To the Christian Community

I just like the slogan, is all. I think it's funny. And there's a whole crazy debate going on over whether or not Sarah Palin is the new Deborah. I certainly don't want to weigh in one way or the other because I don't claim to know or judge the character of someone I've never met. And okay, so she can see Russia from her house and she has no clue what the Bush Doctrine is. People will make their own decisions about whether or not she's ready to be "one heartbeat away from the presidency." What I think is pretty crazy is that people are saying that because she's on the ticket she's not in biblical submission to her husband. When I was in authority over the students in my drama class, did that mean that my class was technically under the authority of my husband because I am in submission to him? Absolutely not. My husband isn't trained to teach drama. If he disciplined a student you can bet I would have been "let go" rather promptly. I am certainly not trying to equate running the country to running a classroom but I'm at a loss for how people know she's not following a biblical ideal of submission. We can throw scripture around and spout our opinions about whether or not women should be able to serve in government but the bottom line is that we shouldn't call into question whether or not her marriage is biblical based solely on the fact that she is on the ticket. And if you take the time to read the article, let me also point out the ridiculous statement the author makes about how her daughter was not taught that she should save herself until marriage. Maybe she wasn't. I don't know. I didn't grow up in the Palin household. But I was taught not to lie and I've told a fib or two in my time. I was taught not to hit my brother and he took a number of thumps from me. I was taught not to cheat and there were more than a few times at swim practice that I checked to see where my coach was and turned around in the middle of the lane when he wasn't looking. I was taught to save myself for marriage and I did. But I have a lot of friends who were taught the same thing and chose not to. So, regardless of how you feel about Palin and whether or not she's qualified to serve as the Vice President, I think we ought to all be able to agree that her daughter probably chose to *ahem* fornicate regardless of what her mother taught her. And I hardly think Palin was sitting around encouraging it.

This is bothering me a whole lot. I think it's because I'm a mother. If my son decides to do something contrary to what I've taught him, I don't want people to say that it's my fault. If I teach him and he chooses to walk away from those lessons, I'm not sure what else I could have done.

And I really do just like the slogan. It makes me think of waking up and turning on the television and seeing that someone painted the White House pink while I slept. I would laugh. That would be a funny prank. Way better than anything I pulled in college.

****Edited to add: Okay so I was actually combining the article and a comment on the article into one thought. The article author did not actually say that her daughter wasn't taught abstinence, that was the comment. But it was still said. That's the point I'm trying to make.