Posted under Christianity & Conservatism & FOX News & Israel & NeoCons & Religion & Sarah Palin
I happened to be watching “Fox News Sunday” where Chris Wallace interviewed Sarah Palin. She had just recently given her speech at the Tea Party Convention and I noticed her lapel pin. There were two flags on it, the Israeli flag with the Stars & Stripes. No one is surprised that she’s a proponent of the Israeli state, but I think it says something that she would wear such a thing to an event like the Tea Party Convention. This is yet another sign that the neocons may be using her as a “useful idiot” to co-opt this movement.
That said, it’s truly bizarre that she would endorse Rand Paul while at the same time campaigning for John McCain’s re-election bid. Bill Kristol expressed his disapproval of her endorsement of Paul, a sign that she has indeed moved off the neocon reservation just a bit. Still, one of the organizers of the Tea Party Convention emphatically stated his opposition to any third-party effort. I have become more and more skeptical of the Tea Party phenomenon and this attachment to the GOP certainly solidifies my skepticism.
If this movement becomes just another arm of the Republican Party, then it will fail miserably. Just look at what happened to similar populist movements in the “Christian Right”–the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and so forth–all of which were also vehement backers of Israel. They were simply absorbed into the larger Republican fold and soon most of their issues were discarded in the name of “being electable.” Go ahead and toss the Tea Party movement into that heap as well.
Yet the lapel pin caused me to mull another question: is it Sarah Palin’s adherence to interventionist ideology or the particular theological convictions she holds which is the root of her support for Israel? We know that she’s a run-of-the-mill Evangelical and those types of churches foster the type of eschatology (premillennial dispensationalism) which places a heavy emphasis upon supporting the current Israeli state. I guess a better question would be whether she would still support Israel if she weren’t a dispensationalist.
DanPhillips on 08 Feb 2010 at 7:24 pm #
Stonewall, do you have a URL for Kristol disapproving of her endorsement of Rand Paul?
Dispensational premillenialism contrubutes to the pro-Israel sentiment among Christian conservatives, but it does not explain it entirely. Support for Israel permeates the conservative movement so it is just default. Not all trace it back to a specific theology. You see strong support for Israel from Reformed and Catholic conservatives and they are not dispy premils.
I don’t think Palin is aware that the Tea Party movement is a mixed bag on foreign policy and that all elements of it do not support default interventionism. (Don’t confuse the Tea Party movement with this very GOP centric convention.) The pin and the foreign policy elements of her speech (which were just boilerplate Obama is weak and we need to saber rattle more) struck me as pretty clueless. (Was it just me or did the audience not seem that enthusiastic about it either?) I just caught part of the speech on C-SPAN in passing.
HarrisonBergeron2 on 08 Feb 2010 at 7:41 pm #
She’s sold out, lock, stock and youbetcha.
Bede on 08 Feb 2010 at 8:17 pm #
Palin, like Obama, is an idiot. Only a country in precipitous decline would elect these fools.
C Bowen on 09 Feb 2010 at 9:11 pm #
On the other hand, she took a jab at bankers whom Rush Limbaugh, who is always right, informs us is code for you know who.
hardtruth on 10 Feb 2010 at 4:34 am #
Please, if I may express my disernment on this circusical infiltration of the tea party.
Israel is our precise enemy of freedom and liberty, if we have an enemy at all. Like a swam of locus eating up our corn fields. This entity has in sundry places admitted to it’s hate against the none-Jew and especially it’s vicious attack on Christian principals. They are no more the people of the God of Abraham then a pedephiler is a freind of your children. They are wolves in the hen house. If they be chosen, then there chosen to devour up the non-beleivers and unfaithfull in Christ Jesus.
A good defense begins by knowing who your enemy is and were he camouflages himself. If we can’t get that straight then this tea party is down the toilet.
James on 12 Feb 2010 at 9:04 pm #
What was with the Israeli flag lapel pin on her shirt?? Is she planning to run for president of the United States or prime minister of Israel?? The Founding Fathers must be rolling in their graves.
hardtruth on 13 Feb 2010 at 2:09 am #
In the book of Romans Paul [who is a Jew] said, Not all of Israel is Israel. Tell the Christian conservatives to put that in there pipe and smoke it.
What Paul clearly meant was those in Christ are Israel and those who reject him are not Israel. He [Christ] came not but to save Israel and the beleiving gentiles are grafted into Israel.
So were does that leave the nonebeleiving Jews; realizing they are not Israel? Answer: They would be the antiChrist moving as one towards the “New World Order” under Jewish rule. To them it’s known as the “Jewish Utopia.”
The wise shall understand but the wicked shall continue in there wickedness and not understand–what I just said.
Believer on 19 May 2010 at 10:53 pm #
It seems that anti-semitism is alive and well in the Christian church
with men like Hard truth telling us that Jews somehow have become
Non Jews by non belief. You have taken a scripture out of context
and made a doctrine out of it, America is now in the process of
reducing us to a secular Nation and in doing so will ultimately make
us a non believing third world ashheap destined to be forgotten.
The Bible tells us that God will gather all Nations against Jerusalem
to battle and then shall the Lord go forth(Zechariah 14) so if you can, read the whole Bible and for heaven sakes get your kids out of
public school.
The Politics of Lapel Pins | Main Content - Lapel Pins & Clothing Labels by Sienna Pacific on 11 Jun 2010 at 5:52 pm #
[...] Sarah Palin, the former Governor of Alaska is a living testament of the lapel pin political game. During speaking engagements, on behalf of the ‘Tea Party’, Mrs. Palin is seen bearing a lapel pin, featuring two flags: the American and the Israeli flag.[Source: http://conservativetimes.org/?p=4493 [...]
meganl on 15 Sep 2010 at 4:17 am #
Sarah Palin wears the best pins.. I found her Tea Party Pin at http://www.REDWHITEANDBLING.COM. Check out their flags too.
I Pledge Allegiance to . . . on 13 Jan 2011 at 3:17 pm #
Is Sarah Palin running for the Knesset or Congress?
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