GUEST COMMENTARY: Evangelicals’ Palin problem

c. 2008 Religion News Service ORLANDO, Fla. _ After living among evangelicals and writing about them for more than a dozen years, I am sometimes accused of losing my credentials as a left-wing Jew from the Jersey suburbs. In private, my blue state friends speculate that I have become a victim of some sort of […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

ORLANDO, Fla. _ After living among evangelicals and writing about them for more than a dozen years, I am sometimes accused of losing my credentials as a left-wing Jew from the Jersey suburbs.

In private, my blue state friends speculate that I have become a victim of some sort of evangelical Stockholm Syndrome. I can’t help it. I like most of those I know, despite fundamental differences over theology, politics and culture. They are my friends, my neighbors, even my doctor.


By and large, I have found these conservative Christians to be nothing like the national media stereotype of intolerant, knuckle-dragging yokels with torches and pitchforks. In fact, most of the evangelicals I have encountered here in the Sunbelt are middle-class suburbanites like me, good-hearted and intelligent, with diverse views on a wide range of issues, even if most vote Republican.

None of this blinds me to their flaws, some of which have been highlighted by the emergence of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the GOP’s vice presidential nominee.

On the surface, Palin seems to be a champion broadly embraced by evangelicals. Yet in recent weeks, some polls suggest that she may not be significantly boosting support for the top of the GOP ticket among undecided white evangelicals, a key demographic.

Why is this? In the Sunbelt and heartland suburbs where middle class evangelicals determine the outcome of national elections, I detect a growing unease with Palin as a potential president. It predates her disastrous interview with Katie Couric and the conservative columnists’ calls for her to step aside. It may be slowed by her performance in the vice presidential debate, but it is unlikely to be reversed.

“Gov. Palin is gifted and full of potential, and the media has been embarrassingly and abysmally condescending toward her,” said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative Episcopal leader from Summerville, S.C. “She has much to offer but she is not ready to take on this assignment. She lacks the credentials _ at this time _ to be in this position. This is too much too soon.”

While it may be considered disloyal for leaders or laypeople to make such an admission in public, the evangelicals I know well enough to speak candidly agree with Harmon. They are not comfortable entrusting the U.S. economy or our complex foreign policy _ especially war _ to Sarah Palin.

In their own work lives, suburban evangelicals understand that faith is no substitute for ability and expertise. They fully expect their Christian employees and subordinates to meet the same exacting standards as non-believers. The same holds true for politics and governance.


Many evangelicals are neither stupid nor unsophisticated. And they seem to be troubled by a political standard bearer who too closely resembles the caricature they have been struggling to banish.

There is the sense that parts of Palin’s record and rhetoric illustrate some of the least flattering aspects of evangelicals in public life:

_ Mean streak. Some evangelicals, relatively new to office holding, can be bullies or petty tyrants. In Palin’s case, as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska, that meant discharging officials who disagreed with her; having a state employee call a critical blogger and order her to stifle her criticism; and attempting to pull a book off a library shelf. There also can be a judgmental element among evangelicals, growing out of absolute confidence, bordering on arrogance, that they are always right.

_ Exaggeration. Offering “testimony” is an essential part of the evangelical tradition, and there is sometimes a temptation to both simplify and embellish. Here the offense, if there is one, is hyperbole, not perjury. On the stump, however, making demonstrably false boasts about turning down “the bridge to nowhere,” rejecting other special interest earmarks and selling the state’s plane on eBay at profit are seen as something more serious.

_ Stridence. It is much easier to whip up thousands of followers, or raise money through the mail or over the airwaves, with a cry of persecution or the claim of attack. Palin’s mocking, belittling tone too often denigrates Barack Obama _ in Central Florida recently she suggested the Democratic candidate had never “lifted a finger” to address the nation’s problems.

This approach may appeal to the evangelical base in small towns and rural areas and draw enthusiastic crowds to rallies, but it may not be enough.


Suburban evangelicals’ preference is for an emerging cohort of national leaders epitomized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and megachurch minister Rick Warren. Coming from the pastoral tradition, they tend to be more soft-spoken and conciliatory, rather than confrontational.

(Mark I. Pinsky, former religion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, is author of “A Jew Among the Evangelicals: A Guide for the Perplexed”)

KRE/RB END PINSKY800 words

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