OPINION: Fabricating a GOP tyrant

That Colorado Springs was one of the first stops for Sarah Palin and John McCain after the convention is no mystery. They could be regulars between now and Nov. 4.

Evangelical Christians are an essential part of the Republican base, and without their support Republicans might as well forfeit. Obvious characteristics make El Paso County an important GOP stump in this presidential race: It's the second-most populous county in a swing state, it is Colorado's hub of conservative evangelical Christianity, and some have called it the closest thing the world has to an evangelical Vatican (a stretch). Palin is an evangelical Christian, so she helps close a credibility gap McCain has had with the so-called religious right. From the perspective of policy wonks who advise candidates, if James Dobson is happy in the Springs, the Christian right is happy nationwide.

To the mainstream national press and a growing demographic increasingly known as the secularist left, Palin's appeal to Colorado Springs is something equal to a crime against the Constitution and a legal theory known as separation of church and state. A statement Palin made to her church has become fodder for alarmists, who seem to fear that bringing religious beliefs into the White House moves our country a giant step in the direction of becoming a Christian theocracy. A recent e-mail to The Gazette, from a local leader of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, warned of Palin with an opening sentence: "Can you spell T-H-E-O-C-R-A-C-Y?"

"I'm not talking about any old Theocracy. I'm talking about the big one. I'm talking about the Christian Theocracy planned over decades by devious and well-funded Christian forces painstakingly infiltrating government and corporate bodies to form the ultimate Neo-Fascist Christianity we now know as the Dominion Christian Movement," the letter stated. "And what better way to introduce this Theocracy than a charismatic woman, totally dedicated in her mortal existence to her invisible savior Jesus Christ and devoted to the narrow doctrines of her beliefs?"

In her first national interview since accepting the nomination of vice presidential candidate, ABC anchor Charlie Gibson misquoted Palin and demanded she explain the statement. Here's what Palin really said to a group of students at her former church: "Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, are sending (soldiers) out on a task that is from God. That is what we have to make sure that we are praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan."

That's benign stuff, praying that God has a plan and that we might do right by that plan. She doesn't claim, in this statement, even to know what God's plan might be.

The AP changed the statement, perhaps because it didn't reveal Palin as some kind of frightening Christian tyrant. Here's what AP distributed to the world's media: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a ‘task that is from God.' " Then it mangled her quote: "Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God..."

No wonder the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is worried. Gibson further distorted the statement, asking her why she said "there is a plan and it is God's plan."
This is the dishonest marginalization of a candidate some members of the mainstream media simply do not like. If she won't marginalize herself with outrageous statements, some will pull them from thin air. Even if Palin were as bold about God as the media pretend, it wouldn't put her in odd company. Consider the following presidential quotes.

Certainly no one should feel inclined to agree with them, but if Palin is too religiously extreme for public office, how do we explain Washington, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Reagan?

"And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." - George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

"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." - John F. Kennedy, inaugural address, Jan. 20, 1961

"Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness. Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind. Justice will Prevail." - Bill Clinton, April 23, 1985, after the Oklahoma City bombing

"Those who are lost now belong to God. Some day we will be with them." - Clinton, April 23, 1985, Oklahoma City

"You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I've never detected a conflict between God's will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other." - Jimmy Carter, Atlanta, June 16, 1978

"Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged." - Ronald Reagan

One can agree or disagree with any or all of the above statements about God, and a great many others that have been made by presidents since the beginning of the this republic. What's indisputable, however, is the fact that presidents - on the left and right - have a tradition of claiming partnerships with God as they've steered the executive branch.

Palin, by contrast, has merely spoken of prayers that God might have a plan. She has been nowhere near as boldly religious as the men who have governed us for 200-plus years. Perhaps standards are different for women.