The Susan Blount Phenomenon www.News3Online.com

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This is a response to two comments made on my Sarah, Please Go Home entry...

Dear http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/SchoolinRhome/

I'm always amazed when complete strangers find my web blog.  You have a beautiful site and I am saddened about Marsha's loss.  God be with her. 

You and I know very little about Sarah.  Like you I think she is a great person, but I really don't know for sure if she can “multi-task, properly care for her family and get things done”.  I know she’s probably trying.  We cannot judge right and wrong based on experience - ours or those of others.  We must discern them based on Biblical truth. 

You share a number of examples of different mothering experiences. You are missing the point... I am speaking to a much larger issue of priorities.  The nation's business has now become Sarah's priority.  John McCain and those voting for her will expect that.

She is free to make this choice, of course.  God does not make us conform to truth – we have a free will.  But, she cannot escape the consequences.  I don’t wish that on her.  I want to sound the alarm to her and others like her.  Titus 2 instructs me to do that, like iron sharpens iron. 

And yes, if there are homeschooling moms around me who lose their way, I do admonish them in love and with grace.   God’s word instructs us to help each other reach the finish line – to finish well – and it’s how you finish that counts.  It’s not too late for Sarah to change course.

What, in your opinion, is the Biblical message that she is sending families in America that will help them?

I have heard both her major speeches on TV and cannot once recall her giving any glory to God.  I apologize if she did and I missed it. 

I’m not looking for a perfect candidate (as you say, there is none).  I am trying to stay informed in light of God’s principles and I do not have to pray for His will concerning Sarah.  I already know what it is because she is married with children. I pray that she will do the right thing with this sacred trust He has given her.   I don’t want that to sound insulting to you.  I don’t intend for it to be.  I want to speak truth.  I didn’t write the Book, and I encourage you to find your defense for Sarah in there, if you can.  I would be open to a Scriptural dialog with you about her.  Susan  PS:  My homeschoolers are grown and gone now, so I have time for blogging. 

Here are the weblogs that I wrote about her.  Try to get the whole picture of what I am sounding the alarm about. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/7757/582401/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/7757/584423/

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/7757/584230/

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There are so many other things I should be doing these days, but I just can’t get away from the problem with Sarah.  If you think I have gone the way of the dinosaurs now, how much harder it is going to be to sound the alarm to young women after what Sarah has chosen to do. 

I don’t think we can overemphasize the negatives of the paradigm shift that Sarah’s choices are creating in the world of Conservatism, family values, women’s roles and the Christian culture. 

A friend of mine said it so well… she was protecting Alaskans from her party's sins, when she should have been protecting her own daughter from the boyfriend's hormones.

(Side note:  I read excerpts from the MySpace page of the young man who has fathered her grandchild… full of the f word and an admission that he doesn’t want children.  I would not be excited for my daughter to be marrying such a man even if he did father her child.  I hope I’m not picking on Sarah too much, but I found that very disturbing. )

Wives and husbands/ mothers and fathers have distinctly different God-given roles and giftedness.  It is part of His image – factored into the Intelligent Design of our Creator God.  Try as we might, we cannot suppress or circumvent that truth!!  I want, with all my heart, for Sarah and her family to know and live this good news. 

This morning I woke up thinking “What would Doug Phillips say?” and went to the Vision Forum website.  I was not disappointed.  This is long and you may not have time for it, but I hope you'll skim through it. I’ll highlight some great points if you only have time to scan this.   If you get time, click on the Philips website… lots of good stuff to think about there as it relates to our current dilemma (see the titles below this web address.)  http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/

Presidential Candidate Chuck Baldwin on the Pro-Abortion Record of John McCain

A Comparison of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s Speeches on Feminist Political Objectives and Victories to the Men and Women of America

John McCain Picks Mother of Five and Member of ‘Feminists for Life’ as VP Candidate

Dr. Voddie Baucham Asks: Is It Really A Pro-Family Pick To Place a Mother of Young Children on the National Ticket

In his blog post, Dr. Voddie Baucham raises the question: Is the nomination of Sarah Palin for a Vice Presidential candidate truly a “Pro-Family” pick?” Here are excerpts from Dr. Baucham’s post:  http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/Blog/Entries/2008/8/30_Did_McCain_Make_a_Pro-Family_Pick____.html

Conservatives are all aglow as John McCain pulled off an apparent coup d’état this week by naming Sarah Palin as his choice for Vice President. Bob Unruh, writing for the conservative Christian web magazine, Worldnet Daily may have put it best when he opened his column:

Pro-family advocates and Republicans are saying presumptive GOP nominee for president Sen. John McCain may have checkmated Democrat Sen. Barack Obama with his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate....

While I agree that from a political standpoint Mr. McCain made a brilliant political move, I am not so sure his pick can be portrayed as “pro-family.” It is true that Mrs. Palin is ardently pro-life -a distinction bolstered by the fact that she has five children, and chose not to abort a Down Syndrome baby—and she is also a fiscal conservative, a Washington outsider, and she hunts wolves from helicopters! What more could the Neocons ask for?

Unfortunately, Christians appear to be headed toward a hairpin turn at breakneck speed without the slightest clue as to the danger ahead. I don’t see this as a pro-family pick at all! Moreover, I believe the conservative fervor over this pick shows how politicized Christians have become at the expense of maintaining a prophetic voice. I believe that Mr. McCain has proven with his VP pick that he is pro-victory, not pro-family. In fact, I believe this was the anti-family pick. I say that for at least two reasons....

NOT A PRO FAMILY JOB

First, if Mr. McCain was pro-family, he would want to see Mrs. Palin at home taking care of her five children, not headed to Washington to be consumed by the responsibilities of being second in command to the most powerful man in the world (or serving as the Governor of Alaska for that matter). Let me also say that I would have the same reservations about a man with five children at home seeking the VP office. It’s not exactly a pro-family job.

FRC’s piece on Mrs. Palin links to a Wallstreet Journal article outlining her political career. While many Christian conservatives are highlighting Palin’s toughness, integrity and obvious conservative credentials (more conservative than McCain, in fact), they also seem to be ignoring several red flags.

For example, the Journal article, in an effort to highlight Palin’s ‘eco-friendly’ lifestyle, uncovers a disturbing trend that plagues far too many young women with families. The article refers to Palin’s habit of “driving herself to and from work every day from the Anchorage suburb of Wasilla, about 45 miles away.” Does this bother anyone else? Let’s say the Governor averages sixty miles per hour on her daily commute (which I seriously doubt). That adds seven and a half hours per week to what one would assume is already a fifty to sixty-hour workweek (at least that if she is as driven as the article implies). This is supposed to be pro-family?

Perhaps the most disturbing revelation in the article is Mrs. Palin’s recent decision to travel for work (against her doctor’s orders) in the final days of her pregnancy. According to the article:

“Gov. Palin’s opted to board a jet from Dallas in April while about to deliver a child. Gov. Palin, who was eight months pregnant, says she felt a few contractions shortly before she was to give a keynote speech to an energy summit of governors in Dallas. But she says she went ahead with it after her doctor in Alaska advised her to put her feet up to rest. “I was not going to miss that speech,” she says.”

She put her child at risk, not for an official, necessary, or emergency duty as the Governor of Alaska, but because she simply “was not going to miss out on that speech.” A speech! The more I learn about the choices this woman has made, the less inclined I am to see Mr. McCain’s choice as pro-family. She may be the best working mother in America, but the evidence is questionable at best.

NOT A PRO FAMILY MESSAGE

Not only do I believe that a pro-family candidate would prefer to see Mrs. Palin at home taking care of her children, I believe a pro-family candidate would also avoid validating and advancing our culture’s desire to completely erase gender roles. Much of the discussion about Mrs. Palin’s candidacy centers around her opportunity to “break through the glass ceiling” and be a “role model for young women.” The same was said of Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy in the Democratic primary. But what does this mean?

Are we really saying that we want to completely erase the distinctions between men and women.  Do we really believe that it is good for our country to promote the view that women are merely men who happen to be biologically capable of having children (when it does not interfere with career advancement, of course)? I don’t think so. What do we do with the Bible’s admonition in Titus chapter two? Are Christian conservatives saying that Paul’s instructions concerning women’s duty to be “keepers of their homes” has somehow been overturned in light of recent discoveries? Or are we saying that pro-family means one thing when we’re in church, but something else when we’re trying to beat the Democrats?...

My point is simple. The job of a wife and mother is to be a wife and mother. Anything in addition to that must also be subservient to it. There is no higher calling. Moreover, I believe Paul’s admonition should lead us to reject any notion of a wife and mother taking on the level of responsibility that Mrs. Palin is seeking.

My heart breaks for her. She has been blessed beyond measure with five incredible children, but she is running hard after what the world says is ‘something more.’ I fear she will regret this someday. In fact, I believe she already does. I can’t imagine her going to sleep at night without a nagging doubt in the back of her mind as she thinks about the time with her children that she will never get back.

My heart breaks for her children. Their mother, by all reports, is an incredible, intelligent, energetic woman with a great deal to offer. Unfortunately, right now she is offering it to the people of Alaska, and the people of the United States of America when her first priority is to offer it to them. God designed them to flourish under the nurturing care of their mother, not some surrogate.

My heart breaks for her husband. Mrs. Palin is not even supposed to be the head of her own household (Eph. 5:22ff; Col. 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1-7), let alone the State of Alaska, or the United States Senate (The VP oversees the Senate). He should be shepherding her, but instead she is ruling over him (Rom 13:1-7; 1Pet 2:13-17). How difficult it must be for him to walk the fine line of bowing to the culture that is stealing his bride while still trying to love his wife and lead his family.

My heart breaks for the so-called Christian right. All the usual subjects have been falling all over themselves to praise Mr. McCain and justify their blind allegiance to the Republican Party in an effort to secure more “pro-family” judges. They want to protect marriage from redefinition by the homosexual movement, and they are willing to redefine marriage (and motherhood) to do it.

Ironically, the Neocons are merely using Mrs. Palin as a political pawn. She is beloved because she gives them the coveted “moral high ground” in the upcoming debates. Read recent articles and the goals become clear. We must win on abortion. She makes it hard to argue for it. We must win on the race/gender issue. She gives us a woman to their ethnic minority. We must win on being young and hip. Obama is 47; Palin is 44. We must win the “change” argument. Obama is new to Washington; Palin has never served there. Checkmate!

Unfortunately, this political pawn represents a fatal flaw worldview flaw. In an effort to win the pro-family political argument, we are sacrificing the pro-family biblical argument. In essence, the message being sent to women by conservative Christians backing McCain/Palin is, “It’s ok to sacrifice your family on the altar of your career; just don’t have an abortion.” How pro-family is that?

Posted by Doug Phillips on September 2, 2008 | Permalink

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