Grrrr. In his quesitons about God and war, ABC News’s Charles Gibson took Sarah Palin’s quote out of context and then claimed it was an exact quote.Here’s how he phrased it:

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war? PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote. GIBSON: Exact words.

Well, no. Palin asked members of the church to pray “that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.” That’s very different. She’s asking them to help insure that the war is part of God’s plan, not declaring that it was. Palin explained, accurately, to Gibson:

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side. That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie.

If Gibson wanted to challenge her on religion, he should have asked about her comment that it’s “God’s will” that Alaska have a great big natural gas pipeline.