Palin's Travel Reimbursements Raise Church-State Questions [UPDATED]
An investigative report from the Associated Press found that Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin often charged the state for expenses involved with religious activity and the promotion of "religious causes".
Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.The report places this new concern in the context of a generally troubling attitude toward the government promotion of religion, noting that Palin spent significant effort as Wasilla Mayor organizing an official "day of prayer" and that as Governor, she was so prolific at faith-based funding, Alaska became one of only four states to earn a half-million dollar grant from the Bush Administration.
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J. Brent Walker, who runs a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for church-state separation, said based on a reporter's account, Palin's June excursion raised questions."Politicians are entitled to freely exercise their religion while in office, but ethically if not legally that part of her trip ought to not be charged to taxpayers," said Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. "It's still fundamentally a religious and spiritual experience she is having."
[UPDATE: Just a thought about Palin's "day of prayer" as described in the AP article... in the extended entry below.]
Just a passing thought. Re-reading that news story excerpted in the post below about Governor Palin's penchant for focusing government business in a faith-based direction, I was drawn to this paragraph:
Records of her mayoral correspondence show that Palin worked arduously to organize a day of prayer at city hall. She said that with local ministers' help, Wasilla — a city of 7,000 an hour's drive north of Anchorage — could become "a light, or a refuge for others in Alaska and America."Where have I heard that before about Alaska being a refuge for others? Her former pastor Ed Kalnins, whose theology apparently includes the idea that the state has a unique role to play in the end of time.
He preaches repeatedly about the "end times" or "last days," an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."If Palin's effort as Mayor was intended to help promote this very specific religious belief, then it's even more troubling than a generic, government-sponsored "day of prayer". Of course, the resemblance that her stated intention shares with her church's apocalyptic prophecy may be merely coincidental, but it seems worth saying, for the record: elected officials should not be using the resources of the state to pursue their end-of-world theology, whether that involves Middle East policy, or preparing Alaska to receive refugees.