To quote Paul for Sarah...

The Sarah Palin feeding frenzy is in full force.

The father of her grandchild is posing for skin mags.  We can’t call him a son-in-law because her kid hasn’t married the guy.  (It is a good thing too, since a marriage like that looks like a car wreck from 5,000 miles away.)

Her ex-brother-in-law is now in the media making comments about her book.  Huff Po Link Here 

There are numerous scandals and ethics violations going an about her.  (ebay airforce from Alaska, anyone?)

The troubling part of this whole thing is that she is wrapping herself as a political Christian.  She wants God to open the door a crack for her to rush in.  This makes her a darling of the Evangelicals, and that is fine.

However, St Paul talks about how to select a leader, or elder in his letter to Titus. The quote I am using is from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus%201:5-9&version=NIV.  Just so that we all have a common translation I am placing the link.

Here is that translation:

 ⁵The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

⁶An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

⁷Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

⁸Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

⁹He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

You may draw your own conclusions.

Some notes to first reactions received when this concept was posted in another blog on HP.

• First, is Sarah Palin using a Christian base from which to launch herself?  Is that launchpad a demographic foundation?  A theoritical foundation?  If any of those questions are yes, then it is proper to quote the passagages as part of inspired Christian text.  She is asking to be an elder or leader, these questions, I believe, land very close to the border of judge not, lest you be judged.  She is asking us to pass judgement on her to be a leader.
  
• Second, from a non-religous standpoint, a lot of people have a problem with St. Paul because of other views, myself included.  That doesn't mean that the man couldn't have come up with a good idea that stands the test of time.  I think this quote removed from a Christian context is one of these.  In other words, it is ok to seperate out the religous baggage and look at this quote as just a good idea.