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 Sarah Palin leaving the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
June 2nd, 2011
07:55 AM ET
My Take: More places Palin should visit on bus tour
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN Dear Governor Palin, Your it’s-not-a-campaign-bus-tour has motored through the National Archives, Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Independence Hall, the Statue of Liberty and Donald Trump’s penthouse. So obviously you are highlighting America’s most historic sites. But as you head toward New England and beyond, I’d like to suggest four additional sites, sacred to the chain of memory that is American religion. Together these sacred places acknowledge not only the powerful role that Christianity has played in American life (something you often mention) but also the fact of American religious diversity (something you might mention more).
1. Plymouth Rock There isn’t much to see here. In fact, when I took a field trip there as a kid I was disappointed, and I rather doubt Governor Bradford and his Mayflower Pilgrims actually disembarked here. But there wasn't any rioting here, like at Boston's Tea Party. Just writing: the Mayflower Compact, which brought these separatists from the Church of England together in a religious and political “covenant” enacted “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.” In other words, right up your alley! There is also a great bas-relief of the signing of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown just under the Pilgrim Monument, but if you are running for president (and I know you haven't announced) that's probably not a very good campaign stop. 2. Jonathan Edwards' Church Another town you might want to visit is Northampton in western Massachusetts. Like Provincetown it’s more gay-friendly than Palin-friendly, but since you aren’t campaigning (right?) perhaps that can be overlooked. The draw here is First Churches of Northampton. Today this congregation, formed through a merger of First Church of Christ (Congregational) and First Baptist Church (American Baptist) bills itself as “open and affirming” and “environmentally covenanted.” But BPC (before political correctness) it was the church of the revivalist Jonathan Edwards and Ground Zero for the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s. This awakening gave us evangelicalism, which gave us Pentecostalism, which gave us your Assemblies of God denomination. So though it’s outside the Bible Belt you should feel right at home! Don't stay for the sermon, however. They gave up the fire-and-brimstone centuries ago. 3. Walden Pond During the Second Great Awakening of the early nineteenth century, as America was turning on to Jesus, Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were looking to find God not in church but in nature. “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand,” Thoreau wrote. Thoreau, of course, did that experiment of his at Walden Pond. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." More than 140 characters, I know, but pretty good as aphorisms go. Anyway, it seems to me that Thoreau's ways of living and dying are worth pondering, and after you've done that you have to admit that there are a lot of "spiritual but not religious" voters out there (not that that matters, of course). Anyway, it’s worth a try! Though you won’t find any moose to shoot in Concord. 4. Hill Cumorah I'd like to send you to the Peace Pagoda in Leverett, Massachusetts, for a little slice of Buddhism or to New England’s first Hindu temple in Ashland, Massachusetts, but whistle stops like that would be like red meat (or tofu) for the "lamestream media." So here’s a more practical suggestion: one of Mormonism’s most sacred places, Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York. This is where the golden plates that God (supposedly) revealed to Joseph Smith, Jr. through the angel Moroni were buried, and after Smith dug them up and "translated" them they became the Book of Mormon (the book, not the musical). The best time to visit is early July when they are putting on the Hill Cumorah Pageant, Mormon America's analog to the popular Passion Plays of Europe. But even now it’s worth a visit. I know you’re not running for president (at least not yet!) but let’s pretend for a moment you were. Wouldn’t it make sense to know something about Mormonism, given that two of your Republican challengers—Mitt Romney and John Huntsman—are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? (Just a thought.) So that's where I think you should go. Safe travels, and (as presidents say), "God Bless America!" The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Prothero.
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  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
I've got a hundred pages left in Walden to read, hope to get to it fairly soon... one of the biggest joys to read. It's nice to see people mentioning Thoreau, he's disturbingly undercited.
I'm more concerned with who is paying for all this. Is Palin? -- doubtful
Republican Party? -- No way. Fox News? -- Now wouldn't that be interesting, and somewhat challenging to the "lamestream media" critic who is being supported by the, uh, lamestream media.
But seriously, this is an expensive tour. Who si footing the bill?
Who is contributing nearly a billion dollars to re-elect Obama. You call her tour expensive? Give me a break.
Don,
Sara Palin's PAC money is what is funding all of this.
According to campaign regulations, official candidates for office cannot use PAC funds for personal expenses (i.e. expensive bus tours). But since Palin has not officially thrown her hat in the ring yet, she can use PAC funds to pay for all of this. Its funny though, she sure seems like she is campaigning to me. It's all technicalities.
a bus can not visit "Statue of Liberty" but ok. her next and only stop should be washington state to get back to her rat hole instead of trying to promote her movie coming out. cross hairs back at ya yall
@Don: Didn't you know? Fox News doesn't count as the "lamestream media" since they pay her and she doesn't have to worry about them actually asking her tough questions like what newspapers she reads.
Her next stop should have a long walk on a short pier.
HA!!!! Great Idea! I'd attend that event.
You sound like.....Hitler. She is a person, she is an American, She has freedom of speech. Yet, you hate her for that?
John – First, you made a Hitler comparison – the surest sign that someone is losing an argument. Second, you don't understand how freedom of speech works. Yes, Caribou Barbie is an American and yes she has freedom of speech. But that doesn't mean that other people can't form opinions about what she says and, indeed, dislike her – just as you and I are free to not like the KKK for what they use their freedom of speech for.
@John – Who said anything about hate? K3 only infered that Palin can go jump in a lake for all they care, and you scream Hitler? You also may have freedom of speech but it betray's your ignorance.
So John, why does she get freedom of speech and I don't? I have finished everything I started, except smoking, so what gives quitters more rights?
Sarah Palin believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that early man walked alongside the dinosaurs. She believes that early man rode dinosaurs to church every Sunday.
...drool...
I believed you up until the riding thing. At least she has beliefs. What does Obama belleve? It depends on who he is talking to.
@John – "What does Obama belleve? It depends on who he is talking to." And it's so easy to figure out what Palin believes because she is so well read, I mean you heard her list off all her favorite magazines when asked by Katie Couric... Or her foreign policy experience when she said "But obviously, we've got to stand with our North Korean allies" and "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border". Sarah Palin is a joke and Obama would easily wipe the floor with her in a debate which is why her handlers won't let it get that far. This is just a publicity junket to sell more books and keep her in the limelight.
We already have dumbo in the white house right now. He took over for goofy and before that was pluto.
pluto did not impact the national debt, goofy increased it by 30% with nothing to show for it.
@Prothero – That's a nicely sarcastic article. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks!
I think most ironic of all is the huge picture of the consti.tution plastered all over her tour bus. You know... the one with the establishmnet clause that this self-proclaimed student of the consti.tution couldn't remember when queried during the only debate she ever participated in. This train wreck of illogic will crash and burn hard if she ever does decide to run when she has to debate repeatedly enroute to becomming the GOP representative.
The reason that the consti-tution is on her bus is so that if anyone asks her about it, she has it right there to read from. See! No pesky learning involved.
@AtheistSteve
You underestimate her ability to "refudiate" her opponents. 😉
I don't know about you, but I'd pay to see her and Dan Quayle compete in a spelling bee.
@Doc V
Lmao...yeah I'm eager to see her stumble over her own tongue too. I think someone stole and hid her letter blocks as a kid.
I see some delusional babbling mentally ill are back lol
.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations.
As the illness continues, psychotic symptoms develop:
• False beliefs or thoughts that are not based in reality (delusions)
• Hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there (hallucinations)
.
And their statements are known as "confabulation".
This is no laughing matter, there are so many ignorant people in our beloved country (see Adelina) she has a good chance of becoming the next President (or at least Sec of State). I know it's frightening but is it the truth.
@JohnQuest – I disagree. I think she has absolutely NO chance of ever becoming President OR SecState.
She is just too stoopid for either job. No Senate or House committee would ever approve her into any position without putting their own re-election campaigns in the toilet at the same time. And she has already shown she is not Presidential material at all.
Who would want a media-wh-ore with no clue to have the ability to fire nuclear (nukular) missiles?
Nah, dinna fash yerself, laddie. She's just a wee bit too ill-feckit a woman to have a chance tha way...
@JohnQuest: I'm with Fast Eddie: I've been saying all along she won't get the nomination for presidential candidate. The best she can do is vp and even then she's so polarizing few undecideds will want to vote for her. That's why serious candidates like Romney won't want to touch her with a pole that reaches from Alaska to Russia. But wouldn't a Trump/Palin ticket be da bomb?Well da bomb in terms that it will set this country back the way the bomb set Hiroshima back...
bowie, Adelina is not stupid and backward (just confused). Adelina was told a fairy tell when he/she was young and grow up believing it. Now that incredible tell is a part of him/her, you can't blame the victim.
That we are bothered at all by Palin and the rest of her ignorant ilk is proof that a loving, personal god does not exist.
I think Mrs. Palin should visit a few more important sites:
1) The NY Public Library
2) A science museum
3) A high school American history class
4) A middle school world history class
5) The MOMA
6) A sporting event other than hockey or something that involves guns
7) Another library
8) A local NY pub, so she can see that gay and lesbian people, muslims, Jews and other denominations can get along peacefully and without incident while absorbing local culture. Perhaps she won't be so incindiary any longer.
9) A news station other than Fox.
10. A news stand, where she could attempt to memorize the name of one newspaper, in case she runs into Kaie Couric.
11. While at that middle school, a geography class, to find out where that other Korea is, (if indeed there ARE two).
@Faux Paws
#10 is problematic. Use a pen to write the name on her hand.
How about an inner city school?
Since Sarah began the tour by visiting our MOST important national monument, The Trump Tower, it's really all downhill from there.
Perhaps she knows what is under that hair now.
Her bus should stop at a highschool. Every day during the regular school year. Between the hours of 8:00 and 4:00. Maybe Palin can put that time to good use.
No. Suggest a kinnygarden. would be the place to start.
.........and they probably have more magic markers available for her "hand" written notes.
I see Mr. Prothero was feeling a little snarky...
God killed the first born of everyone in Egypt. What did they ever do to him? They were never given a chance to repent from their wicked, evil, sinful ways.
Also, I have studied the Bible. In the new testament, Jesus said to forget about the old testament because it was outdated since he has come to earth to teach us. En garde!
@Yeah: Egyptians had killed off the Hebrew babies. Humans who destroy human babies are not fit to live. Egyptians were given chances of repentance for 10 times and they didn't. Jesus never said what you said. Read Mathew chapter 5; it's 100% contrary to your claims. A fake study you did. Jesus said He fulfilled the law; we are still obligated to do our best to keep the moral laws of the Old Testament.
> Egyptians had killed off the Hebrew babies. Humans who destroy human babies are not fit to live.
Even if I was to accept your premise that people who kill babies deserve to die, that still does not permit the death of a person who did not commit the crime.
> Egyptians were given chances of repentance for 10 times and they didn't.
Perhaps you should read your bible. The Pharoah was going to let Moses and his people go, but God hardend his heart and forced them to stay. Apparently God really wanted to inflict more plagues.
> Jesus never said what you said. Read Mathew chapter 5; it's 100% contrary to your claims. A fake study you did. Jesus said He fulfilled the law; we are still obligated to do our best to keep the moral laws of the Old Testament.
Yes, like how it's moral and good for God to do anything he wants to you. We can't stop him. It's like me squashing an ant. The ant can't do anything but it doesn't mean I'm not a jerk. Might does not make right.
@Bobi, The reason we are alive is God's mercy. There are laws in the land.
Pharaoh hardened his heart as he rejected God's further revelations each time – much to the resembrance to today's Americans. Read the whole text.
Jesus kept all the law for you who cannot keep any of them perfectly. Repent and receive His mercy. Don't be so bitter against God; you are blaming your own wickedness on someone else again.
I think you should take a Biology class. It's fun to learn something that can be backed up with hard evidence, as opposed to "It was in a book written thousands of years ago and translated from a dead language, it must be true."
Adelina, it's you who need to read the text. On Exodus 4:21-23, 7:3-5, 9:8, 10:1-2, 10:20, and 10:27 it very clearly states that god hardened Pharoah's heart so that he would not let the Israelites go. The stated reason being so that god could multiply his glory by inflicting ever more impressive and harmful plagues.
I wonder why it is that an all-loving and merciful god "multiplies his glory" through mass exterminations rather than through mass healings.
Oh yeah, let's not forget Exodus 14:3-8 in which, after god has finally allowed Pharoah to let the Israelites go, where he then goes back and forces Pharoah to change his mind and pursue them so that he can wipe out even more Egyptians at the Red Sea.
civiloutside, Thank you, I believe you are right. The text does read that Pharoah had no choice in his actions. So how could it be his fault if God made him do it?
"Humans who destroy human babies are not fit to live."
...but it's okay for God?
"I don't know what stopped Jesus Christ from turning every other stone into bread. And I don't remember hearing how Moses reacted when the innocent first born sons lay dead. I guess God was a lot more demonstrative back when he flamboyantly parted the seas. Now everybody's praying, don't prey on me."
– Brett Guerewitz (Bad Religion)
The Bobinator, If you really knew the bible like you claim, then you would know that there is NO darkness at all in God. He IS attributed all kinds of darkness and evil BECAUSE he created all things. With free choice, men and angels did Evil. God's creation was perfect in the beginning. God's creation chose to view God as evil and dark and that is the summation of the bible. Rread EZE 20 concerning the laws. Jesus did and Told the Jews to obey the laws of the leaders at the time. Even though the law were controlled by EDOMITES, Not Jews.
@John
Let me ask you a hypothetical question. This person has control over tons of people. And he doesn't like what they're doing. So he kills their babies. Would you say this person is evil?
Now this person's name is god and all of a sudden it's not evil to kill loads of babies that did nothing wrong...
great job with the mental acrobatics
I hope that, as the illuminating light of science and knowledge is increasingly shone upon the natural World, the few remaining dark places where the gods, ghosts and goblins can still lurk will be enlightened and future school children will look back in astonishment at how their 21st Century ancestors still believed in 2,000 year old myths from the Middle East.
The steady march of science and freethought will surely condemn Jonathan Edward's Church and its ilk to the status of the Parthenon and Acropolis. Interesting historically, but to be taken no more seriously than Zeus or Apollo
A lot of villains with dirty language in USA hate Mrs. Palin. She must be someone good...
A lot of people hated Bin Laden too. Do you draw the same conclusion about him?
@Yeah: No, he wasn't. At least not by American Christians. He was pitied and prayed for by American Christians. Villains hate but Christians love.
> A lot of villains with dirty language in USA hate Mrs. Palin. She must be someone good...
Now we see the extent of your rational thinking skills. Villians hate other villians too. So therefore evil people who are hated by other evil people are therefore good?
You're either a troll or a moron.
> Villains hate but Christians love.
Just like how God hates sin? 😛
So Adelina, those Christians who very publicly stated that they hated Bin Laden weren't true Christians, eh?
Ever hear of the No True Scotsman fallacy? You just commited it. Basic logic seems far out of your grasp.
@Adelbrain
How about you invite her over to your country, (and while she's there, lock her in your basement dungeon).
Again, I suspect that the original Adelina is long gone and a troll has taken her name. It's either that or she really one of the most tragically ignorant people ever to have access to a computer.
??? America has no sacred land. You were just very useful to keep the Holy Land of Israel. Keep it up!
More than can be said about your husband.
Troll.
takes one to know one.
Actually, the Black Hills in South Dakota are sacred to the Lakota Sioux. Sadly, this their sacred land was taken away from them by "good christian Americans" who broke a treaty after gold was discovered there. But I suppose you don't consider their land sacred because they don't believe exactly as you do.
God bless America only if she repents and if she gets rid of her perversion and her infanticide.
God does not bless immoral nations. Read the Old Testament Bible and learn the world history from the Jews.
I hope that if there is a god, that all nations would be "blessed" equally. I don't think, or at least I hope, he/she would have biased towards one nation. That doesn't seem fair. Although, in the old testament, god did kill a lot of innocent people, so maybe that's an accurate statement.
@Yeah: God takes care of innocent beings. There are no innocent people. All nations will get punished because all nations are evil. I told you to study history.
(Wow, CNN's comment section needs work)
God killed the first born of everyone in Egypt. What did they ever do to him? They were never given a chance to repent from their wicked, evil, sinful ways.
Also, I have studied the Bible. In the new testament, Jesus said to forget about the old testament because it was outdated since he has come to earth to teach us. En garde!
@Yeah: You are wrong. Look up for a reply above. You repeated the same comment above.
Yeah, that god of Adelina's sure seems a really nasty b-stard. Glad it doesn't exist.
> @Yeah: You are wrong. Look up for a reply above. You repeated the same comment above.
And I've shown you why you're wrong. Perhaps you should read what I wrote above. 😛
I know...CNN's brilliant coding crew have made the worst comment system on the internet. No other comment system requires entirely different HTML links for responding. But that's a gripe for another time.
And no, I'm not wrong. A good friend (and devoted Christian) and I have spoken numerous times about preachy bible thumpers (like you) who give the religion a bad name. Jesus said that he is the new way, and therefor the old ways should be forgotten.
So it's not ok for humans to kill babies, but god gets a free pass? Further more, how is that fair, given that the babies had no say about what the pharaoh, or the Egyptians, did? Besides, if god was so powerful, when Moses asked for the Jews to be freed (by the way, there's no evidence of Jews being enslaved, or their 40 year stint in the desert actually happening), couldn't god just have shown up then and there? He's god; why does he need a middle man to do his bidding? Seems inefficient to me.
So Adelina, none of the tsunami, tornado, or flood victims were innocent? You really think that they all deserved to die?
Again, what an evil b-stard your god would have to be, if it existed. Actually, your god rather obviously does not exist. Get over it, already. The smarter rest of the world is leaving your supersti-tions behind and you are just stupid and backward.
Well, Bowie, if you read Adelina's posts for any length of time you will see that she does, in fact, believe that everyone deserves to die. She's not actually very shy about saying it.
Yeah,
Jesus did not say that He was the ‘new’ way…He said He was ‘THE’ way; [and the Truth and the Light].
Ok, fair enough, but that doesn't really dispute his teachings that the old testament is outdated. So, maybe he never said he was the new way, but he did say to forget about the old testament under his teachings. So, the point remains: why does anyone care about the old testament when Jesus said it was outdated?
@Joe
When referring to the Old Testament, Jesus said "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35). He also called it "the commandment of God" (Matthew 15:3) and the "Word of God" (Matthew 15:6).
He said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).
Many argue that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross invalidated the OT laws – but did He not simply fulfill the sacrifical part of it (which is only one small part)?
Per His own statement that that not one “jot or ti.ttle” would pass away until all was fulfilled and He did not fulfill all of them, you'd better go back and study Leviticus!
Joe,
Jesus used the OT scriptures right up until His death. He never said to throw out the OT scriptures once He was gone and He never commanded anyone write the NT to replace it…not at all.
There is much in the Old Testament which prefigures and prophecies happenings in the New Testament. These prefigurements are called 'types'. The New Testament 'reality' is always greater than the Old Testament 'type'. [As an example: for forty years the people survived on manna from heaven…it saved their bodies from dying; now the people survive on bread come down from Heaven which saves their soul and gives life everlasting, the Holy Eucharist, and it is for all people, not just a select few, and not to be given just for forty years but until the end of time].
All of Holy Scripture, including both testaments, is one continuous story. The Bible is the complete salvation history, OT + NT. Jesus said He did not come to abolish the OT but to fulfill it; how would you know what He fulfilled if you didn’t have the full story?
Adelina,
There is one more problem with the "Pharaoh vs Moses" story. The Egyptians kept the most complete records of any ancient society. The record of the disastrous defeat of Egypt by the Nubians [first war with them] is remarkably complete. However, there is absolutely NO record of Hebrew slaves ever being in Egypt. Also, the bible describes how the Hebrews were forced to make bricks to build Pharaoh's cities. Sorry, their cities weren't made of bricks. They were made of quarried blocks of limestone. Of course devout Christians aren't concerned with 'facts.'