Could it be possible that blowhard Pastor Rick Warren was on the VP search committee with McCain?
To be fair, showman Rev. Wright called a press conference at the National Press Club, adding even more attention and press against Obama. Obama was forced to distance himself. Should Palin's Wasilla pastor and the African witchdoctor invited the press, the media would cover it. Regardless, we should know about her beliefs and Palin should be questioned by a committee of psycologists for mental stability. If the old President dies, she would have her finger on the nuclear button.

If you look at some of the things that Thomas Muthee said in the sermons that he gave at the Wassillia church, then things kind of add up.

And I thought Huckabee was scary!

If her beliefs even come close to those of Muthee, then she would be incapable of fulfilling her oath to uphold and protect the constitution. In fact her beliefs would be diametrically opposed to the 1st amendment provisions about establishment of a State religion.

It is astonding that there has been no outcry from any quarter on this. the ACLU and other civil rights and constitutional watchdogs should be up in arms concerning the threat that her canidacy poses to some of the basic freedoms we as a nation take for granted.

Kind of makes Huckabee look like a moderate.

Not only is Palin a Protestant, she is an evangelical, which makes it even more scary and difficult for the media to push forward into this area.

You are exactly correct, Patricia, their first attempt at stopping such inquiry would be to cry, "Christianity is being persecuted!" ... which might not bring the scrutiny of Palin to an end entirely, but would almost certainly distract a large portion of the discussion onto the question we are now discussing, What is fair game regarding a candidate's religion, and what is off-limits?

But this alone is a national discussion worth having, because many Americans aren't up to speed on it.

It is kind of funny, in a scary sort of ha ha way, that members of the majority religion, christianity, can get away with screaming persecution.

Even if they are a smaller part of the whole, christianity is still the majority faith in this country. America has let this part of the christian faith control the dialog. It is kind of like what happens in muslim countries when it is the fundamentalist elements that come to establish and control the boundaries and topics of any debate about the role of religion in governing the society.

So when are we going to have the christian equivilant to Sharia law come up?

Be afraid, be very afraid.

The "Christian" equivalent of sharia is Biblical law. As in the Old Testament, and whatever they define as "law" in the New Testament. And they are busy trying to install it, plank by plank, as we speak.

Britain, with its large Muslim population, is trying to bend over backwards and allow them to have religious liberty by letting sharia courts operate in Britain, and giving them legal authority. Muslim countries that operate on sharia don't have a civil government. They are governed by families descended from Mohammed who appoint their own hierarchy of officials, and the courts are run by the conservative Muslim clergy. It would be like letting John Hagee be a Supreme Court justice.

Nice try on the toleration front, from a country that practiced official intolerance of other religions for so long. But I'll bet that letting sharia in the door in Britain is going to blow up in their faces bigtime. What are they going to do when a British sharia court fails to punish an honor killing of a girl or a gay man that is done right in London?

The United States is heading into the same kettle of boiling oil by allowing conservative "Christian" religion to influence the law.

Well, actually this country was founded using Christian concepts as the basis of the laws that local, state, and federal assemblies passed in the past.

we have actually gone through a period where many of those old laws have been repealed, as the legislatures sought to reflect the changes that have happened in our society. I remember living under the "Blue" laws, which restricted what businesses could be open and what items could be sold on Sundays. Also, many of the "morality" statutes that used to be on the books were repealed or revised, such as the cohabitation laws, or the infamous "dildo" law which was finally repealed last year or so here in Texas.
(You used to could only buy representations of male genitalia as "educational items". Vibrators and dildos were strictly regulated as to shape and function. It felt liberating to be able to go into the local shop and ask for a sex toy, rather than have to ask to see their "educational models".)

This trend though, is starting to come to an end, as the religio-facists start trying to flex their political muscle and "protect" us from all sorts of forms of "immorality". All in the name of some mythical set of "Family Values" that they purport to represent.

Wow, you mean Texas is more progressive in something than another state? I am shocked!

even though you can buy beer and wine on Sundays, you do have to wait until 11:00 or so.

I mean can't have anyone buying a brewski before church to try and make it it through the sermon with.