake at a Pentecostal Bible camp after her family left the
It also suggests that some of her faith-based views caused friction with the McCain campaign, adding to Palin's rogue status as a running mate. "I know the word 'creationism' evokes images of wild-eyed fundamentalists burying evidence of any kind of evolution under an avalanche of Bible verses," she writes of explaining her take on Darwinism to McCain's incredulous campaign manager. "But I needed the campaign to know they weren't going to put words in my mouth on this issue."
In promoting the book, Palin is building on that Christian outsider theme. She accuses the news media of singling out conservative religious politicians like her for unfair treatment. "I do absolutely notice that some of the conservative Christians who are members of
That solidarity may help the 45-year-old Palin become an heir to Focus's Dobson, who is giving up his decades-old radio show, and other graying Christian right leaders. "What makes her different from other political leaders is that she sees politics as a vocation, as something you're called to do," says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the antiabortion group the Susan B. Anthony List, who is hoping Palin steps up her role in the conservative values movement. Whether she winds up doing so is an open question. But after Palin governed Alaska as a centrist, Going Rogue is helping solidify her national reputation as a poster child for religious conservatives.
Available at Amazon.com:
You've Come a Long Way, Maybe: Sarah, Michelle, Hillary, and the Shaping of the New American Woman
The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star
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Sarah Palin as a Leader for the Christian Right | Dan Gilgoff
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