felis_ultharus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
felis_ultharus) wrote2008-10-16 08:01 pm
felis_ultharus) wrote2008-10-16 08:01 pm
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Not that the Canadian election is over, I can indulge my obsession with American politics without guilt.
Mostly, it's the train wreck called Sarah Palin. I go through waves of horror and laughter. She's crazy, and that seems hilarious until it comes on you that she's damn close to the centre of America's -- and by extension, the world's -- most powerful office. They're behind in the polls, but a day is an eternity in politics.
It's hard to laugh at her sometimes, because my fellow Neo-Pagans in the US are so (rightfully) scared of this woman and her church's obsession with "witches" (by which they mean Neo-Pagans, fortune tellers, and animists and polytheists in countries where these weren't wiped out).
Palin denied she knew that her church was involved in these things. But her favourite pastor had tried to raise a mob against an elderly fortune-teller in Kenya as a "witch." Palin was caught on camera getting a blessing from her pastor to protect her from witchcraft as she ran for governor of Alaska.
Most recently, the leader of Palin's older prayer group -- Mary Glazier -- bragged that their prayers gave a local Wiccan cancer.
Fortunately, she's scaring off the sane, and now McCain has to try and defend Obama against the crazies who now constitute McCain's core, and who are screaming for Obama's blood.
But you have to wonder, how did the US get to this brink? How did someone like Palin get so close to power? This was a country founded by deists on Enlightenment rationalist principles. Why is it now slipping back toward this Medievalism?
Hopefully, when this campaign is over, the only memory of Palin will be all the jokes about her -- Tina Fey skewering her with her own words, or all the Monty-Python era jokes from that other Palin ("Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" and "She turned me into a newt!").
But it's hard to be entertained when the stakes are sanity in the most powerful office on the planet.
Mostly, it's the train wreck called Sarah Palin. I go through waves of horror and laughter. She's crazy, and that seems hilarious until it comes on you that she's damn close to the centre of America's -- and by extension, the world's -- most powerful office. They're behind in the polls, but a day is an eternity in politics.
It's hard to laugh at her sometimes, because my fellow Neo-Pagans in the US are so (rightfully) scared of this woman and her church's obsession with "witches" (by which they mean Neo-Pagans, fortune tellers, and animists and polytheists in countries where these weren't wiped out).
Palin denied she knew that her church was involved in these things. But her favourite pastor had tried to raise a mob against an elderly fortune-teller in Kenya as a "witch." Palin was caught on camera getting a blessing from her pastor to protect her from witchcraft as she ran for governor of Alaska.
Most recently, the leader of Palin's older prayer group -- Mary Glazier -- bragged that their prayers gave a local Wiccan cancer.
Fortunately, she's scaring off the sane, and now McCain has to try and defend Obama against the crazies who now constitute McCain's core, and who are screaming for Obama's blood.
But you have to wonder, how did the US get to this brink? How did someone like Palin get so close to power? This was a country founded by deists on Enlightenment rationalist principles. Why is it now slipping back toward this Medievalism?
Hopefully, when this campaign is over, the only memory of Palin will be all the jokes about her -- Tina Fey skewering her with her own words, or all the Monty-Python era jokes from that other Palin ("Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" and "She turned me into a newt!").
But it's hard to be entertained when the stakes are sanity in the most powerful office on the planet.
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It hasn't gotten much mainstream play. But it's fairly well-documented. The prayer and the pastor's speech are on video, as well as him bragging about raising a mob against that poor Kenyan woman. And Mary Glazier has spoken to the media as well.
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But McCain's no gift either. I just finished watching a clip where he claims that considering the mother's health when it comes to abortion is an "extreme pro-choice position". I would be seriously worried about having a man who thinks that concern for a woman's health is an outrageous concept in charge of my country. But then, I have to wonder about Harper's position on the issue.
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It really has become a campaign of Palin versus Obama. McCain's been so overshadowed by Palin's colourful craziness, it's sometimes hard to remember he's running for President. He's become kind of like Cheney, but in the top spot officially.
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As long as she doesn't win, Palin's contribution to humour will be worth the insanity.
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Do you mean that she received a blessing to protect her from witchcraft? That's what I read, at least.
"Most recently, the leader of Palin's older prayer group -- Mary Glazier -- bragged that their prayers gave a local Wiccan cancer."
There is something inherently incongruous and downright troubling about a Christian praying for someone to get cancer.
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Ugh.
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Do you remember the political organization Harper used to work for?
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I'm not saying 3rd Wavers have infiltrated politics to anywhere near the extent of our neighbours to the south; but from what I here there has been an an appreciable increase in Christian lobby presence in Ottawa, and Christian *youth* presence in those campaigns too. The youth part is what scares me more. Maybe.
There is a fine line between Christian lobbying that is for the good of all and Christian lobbying that only really benefits Christians (and even the benefits to Christians are debatable, depending on the policy we're talking about...); more often than not, these groups are only thinking of themselves.
It's an impossible ideological divide: they want a country run like the bible and their dogma commands, whereas we should want a country where each of us can *choose* to live a lifestyle that meshes with our spiritual path.
Erecting laws to stop sin doesn't stop people from choosing to sin, it just makes it illegal.
Sigh.
I'm being random. Sorry.
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I was specifically worried about Palin-style breakaway Pentecostalism, because they believe they're at war with Wiccans (among others) for the fate of the human race. I already have to be worried about these people for being gay. I don't want my religion to have to be a factor, too.
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And the main distinguishing characteristic of a fundamentalist seems to be a tendency to ignore all the decent and humane stuff in their religious tradition, so it doesn't surprise me at all.