Ever since Republicans and the Religious Right decided that the tenets of a candidate’s faith were fair game in the political arena, Barack Obama has been getting slammed for his affiliation with Jeremiah Wright and had his faith maligned by everyone from Rob Schenck to James Dobson.
But in all likelihood, efforts to point out the fact that Sarah Palin pastor’s are “convinced [that] we are living in the last days” and believe that the “purpose for the United States is… to glorify God” will be decried by the Right as evidence of anti-Christian bigotry, as will highlighting Palin’s apparent belief that her political positions are manifestations of “God’s will.”
And presumably, the McCain campaign, which had to dump John Hagee because of his controversial remarks about Hitler, the Holocaust, and Jews, will not be particularly eager to discuss this:
Palin’s pastor, Larry Kroon, introduced [David Brickner, the founder of Jews for Jesus] on Aug. 17, according to a transcript of the sermon on the church’s website.
“He’s a leader of Jews for Jesus, a ministry that is out on the leading edge in a pressing, demanding area of witnessing and evangelism,” Kroon said.
Brickner then explained that Jesus and his disciples were themselves Jewish.
“The Jewish community, in particular, has a difficult time understanding this reality,” he said.
Brickner’s mission has drawn wide criticism from the organized Jewish community, and the Anti-Defamation League accused them in a report of “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception.”Brickner also described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God’s “judgment of unbelief” of Jews who haven’t embraced Christianity.
“Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It’s very real. When [Brickner’s son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can’t miss it.”
Palin was in church that day, Kroon said, though he cautioned against attributing Brickner’s views to her.
