Steven Waldman’s recent Beliefnet post on Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin indicates that significant numbers of Jews find the governor “scary.” But she doesn’t scare me, at least not as a Jew. She does, however, make comments about God and God’s will that make it unclear if she wants to be the next Vice President or the nation’s leading prophet.
Suggesting that the Iraq war is “a task from God” and that a gas pipeline is “God’s will,” makes me wonder if she knows that those are not the same job. I don’t know why that should be particularly scary to Jews, but it should command the attention of anyone giving serious consideration to the McCain/Palin ticket or anyone who wants to campaign against them intelligently.
Hoping that one’s actions are in line with God’s desires is not surprising, if one believes in God and in a God who possesses a will about how humans should behave. But proclaiming to know that will with such clarity and certainty regarding issues that so many people can properly disagree, is more than a little problematic….unless of course you really know! In which case, Governor Palin would actually be doing us all a favor by making sure that we do what is absolutely true, right, and good. But she can’t know that for sure, and talking as if she does is sloppy at best, and dangerous at worst.
While many people will surely be uncomfortable with Governor Palin’s choice to introduce the concept of God’s will into her political discourse, it’s really the specificity of her claims and the clarity with which she makes them that is most problematic. I mean, nobody got particularly distressed when Senator Obama prayed for humility and wisdom at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. And that is probably because his request was sufficiently vague and mutually agreeable so as not to get anybody really upset. But that just means that our anxiety is not a function of politicians sharing their spiritual aspirations in public, as much as it is about their claiming to channel absolute truth through their chosen policies, which makes a great deal of sense.

To be fair, Palin’s comments about the War in Iraq were not as problematic as those she made about the pipeline. In speaking about the war, she said “Our national leaders are sending them 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 plan is God’s plan.” Like Senator Obama, she was praying that the decisions of our government reflect the highest values, which guide her life. That’s actually a good thing–indicating ongoing questioning and her willingness to seek the right path to follow. I may disagree with her path and/or her conclusions, but I hope that we all share that process.
But her comments about the pipeline are another story all together. She did not pray that the pipeline was a good idea. She told a roomful of people that God thought it was a good idea. That’s the opposite of prayer, it’s prophecy! And there is no room in a democracy for elected officials who believe that they are prophets. By definition, prophets draw their authority from a direct relationship with God. Our elected officials draw their power from the electorate–at least they are supposed to!
I have no problem with Sarah Palin sharing her religious beliefs with us–in fact, if they are going to inform her political thinking, she has a moral obligation to do that. But we should all have a problem with a prophet who wants to hold political office. So I invite Ms. Palin to think about her beliefs, her choice of words, and to decide which she wants to be: a prophet or a politician. Both may be real jobs, but you can’t hold both jobs at the same time. Sarah Palin needs to make her decision or John McCain needs to find a new running mate.