On Twitter a number of people asked my opinions of Going Rogue, and I promised a review. Honestly, I doubt that I could say anything original. Overall, I enjoyed it. I felt like the last chapter was rushed and was a mixture of everything that she wanted to say and couldn’t fit in elsewhere. It’s a stupid attack to say that it Palin didn’t cover policy issues. Palin wrote an autobiography, not her plan to change America. She also writes extensively about energy and oil — the most important issues in Alaska. However, the one theme that stuck out to me was Sarah Palin and her faith.

US News and World Report finally published the first review of her book from the faith perspective. If anyone else has written on her faith, I’ve missed it.

Though most of the talk surrounding the release of Going Rogue revolves around how it affects Palin’s standing as a political figure, including her chances of winning the White House, should she choose to run, the book is as much poised to heighten Palin’s profile as a Christian leader. “It’s a mistake to frame all this in the context of her potential candidacy,” Mark DeMoss, one of the country’s top Christian media specialists, says of Going Rogue. “She wants to tell her story and the story of her personal faith journey.” At a time when politically conservative evangelicals lack a national figurehead, Palin’s ability to connect with them could also deepen her appeal to a key part of the Republican base. “Christian audiences could respond to this like they did when George W. Bush talked about his faith,” says John Green, a religion and politics expert at the University of Akron. “This community takes faith very seriously and likes people who talk about their faith journey.”

For the record, I am a Christian and started my relationship with Christ when I was four.* Hence, as a person who shares the same faith, my views of the book come from this perspective. Anytime a well-known figure writes about his or her faith, the media tries to find an angle behind it. A person can’t write about a relationship with God because it’s a crucial part of his or her existence but because he or she is trying to court a demographic or change public opinion.

When it comes to Palin, I get the impression she’s just writing about her journey with God.

To those who have not experienced a personal encounter with God, this is absolutely impossible to understand. Faith requires, well faith. It can’t be understood unless you believe and have experienced it yourself. It simply can’t be analyzed. If you are a Christian, your relationship with God is the single most important thing in your life. Everything else revolves around it. Your decisions, your actions, your thoughts — everything stems from your faith. If you are a Believer, it is impossible to write your memoirs without including your personal relationship with Christ. It’s more important than oxygen to our existence.

Hence, it is ridiculous to analyze Palin’s faith as an attempt to become an Evangelical leader, assume the mantle of James Dobson or get the Christian vote.

US News also covers how Palin’s faith affected her actions and political views:

Until now, that part of Palin’s story has been mostly implied. As John McCain’s vice presidential running mate last year, she generally avoided talk of her faith and its influence on her politics. But word of her decision to carry her pregnancy to term despite knowing her son Trig would be born with Down syndrome was an inspiration to antiabortion activists, mostly Roman Catholics and evangelicals. News that Palin’s unwed teen daughter Bristol was pregnant and would give birth had a similar effect. “[The Palins] should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values,” Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said at the time, “but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.”

I’ve seen a number of people attack Palin for writing that her first response to discovering she was pregnant was how easy it was to get an abortion. Why? She believes it’s wrong, but it’s still human nature to consider the easiest way out when faced with a dilemma. The “Christian” course of action is to realize that those actions are wrong and choose the course of life. Christians are just as human as everyone else and make mistakes, as evidenced by Bristol.

I had always admired Palin because she was a conservative women who reflected my views. After reading Going Rogue, my respect for her grew because I recognized a fellow Christian trying to live out her faith in a very public sphere. I would like to get the perspective of a liberal Christian’s views of her book. Would you respect Palin more as a fellow Believer or do politics still cloud opinion?

*I always hesitate to write about issues relating to faith. Once you expose yourself as a Believer, you get attacked anytime you deviate from the stereotype of what is “acceptable” as a Christian from both Christians and non-Christians. You also get written off as an uneducated nutjob or hick (i.e. Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock) . Frankly, writing about your faith is a hot mess, and I try to avoid it. However, it is impossible to write about Palin’s faith without responding as a fellow Christian.

Tags: Abortion, Christianity, faith, Going Rogue, James Dobson, John McCain, Sarah Palin, US News

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Palinistas, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.