Palin-Mania: A Word of Caution

Remember the criticism those on the right leveled at Barak Obama when he addressed thousands of screaming Europeans in Berlin? Likewise as he accepted his party's nomination in front of a massive crowd at Invesco Field in Denver? They're engaging in "celebrity worship" was the cry. The McCain campaign even produced a commercial to that effect, complete with not-so-subtle references to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Here we are a few days after Sarah Palin's dramatic entrance on the national political stage and I'm afraid it's beginning to look strangely familiar. During our daily editorial meeting this morning, one of my colleagues said topic A at his church men's retreat this weekend was Sarah Palin. She was the buzz at my church yesterday too. People are excited.

As Pat Robertson said on today's edition of The 700 Club, Republicans are giddy over McCain's selection of the Alaska governor. After watching her acceptance speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan's son, Michael, exclaimed, "There, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she."

I must admit to being excited too. Governor Palin exudes a freshness and confidence few of us have seen lately in politics. But I also found myself saying be careful. Both parties can be guilty of celebrity worship. We can be thankful that Mrs. Palin professes faith in Christ. We can also be thankful that she appears to be leading her life as one who is led herself.

But, by Palin's own admission, she and her family are ordinary people with ordinary problems. In other words, she is a sinner saved by grace by the only One who deserves our praise and adoration.

Jesus' life, death and resurrection remind us how God ushers in His Kingdom in unusual ways, not with political might that so easily attracts us. With that in mind, I commend to you an article in the current issue of Tabletalk Magazine written by Dr. John R. Hutchinson, whose teaching I had the privilege of sitting under in the early 1990s when my family and I lived in Jacksonville, Florida: A Different Kind of Power