Don't Worry About Sarah Palin

There’s almost a mantra among east and west coast liberals that it’s okay to speak to God, but it’s not acceptable for God to speak to you. I can understand this. Liberals I’ve known have often spent time in therapy where they’ve been taught to distrust those voices in their heads.

This isn’t necessarily bad. My father spent time in the state mental hospital. Dad met a chain-smoking schizophrenic there who insisted that God had ordered him to murder his mother.

Besides, look at the conflict we already have over religion and politics in this country. Imagine what would happen if people started saying, “God told me to vote for Barack Obama.”

“Your god is the AntiChrist.”

“Sure, pal. Baal was pro-life, too.”

As a woman with a mentally ill father, I’ve learned to use judgment with human voices, too. In particular, I distrust people who tell me how “God” wants me to vote. Surely, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to eliminate these middle men.

This year I had a visceral reaction to Sarah Palin. Maybe it’s that speech she gave at the Republican Convention. Palin reminded me of every cheerleader who snubbed me in high school, every Christian woman who implied I’d go to hell simply because I’m pro-choice.

I was consumed with rage. And because I don’t consider anger to be a healthy state of mind, I prayed about it. I told God, “I just don’t know why I’m so mad at this woman.”

A voice in my head said, “Don’t worry about Sarah Palin. She’s not going to win.”

In a sermon I heard once the minister said the most commonly repeated phrase in the Bible is “Fear not.” The way I can tell the voice in my head is God’s is that the first two words generally are, “Don’t worry.”

The funny thing is, I hadn’t prayed about who’d win the election. But soon after that, Wall Street began its meltdown, and John McCain’s poll numbers began dropping.

What was happening in our country wasn’t the miracle. The miracle was that after praying, I stopped worrying.