By Patrick
It's Sarah Palin 24/7 again, the very foreseeable development breaks way: Sarah Palin wants to run for President, she has been "plotting" it for years (just wait for her fancy new websites which have been in development already since 2009), she is following a playbook that many people don't like to hear about: After her recent book "Mein Kampf 2" now follows the epic movie "Triumph of the Will 2", and just wait for her rousing speeches at little "Nuremberg Rallies" all over the country. Also, no interviews with evil lamestream journalists, please, as Sarah Palin recently announced in an interview with Sean Hannity.
But as this may seem quite simplistic, predictable, easy to see through for some, a "second layer" is on offer: Religion. It's so useful, isn't it? Who doesn't want to belong to the good and righteous, God-fearing folks? Well, atheists, apparently, but I don't believe that they belong to Sarah's preferred "target audience." But seriously, isn't it even better to be likened to a biblical figure, like "Queen Esther", which could give you "half-God-like" status?
Well, several articles have already been written about Sarah Palin and the comparisons to "Queen Esther", but not much "hard proof" has surfaced so far that could confirm that Sarah Palin really, really loves this comparison. But yesterday my dear Kathleen roamed the internets and made a "chance discovery" which needs to be highlighted: A very religious and very enthusiastic supporter of Sarah Palin posted a clip at youtube on October 17, 2008 which has found little attention so far. However we here at Politicalgates believe that this clip deserves to be seen, as it reveals who Sarah Palin REALLY loves to be compared with, as modest as she is - with Queen Esther.
The footage was shot on October 9, 2008, at a rally in Wilmington, Ohio:
The person who originally posted the video included the following description to it:
I was so blessed to have a few moments with the future VP, Sarah Palin at a Road to Victory Rally in Wilmington, Ohio!
This is what was said....
I TELL SARAH "YOUR OUR MODERN DAY ESTHER!"
SARAH SAYS "HEY THANK YOU! SAY YOUR PRAYERS MAN!"
THAN I TELL HER "IM CHURCH OF GOD PENTECOSTAL"
THEN SARAH SAYS "IT WILL BE THE INTERCESSION THAT GETS US THERE! TELL YOUR PRAYER CHAINS OK?"
THEN I TELL HER "WE HAD PRAYER FOR YOU LAST NIGHT!"
SARAH "RIGHT ON THANK YOU SO MUCH! OH MAN THATS WHATS GONNA GET US THERE!!"
THEN THE LAST THING SHE SAYS IS "GOD BLESS YOU GUYS! THANK YOU FOR BEING BELIEVERS!"
Well, what this guy doesn't mention is that at the end he also said "You are anointed" - as if this would be the most natural thing to say.
What this remarkable footage reveals is for example that Sarah Palin doesn't only enjoy the comparison between herself and Queen Esther, but she even seems to encourage her followers in the beliefs that she is somewhat "biblical."
Journalist Michael Gross reported in Vanity Fair in September 2010 about an email that right-wing pastor and gay-hater Lou Engle wrote to Sarah Palin "as a last-minute exhortation just before she took the stage for her vice-presidential debate against Joseph Biden on October 2, 2008." In this email, Lou Engle compared Sarah Palin to Queen Esther, and I get the impression that she really, really like that email as well. It reads:
Dear Sarah,
Many thousands are fasting and praying for you. I know you’ve heard it, but I believe this is an Esther moment in your life. Esther hid her identity until Mordecai challenged her to risk everything for such a time as this. Your identity is “Sarah Barracuda”. Esther removed corruption from the Persian government and Haman fell. She didn’t have experience, she had grace and favor. Sarah, don’t hide your identity tonight. There will be questions given to you that you don’t know, and I have been weeping over you. I believe the Lord would have you be real. If they ask you a question that you don’t know, don’t be ashamed to say: “I don’t have the experience of 30 years of politics like Senator Biden, but what I have is character, truth, and integrity, and I haven’t been seduced by 30 years of political and moral compromise like these men in DC. I believe America is not looking for more knowledge, they are looking for more character and more truth, and that is who I am. I refuse the politics of neutrality. I will stand for the family, I will stand on foundations of truth and this nation will be better for it.
Sarah I’m sure you’re doing this, but take a moment to still yourself before the Lord. The Lord is a shield about you. To those who have no strength, the Lord will show Himself powerful.
Sarah, I could be wrong, but I’ve been praying for five years for an Esther, with dreams of being a Mordecai to that Esther. I believe you’re the one and I think you’re even wearing a life band. Tonight don’t be ashamed to plead for the life of the unborn and all the wounded woman who have gone through this holocaust. You can throw this email away, but I have 50 young people fasting and praying day and night who are shouting tonight: “Grace, grace to you!”
We love you,
Lou Engle
Palin seems first to have gotten the idea that she might be a new Esther shortly after being elected governor in 2006, when she asked one of her former pastors for an example of biblical leadership that she could emulate. Quoting scripture, the pastor told Palin that she, like Esther, had “come to the Kingdom for such a time as this.”
The reference requires some unpacking. Due to her extraordinary beauty, Esther, a Jew, was taken as a wife by the Persian king Ahasuerus. When an adviser named Haman persuaded Ahasuerus to proclaim that all Jews in his kingdom should be killed, Esther’s Jewish cousin Mordecai (who raised her after she was orphaned) told her that she had to persuade the King to spare her people: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
Sarah Palin as Queen Esther? Alaska's soon-to-be-gone-governor as a Hebrew heroine from 2,500 years ago?
But over at the Daily Dish Andrew Sullivan made the connection -- with some help from the New Wineskins blogger -- after musing on Palin's seemingly fatalistic pronouncement in early June, a full month before her surprise resignation.
"If I die, I die," Palin said during a rambling (what else?) introduction for Ronald Reagan's son, Michael, who was headlining an event at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Was Palin subtly signaling her political fate to those with ears to hear?
Perhaps. More likely she was just channeling one of the favorite biblical role models for conservative Christian women, especially the beauty queens, which Palin once was (and still is, if that Runner's World spread is anything to go by).
(...)
Contemporary Christians, especially conservatives, love that story. As Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Boston University, told me, Esther represents "a willingness to risk everything on behalf of something greater than yourself, something you believe in." Hence the popularity of Esther's other well-known declaration, "I was born for such a time as this." Esther's words convey a powerful sense of vocation, Ammerman says, "the notion that there is a hand in history that brings a person to a particular place in which their particular gifts have meaning and have an opportunity to make a difference." The Esther story is also ideal for a Christian Right that sees itself as a besieged minority, as the Jews of Esther's day were. The vindication of the Jews, who then vanquished their foes, is also a gratifying scenario for today's believers.
Little wonder that when Palin exploded onto the political scene last year -- accompanied by catcalls from the media elites -- she was fitted for Esther's crown. "She's our Queen Esther," Martha Mota told a Texas newspaper at a debate party as Palin prepared to square off against Joe Biden. "She's going to save our whole country." A full two years earlier, in 2006, when Palin became governor, she called her pastor and asked for a biblical example of a great leader. The Rev. Paul E. Riley told her to read up on Esther.
There are more many hints that Sarah Palin is deeply in love with the Esther story, and the comparison of herself to Queen Esther. Just recently, she visited Jerusalem on Purim, the Jewish holiday which has its foundation in Queen Esther's story - hardly a coincidence.
One of the worst examples of Sarah Palin's "pandering to her religious fans" was the speech at the "Women of Joy" conference in Kentucky on April 16, 2010. The full transcript and video of the speech (six clips) can be found HERE and HERE.
In this speech, Sarah Palin said:
Now I was trying to make a point about preparation with Piper the other night and I’m reading her the book of Esther out of the Old Testament. And I’m telling her all about Esther. See honey, I’m telling her, she’s the underdog, and she’s the orphan, she’s working hard preparing to be judged by others. Essentially Esther, she was out there on the stage wondering if she’d be chosen to have opportunity to really help change her world and Piper’s listening and she’s kinda dozing off and finally she rolls over and she says “Wow, that’s just like ‘American Idol’”.
It was the same speech in which Sarah Palin infamously declared:
Any leader declaring that America isn’t a Christian nation, and poking an ally like Israel in the eye, it is mind boggling for, to see some our nation’s actions recently.
We will see much more of this in the following months, that's fore sure! Just wait until "Triumph of the Will 2" hits the cinemas! It should be nothing short of a "worship orgy" of biblical proportions.
Joe McGinniss expressed similar thoughts in a sobering post he published today on his blog:
Her people are out there, they are numerous, they are angry: and there is not another credible Republican candidate in the race.
Up to this point, Sarah has laughed all the way to the bank.
Now she hopes to laugh all the way to the White House–swept there by a tidal wave of “real” Americans who don’t like elitist liberals (i.e. for a start, anyone with a college education) portraying them as racist, pitchfork-carrying buffoons.
Neither Romney nor Pawlenty can active them, but Sarah can.
And she plans to. Because God is telling her to do so.
Oh, man, this makes what I’ve written in THE ROGUE about how steeped she is in Christian Dominionism all the more relevant. She truly believes her “prayer shield” will keep her invulnerable to attacks between now and election day 2012.
After that, she’ll lay down the shield and pick up the sword of fire with which she’s waiting to smite all of us who do not see her as Queen Esther.
We laugh at her and call her a joke, but she’s serious. And she has big bucks behind her, and nothing to lose.
We’d better stop laughing now, or she’ll have us all crying out for mercy on Inauguration Day, 2013.
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(We are eternally grateful to our reader "Tildama" who transcribed Sarah Palin's "Women of Joy" speech in 2010!)
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UPDATE:
Here is a sneek peek of the "spewing piece". Keep in mind while viewing that previews are supposed to be the most riveting part of the film........
Like I said it will be like watching paint dry on a damp and humid afternoon.
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