“A woman can run the White House, just not her own house.”
2 October 2008 by Stardust
Even though I grew up as a Lutheran, I spent a couple of my teenage years at a Southern Baptist church and heard the sermons about a woman should not rule over a man, women should be taking care of the home and family, leaving the larger issues to the men, and all that medieval baloney. And I heard this stuff recently when “evil liberal” Hillary was campaigning from female Southern Baptists I know that women should absolutely not be in positions of power. But now that a “god-fearing” religious Republican woman has come to be the nominee for VP of the U.S. they change their minds. All they know is that Palin loves Jeeezus. She talks the pretty talk they are used to hearing from their pulpits and that’s all they care about. They don’t care if she can or cannot protect them from terrorists. They do not care if she is inexperienced in national and international affairs. They do care only that she loves Jesus, is pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay and a hockey-mom with a great personality.
It’s all well and good that they finally approve of a woman to lead the nation and have power over male citizens, but too bad their beliefs are contradictory since Baptists believe women still must be subservient to their husbands. Palin’s religion, while allowing a woman to preach in the church and be pastors, they also believe like the Baptists that according to I Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”(NIV) and Eph. 5:23-32 “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” How do they reconcile these things when it comes to women being in powerful positions and their literal Biblical beliefs? How much influence do the husbands of these fundamentalist women have who reach high elected positions within our government?
RALEIGH, N.C. – Within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, a woman may not lead a church or a home. But prominent Southern Baptists see nothing wrong with Sarah Palin serving as vice president — or perhaps even commander-in-chief someday.
In other words: A woman can run the White House, just not her own house.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate — the first female on the party’s ticket in history — has thrilled conservative Christians. It also has led Southern Baptist congregations and seminary students to confront their beliefs about the role of women in leadership.
Interpreted from Scripture, the teachings on women are held close in thousands of Southern Baptist Convention churches where millions worship. Among them: “The office of pastor is limited to men,” and a wife should “submit herself graciously” to her husband. Earlier this month, more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstores — a retail chain affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention — pulled from the shelves a magazine featuring five female pastors on the cover.
But when their wants and desires change, they change their interpretation, as usual.
Yet many in the denomination say the nation’s second-highest leadership post is an apple to the pulpit’s orange. Palin’s potential work in a McCain administration — or even as president in the event of McCain’s death — would be separate from her family life with her husband, Todd, and their children.
But there is no separating them since her husband and children are citizens of this country and Palin will be working for all Americans, male, female, young and old, and even her family members. She indeed has power over even her own husband. There is no way of separating that oath of office. One cannot say “I am second commander-in-chief, or Commander-in-Chief over everyone but my husband.” It doesn’t work that way.
“There’s no disconnect or inconsistency whatsoever,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. “We don’t go beyond where the New Testament goes. Public office is neither a church nor a marriage.”
That’s not what they said when Hillary Clinton was running. When Hillary was running in the primaries and doing well, Baptists in my own family have said that they don’t think a woman should be running for office. And now they condone it because the woman running happens to be a conservative fundamentalist Republican Christian? There is indeed “disconnect and inconsistency” when you take an ancient mythology book and bend and shape it, change it’s meaning to however you want like Christians of all denominations do all the time.
It’s good to see more and more denominations re-interpreting their religious text and ending discrimination and oppression of women, but in this case I suspect it is merely a matter of changing those interpretations and rules to suit themselves in the political arena to get a conservative god believer in a position of power. But when Southern Baptist women come into powerful positions, who is reallycalling the shots behind the scenes?
And this goes to prove once again that god believers make up their “God’s plan” according to their own agendas. They want it both ways, to control a woman in her home and church, but say it’s okay for her to be in positions of great power over all men nationwide. Doesn’t make sense (unless like I say that it is merely for appearances and the men in the lives of fundamentalist women in power have more influence than we all realize.) Am I too far off base here in suggesting this?
It will be greater progress if these fundies go even further and admit that their entire religious text is outdated and incompatible in these modern times, AND admit that a woman is in charge of her home, her family and is on equal status as her husband. But they will never go so far as to do that.
2 October 2008, on 3:59 pm
I always wanted to ask the “gawd” fearing Republican candidates that, especially Fuckabee, just to try and hear them answer it.
Also, that verse doesn’t mention a church or a home, it just says no authority. Once more they’re inserting words that don’t exist.
2 October 2008, on 5:04 pm
AUM, they are constantly reinventing their religion to suit themselves. There is no god telling them what to do, it’s what humans want to do and what they want to believe. And the ones who believe that they need to listen to voices inside their heads and other people who are not elected or affiliated with the elected government, then it becomes dangerous for the rest of us. Never know what is going on in their little minds, what voices they hear, what beliefs they truly hold.
2 October 2008, on 5:26 pm
Star, what always makes me laugh is how often they say that the Bible is the only book you need, or it can tell you how to live your life, and yet, in order to answer our questions, they refer to books that are NOT the Bible!
2 October 2008, on 5:55 pm
But the bible is the only book you need! Why, it has so many applications, even in this modern age. You can use it to prop up a wobbly table, start a fire if you’re cold, and, in a pinch, you can shred it and make cat litter.
Yes, I have done all of the above. Free bibles, how I love thee!
2 October 2008, on 10:04 pm
^Ha ha ha!
That comment was even funnier than watching Sarah Palin getting her dumb ass kicked by Joe Biden in the Veep debate. And that’s pretty fucking funny!
2 October 2008, on 11:04 pm
Pancakehead Palin kept avoiding questions. I loved the way Biden finally went off on the “maverick” bullshit. I hate that term more an any other this election. John McCain is NO MAVERICK. That was the best part of the debate.
2 October 2008, on 11:21 pm
^ Stardust. I was in constant communication with a friend throughout the whole thing, and I was positively cheering when Biden finally took a stand against the “Maverick” comment. After hearing many phone-in comments after the debate, we were fearing that we were the only ones that noticed Palin’s absolute avoidance of the questions. People just swallow up her bullshit answers without even thinking. One thing we did love was how you could see it in Biden’s face whenever she began changing the topic. Almost like- *Sigh* “There she goes AGAIN!”
2 October 2008, on 11:52 pm
The Talking Heads are all saying what a great job Palin did. Were they watching the same debate as me? She didn’t answer anything! She two-stepped around each question, or gave it a yes or no answer with no follow up, except to plug the talking points she’d rehearsed and kept referring to in her notes. It was clear she was not supposed to try to answer anything on her own; just stick to the script, using her “folksy” style to appeal to the voters. It aggravated me no end, and made me even more frightened of the idea that she could be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
3 October 2008, on 12:39 am
And…sorry to nitpick (NOT!)…
Palin’s back to using “nucular” again! So much for a “change” from the Bush-chimp.
No surprise…she wasn’t being cued by a teleprompter with “New-Clear”…AND…
considering her views on teaching Creationism (to Joe six-pack?) in Science classes.
Another “Flintstones” science illiterate who wants to have access to America’s Nuclear Red-button?
[cue "Flintstones" theme!]
“Yabba-dabba-D’oh!”
Hmmm…actually…we really DON”T have any “nucular” weapons…
just WMDs…or…
Weapons of Moronic Dingbats?
3 October 2008, on 1:36 am
I didn’t watch the debate, because Mick Foley was on TNA Impact, but it seems to me, from what I’ve read about it, was that she was given a script and did not deviate at ALL, which is why she changed the question so much.
Is my impression correct?
I’ve also heard she had an ear piece and was getting fed answers, much like Dubya.
3 October 2008, on 2:02 am
The Talking Heads are all saying what a great job Palin did. Were they watching the same debate as me?
Yes, they were, and had apparently very low standard on how it would go for her. So they’re relieved that she didn’t fuck up entirely- at least by their standards.
3 October 2008, on 7:26 am
McStain can’t call HER a trollop, she’d gut him like a moose. Besides JohnnyPOW’s spent time with a few hookers and he knows that they ‘re a lot more honest than Saraharriddan.
3 October 2008, on 7:28 am
Sarah:
Was David Byrne with them? or was it just Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harris?
3 October 2008, on 10:30 am
The Talking Heads are all saying what a great job Palin did. Were they watching the same debate as me? She didn’t answer anything! She two-stepped around each question, or gave it a yes or no answer with no follow up, except to plug the talking points she’d rehearsed and kept referring to in her notes.
They were judging it as if it were a beauty pageant. Palin sounded like a Miss America contestant instead of a VP Candidate. All that was missing was the evening gown, long white gloves and tiara. She reminded me of first year college speech class where we had to debate each other using note cards and tried to cover all of our points we memorized. All of the “golly gees!” and “bless their hearts” were not professional. Maybe some people find that “cute” and “real” but it’s not cute when you are dealing with terrorism, tough heads of state who hate women to begin with, and they are going to despise being sweetie talked to like a Mom talking to a child like she does. She is not VP or Presidential material.
It shows the level of intelligence of too many people in this country by how they judge and choose their candidates. The Republican party will keep using that dumbass approach of mispronunciations and seeming stupid as long as it works, as long as there are voters who are attracted to the idea of Joe Six-Pack in charge. Palin might have won “Miss Congeniality” but she sure didn’t win any points concerning the mess in Iraq, and war issues, economic issues, etc. She keeps saying that she is “mainstreet” and she is NOT mainstreet. She is quite well-off and wears fancy clothes, has people take care of her domestic responsibilities and probably saw her kids for the first time in ages last night. She is not middle-class America.
I wish they would have forced her to answer the questions asked of her, but the moderator probably didn’t want to be accused of being pro-Obama.
3 October 2008, on 12:32 pm
Wouldn’t it have been funny if Katie Couric was the moderator?
Sarah Palin achieved her minimum objective last night, she didn’t embarass herself. If she had, McCain’s campaign would have tanked.
Then again, for her diehard supporters, it seems she can do no wrong. If a video surfaced showing her fellating a bull moose, they would still cut her slack. “Hey, she was going through a tough time in her life. None of us are perfect. Besides, how do we know what Obama is doing when nobody is looking?”
3 October 2008, on 1:59 pm
One of my biggest pet peeves is to hear supposedly intelligent and educated people mispronounce simple words. After 8 years of listening to Dubya continually mispronounce this simple word, Palin’s mispronunciation of “nuclear” is neither “cute” or “folksy”. It shows a lack of knowledge of simple phonics. When in doubt, just sound it out. It’s nu·cle·ar
\ˈnü-klē-ər, ˈnyü-, ÷-kyə-lər\
Another annoying mispronunciation is that of the name of the Iranian leader — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. McCain screwed it up by adding a k sound in the beginning and a few extra syllables that weren’t supposed to be there (Achmadinejadadadad), then Palin screwed it up again last night the same way withe the k sound at the beginning. Then instead of pronouncing it properly, what does Biden do? He follows suit of the same mispronunciation as Palin. Doesn’t anyone do their homework anymore? Is just skating by how we all function now?
Based on the advice of the BBC Persian Monitoring team,
mah-MOOD ah-mad-in-uh-ZHAAD
(-h is pronounced in ‘Mahmoud’ and in ‘Ahmadinejad’) .”
There is no “K” or “CH” sound in Ahmadinejad.
It really isn’t that hard to pronounce once you learn it and it doesn’t look very adult if they are just mispronouncing it on purpose because they hate him. There are helpful dictionaries and other resources all over the internet. There is no excuse, especially for highly elected officials to lack proper pronunciation of even the most complex words and names of heads of foreign countries. They are either very lazy, or they are trying to sound stupid to the voters, which is insulting to the average educated person.
3 October 2008, on 7:33 pm
Tommykey: Sarah Palin achieved her minimum objective last night, she didn’t embarass herself.
Exactly; as my supervisor put it, all she could do was “stop the bleeding” and that’s what she did, no more, no less. She didn’t give the people who are going to vote for her ticket come hell or high water any more pangs of doubt than they had before the debate.
But quite frankly, I liked Biden in this. He avoided his usual “social gaffes” and didn’t attack her directly, which would have alienated a lot of the idiots in this country who still prefer warm and fuzzy to real straight talking. Instead, when he did attack, McCain was his target, and it was all she could do not to duck down behind the podium because she really had nothing to counter with. He was respectful and downright courteous at times, and still came across as professional (mispronunciations notwithstanding), experienced, intelligent, passionate, caring, knowledgeable, sharp-witted, and more than ready for the White House.
“Past is prologue,” Governor Palin.
4 October 2008, on 9:56 am
Palin from what I heard was talking down to those who have a brain.
Her worth of 1.2 million does not make her middle class.
Her preaching on credit cards was not welcome, tell that to your kids.
I thought she was talking to third graders.
You bet cha, that comment was really getting to me.
Biden always going well first and then second got old really quick.
Could not Biden just say that McCain made a mistake by taking a no nothing governor with no experience and attempt to put her in the second most important position in the country?
4 October 2008, on 8:34 pm
I was introduced to the “eruv” in the Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
Imagine my surprise in finding out that there’s one right near my home in Montgomery County, MD.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/03/AR2008100301501.html
It just seems odd the extent to which people will go to appear that they are making a show of obeying the laws of their faith.
5 October 2008, on 3:18 am
In case you guys haven’t seen this…
it’s a rather “cute” takeoff on an old Disney Steamboat Willie cartoon…
“John McCain in Swiftboat Willie”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjomYMe6t_U
6 October 2008, on 8:08 pm
They probably rationalize it by assuming that she is just a puppet candidate for political reasons, who is surely being controled by the males behind the scenes. Of course they think this type of shit is AOK when it fits into their loyalties. And they appreciate the fact that she is attractive.