Do it for me, Lord!

Here (thanks to the Huffinton Post) is a very revealing video of how scarily God-oriented Sarah Palin is (or rather, how strangely Palin-oriented she thinks God is). It is a video recording of her (while and as Governor) speaking at her church. She clearly believes that God is on her side and that of the natural gas industry:

I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get the gas line built, so pray for that.

While you do, pay particular attention to the follow-on words of her pastor (Ed Kalnins, senior paster of Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, with Gov. Palin on stage and seemingly fully onboard with the message), putting into context her Joan-of-Arc mission to bring the natural gas pipeline to the good (and rich!) State of Alaska, and to America itself, casting it in eschatological terms (who knew natural gas was such a life-and-death issue?)

Please pray for Sarah...there were some things about the natural resources, about the State, there were some things that God wants to tap into to be a refuge for the lower 48, and I believe Alaska is one of the refuge States, come on you guys, in the last days, and hundreds and thousands of people are going to come to the State to seek refuge, and the Church has to be ready to minister to them, Amen?

It is a comfort that when, out of almost 300 million Americans, the few hundred or thousand that survive Armageddon take refuge in Alaska, there will be a natural gas pipeline to provide for their needs.

At the end of the video, the pastor emeritus who comes on stage to pray for Ms. Palin broke down crying (with joy?), presumably because God has placed a True Christian at the head of Alaska's government.

Only at this moment did it finally (!) sink in for me that this is not (at some deep level) a game, act, or con. Even devout once-a-week Christians are going to have to put aside their compartmentalized religious sensibilities long enough to be able to appreciate how literal and immediate this End-of-days mentality and sense of favored-by-God entitlement to Gov. Palin's most ardent supporters (and presumably to her as well). Catholics used to praying for World Peace and strong families are going to have difficulty understanding how God's personal intervention can (apparently) be summoned to complete something as petty and partisan as a gas pipeline, and why this would not be an immorally selfish act even if true.

There seems to be no moral or ethical concerns among these people about God intervening on Earth on their personal behalf. Not in a "God, please let me win the lottery" sort of way, but in a "God, I actually believe that you can make me win the lottery, and with full knowledge that my winning means that others equally worthy will not win, please favor me (over them) with this."

Forget that this self-directed intercessionary praying is (to my Catholic-raised ears) a profoundly childish and selfish motivation. After all, I fully trust that any god worthy of the name would know better than I how best to allocate lottery funds (or natural gas) to work divine will, and trying to steer that will towards me (or my state or country) is nothing short of perverse. And even though I don't believe that people can turn invisible and walk through walls and rob banks undetected, still I can still form a moral judgment on anyone expressing such a desire.

And yet numerous Catholics will still vote for her, because they just really truly deep-down cannot actually believe that it is just this simple, that she really believes this, that what you see is what you get. That God really is on her side, and that she is absolutely convinced that this is so. And if by some stroke of luck McCain/Palin should win, she (and they) will believe that it was God, and not the voters, that put her into power.

I will not sink to her level by "praying that God keep her out of the White House", but if others have more pull than I with the Godhead, feel free to work your magic. After all, why should Gov. Palin have all the fun?

Can I get an Amen, someone?