I find it hard to stop talking about Sarah Palin. That's partly because Sarah Palin won't stop talking either and I find her frequent difficulties with "foot-in-mouth" disease very amusing. That is not, however, the only reason. While some critics think she's no longer politically relevant, a case can be made that her public compliments on Newt Gingrich's South Carolina debate performances contributed to his victory in that state's primary. More important to me though, is the fact that her understanding (or lack thereof) of what America's all about, is representative of the deepest currents driving the Religious Right. A case in point is her reaction to Alaska Airline's announcement that it was going to stop handing out prayer cards to its passengers.
For 30 years, AA airline meals were accompanied by cards with quotes from the Old Testament like "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever" (Psalm 107:1). By 2006, however, customer complaints exceeded compliments and AA restricted the practice to meals in first class only. Despite that, the trend continued and the percentage of complaints increased, so now the airline has announced that the practice will be dropped completely as of February 1, 2012.
"Some customers were comforted by the cards and some didn't feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one," said Alaska Airlines spokesperson Bobbie Egan.
"After carefully considering all sides, it was agreed that eliminating the cards was the right thing to do," added Egan.
Sarah Palin disagrees. On Thursday, she explained why in a Facebook note entitled "Alaska Airlines Prayer Cards; it's hip to be offended?"
Palin attributes the elimination of the cards to political correctness gone overboard. She finds it astonishing that anyone could be offended "by a simple prayer card placed on an airline’s meal tray." She also plays the victim card:
People of faith and common decency just shrug and move on from the constant assault on their sensibilities; we don’t call for censorship – at least I don’t. So, why in this day and age must every reference to faith in God be censored from the public square? Why must a private company buckle under pressure from a handful of people who find a little card saying 'the Lord is my shepherd' offensive? I'm sure there are many more people who appreciate the cards, or at least are ambivalent about them.
Um... what?
Given Sarah Palin's frequent personal estrangements from factual accuracy (my current favorite is last year's revelation that the midnight ride of Paul Revere was to warn the Redcoats that the Americans were coming), it should be no surprise that there are a few problems with this statement. First, there were more people who didn't appreciate the cards than did... at least, that's what Alaskan Airlines says. Second, they didn't have to "buckle under pressure." They made a business decision based on what they thought was best for their company... the same way they did when they began handing out prayer cards.
From a Fox News article:
The cards began as a marketing ploy 30 years ago to differentiate the regional airline from its competitors. The company admits the idea was borrowed from another airline.
Third, there is no censorship of faith from the public square... at least, not by the government. The principle of separation of church and state means the government remains neutral about religion; neither endorsing or suppressing it. Of course for the Religious Right, "public square" is code language for the endorsement of religion by government (think 10 Commandments displays at courthouses, school prayer, etc.) so it could be argued that from her perspective, Palin's statement is accurate.
Fourth, the claim that people of faith don't ever call for censorship is too absurd for anyone but the faith-based to make with a straight face. As for Sarah Palin herself, it's an open question.
It's fascinating to me how people like Sarah Palin who preach "love thy neighbor" can have so little sympathy for, much less understanding of, their neighbor's view. And it's frustrating too. If I can't make them understand that when I pay taxes for my childrens' education, it's offensive to find them receiving religious indoctrination along with it, how can I make them understand that, when I buy an airline ticket, what I want is transportation, not proselytization.
Ah well, to paraphrase something Sarah Palin said in her note, "is it any wonder that people of [other faiths or no] faith feel their beliefs are constantly marginalized or even under outright attack when we hear reports like this?"
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