Re: In God We Trust
It’s been a big week for God and the publishing industry. Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, lover of the great outdoors and all-around feisty maverick mom, released Going Rogue, her account as the subtitle suggests, of “an American life.” In her version of the American dream narrative, Palin takes the reader through the important moments in her life, noting the religious signposts along the way. From her family’s arrival in an Alaskan frontier town to her miscarriage to her time on the campaign trail, Palin’s recollections highlight her deep faith and just a little bit of her deep hatred for McCain staffers. She shares stories of her days spent at youth Bible camp and her fated meeting with future husband Todd, who she decided was the man for her after she found out he had been baptized a Christian at sports camp. Surely, with these experiences Sarah must have suspected she was God’s BFF–or at least his ghost writer. When she learned that her son would be born with disabilities, she told her other children by writing them a letter as if she was “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.” God was there for her again when she was selected as McCain’s running mate because for Palin, there are no coincidences. The decision, she notes, was simply a “natural progression.”
In a slightly less natural progression (or maybe not), former Miss California Carrie Prejean went from almost wearing the crown and sash of Miss USA to becoming the poster girl for homophobia after her comments that marriage should be between a man and a woman caused her to, allegedly, lose the pageant. A bizarre battle of lawsuits lead to the loss of her Miss California title, the discovery and leak of a sex tape, a settlement and her new book: Still Standing whose subtitle reads: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate and Political Attacks. (Alternative subtitle: ‘I am Christian Woman-Hear Me Roar!’).
Prejean argues that there has been a carefully orchestrated campaign “to silence” her for the last seven months because of the answer she gave at the pageant. No word on if she found a horse head in her bed or was told that she sleeps with the fishes.
Now that she has conquered her conspirators with the power of the pen, she is free to finally speak. She does so, like any savvy 15-minutes-of-famer, on a round of talk shows including Larry King Live and the Today Show. In her interview with Larry she seems to mistake him for the King of the Hard Question rather than the King of the Softball and accuses him of being “inappropriate” after he asks her why she decided to settle her lawsuit against pageant officials. After scolding King with her best impersonation of a disappointed schoolteacher, she removes her microphone and seems ready to storm off the set. Thankfully, Prejean remembers she has a book to sell and stays seated. King says sorry and she finishes by gushing about her accomplishments, namely that she is an author with a message: “You know, never do anything that you wouldn’t want your biggest fans to see…”
Like Sarah Palin, Prejean strongly identifies with her faith. The main point of her book is that she was persecuted for her answer because she is a Christian woman standing up for what she believes in. Prejean found her faith after realizing that it was cool to study on Friday nights and transferred to San Diego Christian College from hard partying Santa Barbara. Since the controversy, she has become a role model for Christians everywhere, or at least those belonging to the groups Focus on the Family, Liberty University, the Gospel Music Association and Family Research Council who have scheduled her for speaking tours and interviews. Prejean’s advice to fellow Christians is “to stick together and realize that the Enemy is powerful…” And by enemy, we can only assume she means the evil liberal media and video equipment of any kind.
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How much does this remind you of Pauline Hanson in Australia in the late 90s? And what have we learned from that? Answer: that she will disappear in a puff of anti-climactic smoke, but that the conservative party will appropriate all her policies on the way, in order to recoup her fanbase. Not looking forward to either journey or destination…