Besides, it’s possible to dislike Palin for all three reasons I mentioned.

Lots of Catholics complain about anti-Catholic prejudice but those same Catholics refuse to look at their own predjudice against conservative, evangelical Protestants.

Frankly, I find it humorous that you would want me to be generous to you when you don’t extend that generosity to people who disagree with you. I guess even liberal pacifists aren’t immune from sinful human nature.

Now, Henry, your turn.

If you are quoting Palin correctly, it seems that she’s asking for a discerning spirit not for herself but for her son and his fellow soliders. What, pray tell, is wrong with that?

Do you not believe that the Holy Spirit accompanies all Christians, regardless of denomination? After all, when Christ promised the arrival of a “comforter” and “advocate,” he wasn’t necessarily talking about that entity coming only to certain types of believers, did he?

Every Catholic has the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation. The fact that most Catholics don’t recognize that, by and large, (and, therefore, foist their decision-making on many theological issues to a corrupt hierarchy) does not diminish that truth.

As far as her son going to Iraq goes, he is an adult who made his own decision about the matter! Would you be criticizing him if he weren’t going to Iraq? I seriously doubt it.

Besides, Palin’s desire to pray for her son and his fellow soldiers is normal and natural for any mother. Ascribing more complex theological and political motivations to it is disingenuous.

You and MM basically don’t like Palin because she goes to the “wrong” church, she holds the “wrong” theology and she’s not Catholic. Why don’t you just say so instead of hiding behind all these hi-fallutin facades?

Joseph, you are clearly a muddled thinker. Which is it? Do we “not like” Palin because of her political views, her theology, or because she’s not Catholic? I have repeatedly and clearly stated that I find her politics and her theology dangerous and un-Christian. They are inseparable. What IS separable is the church she attends and whether or not she is Catholic. The fact that she is not Catholic has nothing to do with my opposition to her theology. Many Catholics hold the same theology as Palin.

Start being more generous in your understanding of my position, which has been stated clearly about four times now, or we cannot continue the conversation. I cannot have a conversation with you if all you do is misrepresent my position.

Let’s look — spirit of prophecy. Prophets. Nuff said.

She did more than ask for people to pray. If the narrative is, she wasn’t sure if the task is from God, so she said let’s pray and see — why, oh why, did she allow her son (with pride) go to Iraq before finding out if it is indeed a task from God? The whole point is she saw it as such a task, but the problem is that we might not follow through with it the way God wants us to do so. So it was for continued guidance so we can continue God’s will in the task which is in Iraq.

The discussion of her pastor giving her an annointing which has led her to get into a position of power is messianic; and if you don’t see how she has God talks to us as a part of her Christian narrative (making those who get such talk prophets), that’s not my problem.

Doesn’t anyone practice discernment anymore? Or are we just so intent on the politics of destruction that we will take anything out of context to justify our favored positions?

Sarah Palin was acitng as a leader in her church, asking for God’s will to be done for the ministry of the youth in that church. Along with that she asked for prayers of protection for her son and all those serving in Iraq. She asked the congregation to pray that God’s will would be done in that church, in that mission and in the state of Alaska.

She never claimed to be a prophet and her life long Pastor gave her the scripture to read.

As Govenor, Sarah Palin has done nothing more than ask for everyone to pray, just as George Washington, Lincoln, FDR and JFK have done. In this, she is clearly following longstanding tradition.

One more point– Does God automatically check your heretical or apostate standing before listening to your prayers? Does he want a perfect pedigree within the church from you or does he want your love, prayer and service?

If this is Christianity, then I’m Buddha, Lao Tze, Zoroaster and Mohammed combined.

With Catholics like you and Mark Shea, who needs atheists?

Second, you and MM have basically written Palin out of Christianity merely because of her political views. Don’t deny it; that’s the tone the two of you have been taking ever since McCain chose her.

Third, I am more “generous and accepting” of Palin’s “war-making ‘Christianity’” because you and MM have deliberately distorted her position. As I said in one of my previous posts, I don’t believe — and the evidence does not show — that Palin is asking God to do America’s will. Re-read it, for you obviously don’t know how to read.

You and MM basically don’t like Palin because she goes to the “wrong” church, she holds the “wrong” theology and she’s not Catholic. Why don’t you just say so instead of hiding behind all these hi-fallutin facades?

Or is it because neither you nor MM have the guts to say that?

Now, you can claim that the passages are metaphorical or poetic or figures of speech and that’s fine. But you can’t deny that such imagery exists in the prime set of documents that defines divine revelation for Christians.

Of course I “can’t deny it,” nor would I wish to. The texts containing the metaphor of spiritual warfare both in the Bible and in the Church Fathers are precisely meant to subvert the connection between religion and actual warfare. “I am a solider of Christ; I cannot fight,” for example. You’re absolutely nuts if you think the metaphor of “spiritual warfare” is meant to support the warmaking of nation-states.

What Palin’s pastor, Hagee or Parsley say or believe is a separate issue for which Palin is not responsible.

Would you say the same thing with regard to Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright?

Henry, it’s one thing to establish sound borders. It’s quite another to 1)dismiss non-Catholic Christians as being unredeemed, as MM essentially has done 2)distort what Palin was saying by equating it to far more radical statements made by others, as Iafrate has done and 3)place membership in any church over and above the atonement and redemption that Christ offers through His blood.

You still don’t seem to get it. Neither MM or myself is suggesting that non-Catholics cannot be saved. No where do either of us say that.

I also find it humorous that you are so generous and accepting when it comes to Palin’s brand of war-making “Christianity,” but call Catholic pacifists immoral. The position that Palin seems to agree with has been condemned by the Church, while pacifism is approved by the Church.

Right, the Catholic Church recognizes truth wherever it is found, and it doesn’t entirely dismiss what is found in other faiths because they are other faiths. But that doesn’t mean it accepts all that is found in other faiths, either. Indeed, Catholicism is constantly reforming itself as well, pointing out that it doesn’t accept all that is found within its own boundaries, either.