The Media Herd’s Holy War on Sarah Palin

The term “holy war” describes a conflict based on religious differences.  Apparently, the media herd and the leftist blogs have decided that the selection of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential Nominee is McCain’s declaration of holy war against them.  Last night, Charles Gibson used the term “holy war” as part of his futile effort to discredit and humiliate Governor Palin.

Below is a video the media herd and the Leftist blogs have used as a source of quotes they hope you will find as objectionable as they do.
.

.
.

In this video Ms. Palin  speaks to people in the church she attended for most of her life, from early childhood.   Her tone is informal and familiar as she skips from thought to unrelated thought, enjoying an emotional reunion with beloved old friends.  Quite obviously she is not giving a serious political or theological address.

In Last night’s combative interview Gibson sneered:

You said recently, in your old church, ‘Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.’  Are we fighting a holy war?

Ms. Palin responded by noting that this was not an exact quote, but Gibson snorted, emphatically, “exact quote.”

Well, it was not an exact quote.  Gibson lifted 14 words out of the middle of a rambling, 58 word sentence.  With the portions Gibson deleted in strikeout print, Here is what Ms. Palin actually said in her “old church”, beginning at 3:35 in the video:

Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right, also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God, that’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that it is God’s plan.

After Gibson blatantly lied that he had quoted her exactly, she apparently decided it was futile to keep insisting that he had not.  Instead she cited the theological basis for the thought she had expressed in the video:

…the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.  But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

Then Gibson lied a second time by again lifting a few words out of context from a longer thought:

I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

This is from the same excerpt quoted above.  Here is the complete thought, with the portion Gibson left out in strikeout print:

…that’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that it is God’s plan.

Obviously, Gibson believed he could trip her up and deceive his audience by deliberately, deleting major portions of her thoughts, in order to change the apparent meaning.  And he probably did succeed in deceiving a lot of viewers.  By sourcing Ms. Palin’s casual and intimate stream of consciousness,  as if it were a serious statement of political or theological beliefs, Gibson proved he lacked any record of genuinely objectionable comments by Governor Palin.

Ms. Palin expressed the perfectly reasonable, non-controversial hope and prayer that national leaders might want to act in accordance with God’s will.  But Today’s hyper-secular Left, including the national media reacted as if they thought she had a supernatural power to inflict a black-magic curse on the nation.

Sarah Palin can take comfort in the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5: 11 – 12:

God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you^[c] and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.