Singin' the Barracuda Bapticostal Blues

Psst! Have you heard the latest scandal on John McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin? I heard it on the radio so it’s true. The Associated Press sent its crack investigative reporting team up to Alaska to dig up some dirt on Palin. And guess what they found? Are you sitting down? Here it is… “OMG, Palin’s a Pentecostal!” You know, one of them weird church people that gets all excited about Jesus and hollers out loud and stuff. Shocking!

Actually, those crack AP investigators got their facts wrong once again, shocking as that may sound. Yes, Palin was raised a Pentecostal and was a Pentecostal for most of her life. Her and her family were longtime members of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination. But six years ago, Palin and her family became members of an independent church, Wasilla Bible Church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

I read that something like 80 to 90 percent of the mainstream media never go to church, so it really shouldn’t be surprising that they think it’s a bad thing for a politician to be a Pentecostal. I guess they don’t know that there’s as many or more Americans attending Pentecostal churches as there are Methodists and Presbyterians put together. Or that there’s a Pentecostal church in about every town big enough to have a stoplight.

But whether they realize it or not, those nonchurchgoing folks in the media do belong to the largest denomination of all. Paul called them the “Ignorant Brethren” in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. (Seriously. Look it up.) So as a public service, let me help enlighten my ignorant media brethren.

I was raised a Methodist, got saved at 29 and became a Baptist and have been a member of an independent church for the past five years, like Palin. And I have a host of dear brothers and sisters in Christ who are Pentecostals. We don’t agree on every little fine point of doctrine, but that’s why we have denominations in the first place. But we do agree on perhaps 99.9 percent of the Bible, so let’s look at what we do agree on.

Like Palin, us Bapticostals believe every word of the Bible is true, from “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” to the last “Amen” of the Book of Revelation. We believe in Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people; and most of all, we believe a Jew named Jesus died for all our sins and God raised Him up from the dead.

We also believe that heaven’s sweet and hell’s hot, but nobody has to go to hell because after Jesus was raised from the dead, He ascended into heaven and left the door open. Now whosoever believes in Him can be saved and have eternal life and not perish in hell. (John 3:16. Look it up.)

But ignorance is not what’s driving this never-ending attempt to smear Palin. It’s plain old pro-Obama fear that she challenges the Obamessiah’s coronation. And that fear is justified because both Palin and McCain have attracted bigger audiences for speeches in the past week than Obama.

And the AP’s “scoop” that Palin is a Pentecostal is old news to the social conservative voters who have rallied to McCain and Palin, the WaPo says.

The reaction has been remarkably instantaneous, with socially conservative voters who had barely heard of Palin electrified by the few facts they quickly learned: her longtime membership in the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination; her large family; her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest; her decision to carry to term her fifth child after learning he has Down syndrome; and her belief in teaching creationism alongside evolution in public schools.

The public is not nearly as stupid as the media thinks they are and they’re not buying the pro-Obama, anti-Palin smear campaign by the MSM. Check the polls.