Is Sarah Palin a full-blown creationist who believes, 19th-century style, that the earth is only 6,000 years old? Or is she a little more evolved than that? Here’s some first-hand testimony from an Alaska resident:
I first met Alaska Governor and GOP
Vice Presidential aspirant Sarah Palin when she was on the City of
Wasilla Planning Commission. I appeared at one of their meetings, along
with my boss at that time, now-convicted ex-Allvest CEO, Bill Weimer.
We were presenting a proposal Allvest was working on, in conjunction
with a Wasilla-based mental health clinic, to open a community
corrections project there, and needed a facility permit.At
that time, I remembered her, because she seemed to be the only person
on the commission who had actually read our proposal. It was obvious
from her questions.Of
the encounters I’ve since had with Sarah Palin, two that brought up her
faith, have become important, in light of the possibility that she
might someday soon be in charge of thousands of thermonuclear weapons.In
June 1997, both Palin and I had responsibilities at the graduation
ceremony of a small group of Wasilla area home schoolers. I directed
the Mat-Su College Community Band, which played music, and she gave the
commencement address. It was held at her church, the Wasilla Assembly
of God.Palin had
recently become Wasilla mayor, beating her earliest mentor, John Stein,
the then-incumbent mayor. A large part of her campaign had been to
enlist fundamentalist Christian groups, and invoke evangelical
buzzwords into her talks and literature.As
the ceremony concluded, I bumped into her in a hall away from other
people. I congratulated her on her victory, and took her aside to ask
about her faith. Among other things, she declared that she was a young
earth creationist, accepting both that the world was about 6,000-plus
years old, and that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same
time.I asked how she
felt about the second coming and the end times. She responded that she
fully believed that the signs of Jesus returning soon "during MY
lifetime," were obvious. "I can see that, maybe you can’t – but it
guides me every day."Our
next discussion about religion was after she had switched to the less
strict Wasilla Bible Church. She was speaking at, I was performing
bugle, at a Veterans ceremony between Wasilla and Palmer. At this time,
people were beginning to encourage her to run for Governor.Once
again, we found ourselves being able to talk privately. I reminded her
of the earlier conversation, asking her if her views had changed. She
was no longer "necessarily" a young earth creationist, she told me. But
she strongly reiterated her belief that "The Lord is coming soon."
As always in the blogosphere, draw your own conclusions. My sense is that Palin simply doesn’t care about science or fact (as evidenced by her repeated repetition of the Bridge to Nowhere Lie, among others). I loved Tina Fey’s line in the Saturday Night Live routine last night in which Palin, visiting New York, talked about "that goofy Evolution Museum" — that is, the Museum of Natural History.
That’s about right, I suspect.
http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/48dfd706f26e07de/48dfa51c6893b4be/b6171ecc/clipID/704042/video_title/Saturday+Night+Live+-+Couric+%2f+Palin+Open?storeInPid=true
Kit Stolz 