I am not going to post on the obvious issues that will swirl around Palin's daughter's issues. When your kids are 17 it's hard to protect them from everything and very difficult to keep their behavior in check against the pressures of the adolescent peer culture in the world. What I will focus on is the reactions since that is where the most interest is.
ST. PAUL–Less than two hours after expected Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her husband announced that their unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, evangelical leaders told U.S. News that they don't believe the revelation will harm the GOP ticket within the conservative faith community.
"I don't think it [hurts] at all," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who hailed Palin's nomination.
The media's breathless reaction is proof that "you just don't get it," Land said during a U.S. News lunch roundtable
Religion News (RSS): Evangelicals Say Palin's Daughter Won't Be an Issue.
This is a response that has to be made among ardent McCain supporters. However, coming from the religious side of the foray, what if Palin was the Democratic selection for VP? What might the reaction be? Would it be that this is not that big of a problem and that this sort of stuff happens to families. Would it spin it saying that they made the right choice by going the "Juno" route and deciding to raise the child? Would it be such a notch of honor for Palin to take on this new responsibility?
Obviously we must have our doubts. I would contend that this would not be seen as a notch of honor for Palin, but evidence of liberal stances towards ethical norms. It would not a be a pro-life event, but an event revealing a values problem among Democrats. Can you not hear Richard Land saying those words if Palin happened to be on "the other side" of the political spectrum?
This is why the religious rhetoric continues to be disingenuous as it appears to serve only brand representation and very little else. I would just hope that Land and others can respond in kind to political opponents and apply the same ethical norms there. If their religious commitments go above just party lines, this must be the case. However, I fear that unequally yoked standards will continue to be normative.
Follow from here to Jan Edmiston's thoughts which focus on the same sense of discontinuity in the reactions to the Palin family saga.
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