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Dear Friends,
I have
written and sent on our PCC church letterhead the following letter to
Governor Sarah Palin. It is my hope that many other pastors and
Christians, including Christian women, will share similar sentiments with
her. Neo-evangelical pro-family leaders have heaped praise upon Palin
and encouraged her to run for president in 2012. Now would be a good
time for her to hear from thousands of Christians who hold to the Word of
God in such matters. I hope some of you will also pass this
suggestion on to friends. Mrs. Palin's
e-mail address is governor@gov.state.ak.us
(or use the contact
form). Her mailing address is below.
Pastor
Ralph Ovadal
December 1, 2008
Governor Sarah
Palin
Alaska
State
Capitol
Building
Third Floor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau
,
AK
99811-0001
Dear
Mrs. Palin,
I
do not know you personally but do know that you say that you are a
Christian and you attend an evangelical church. And so the context of
my letter is that of a minister of the
church
of
Jesus Christ
writing to a Christian sister. I know many Christians and
conservatives have encouraged you to run for president in 2012. I
am writing to ask you not to
run for president in 2012. In fact, I would encourage you
to remove yourself from political office as soon as possible. In
short, I am writing to urge you to obey the Word of God and tend to your
duties as a wife and mother. As it is, you have been a very poor
example to millions of Christian women.
You
have a husband and four children at home, one an infant. Titus 2:4-5
instructs the older women of the church to "teach the young women to
be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the
word of God be not blasphemed." I encourage you to look up
"keepers at home" in your Strong's
Concordance. You will find that it means "a stayer
at home" who is a "good housekeeper." If this passage does
not apply to a wife and mother with children at home, then it has
absolutely no meaning! Clearly, you cannot be a keeper at home and an
elected official--especially president of the
United States
--at the same time! When the Scriptures tell women with children to
be keepers at home, that is exactly what the Lord is commanding them to
be. When you--such a high-profile, influential woman--so blatantly ignore
the Word of God, you are teaching others to likewise hold the Word of God
in contempt. Surely your conscience itself must bear witness that you
have put your personal ambitions ahead of your children's welfare and the
Word of God.
Of
course, there are other Scriptures which testify that your political
ambitions certainly clash with the God-given responsibilities of a
wife and mother. But, in order to be brief, I will simply go on to
other reasons why you should not run for president in 2012. Isaiah
3:12
states, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women
rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause
thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Now, while the
prophet may well have been commenting on the character of the men leading
Israel
, this text makes it more than clear that it is a tragic and destructive
thing, which the Lord condemns, for His people to be ruled by women. So
Christian women ought not to take the sort of leadership posts you have
been holding and have been seeking after. It does no good to claim
that, for instance, as governor, you rule over both Christians and
non-Christians. It does no good because, first, you do rule over
Christians; and second, the text and others in the Word of God make it
clear that a Christian woman is not to be a ruler in either
state or church, period.
Another
Scripture passage I would ask you to consider is I Peter 3:1-6. There
are two issues in that text which have a direct bearing on your political
ambitions. First, the Word of God directs that you are to submit to
your husband. With regard to any ambitions you might have to be president,
how could you claim before the Lord and His people to be in submission to
your husband, but at the same time insist that you are fully exercising
the powers of the chief executive of the
United States
and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of our country? What
if your husband did not agree with an important political or military
decision: would you then disobey the Word of God by refusing to submit to
your husband on such a vital matter? Or would you submit to your
husband and betray the oath you took as the president-elect of the
United States
?
The
passage in I Peter also instructs women to adorn themselves with "a
meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." Do
you have so little regard for the Word of God as to claim a Christian
woman can take part in the rough and tumble of politics and political
debates while yet retaining a meek and quiet spirit? Your past run
for vice president certainly testifies to the contrary. I would like also
to know if you really think it would be possible for you to be our
nation's president and commander-in-chief of her military, possibly directing
our armed forces in a conflict, while at the same time exhibiting a
meek and quiet feminine spirit!
There
is much more that could be said about a Christian wife and mother holding
political office, including being a governor and perhaps aspiring to be
president of the
United States
. But how much more needs to be said, and how much more Scripture
needs to be quoted? In your recent run for office, the mainstream
media and the liberal left treated you shamefully. I found that
disgusting. At the same time, I was deeply troubled by the ungodly
witness you gave the world and the terrible example you set for Christian
women, especially young women.
Should
you decide to run for president in 2012, or to run again for governor of
Alaska
, you will confirm that you hold your own political ambitions more
dear than your own children and the Word of God. Should you
decide to run for president, I certainly will use whatever influence I
might have for the express goal of seeing you defeated in the primary
election. I will encourage other pastors to do the same. This we will
do for the good of the
church
of
Christ
which "he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts
20:28
).
Though
my words in this letter may seem harsh to you, they are written not as an
enemy but as a Christian brother with a concern for you and your family
also. May the Lord convict your heart in this matter.
It does not take any great spiritual insight to know that unless you
submit to the Word of God and go home to your children, you will some day
reap a bitter harvest from your reckless and rebellious sowing.
Sincerely,
Pastor
Ralph
Ovadal
Pilgrims
Covenant
Church
Monroe
,
Wisconsin
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