My support for Sarah Palin is out in the open and goes back to August of 2008 when John McCain named her to his ticket. When she first came on the political scene, I thought her a breath of fresh air and I admired her spunk. When she was villified continuously by the left and particularly when haters were coming out of the woodwork to attack her and her family, I admired her tenacity.
But this... well... this is over the top:
Sarah Palin has rallied and riled lots of voters in her political career, but she might have hit a new high for controversy over the weekend by saying “waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists” during a speech at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Indianapolis.
The one-liner went over great with the crowd. It summarized well a main point of her address, which held that liberals are hypocrites who are too weak to protect America.
Not that Ms. Palin just called them “liberals.” In the speech, they were “clownish little 'Kumbaya'-humming fairy-tale-inhaling liberals.” They’re the sort of folks who believe that a thin tin “No Gun Zone” sign will protect kids in schools, according to the former VP candidate.
“That is stupid on steroids,” Palin said.
Well Sarah... your words are pretty stupid as well and let me touch briefly on why, for Catholics in particular, you should walk those words back.
I'll do so by quoting from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of The Second Vatican Council:
Christ is always present to his Church, especially in the actions of the liturgy. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, in the person of the minister (it is the same Christ who formerly offered himself on the cross that now offers by the ministry of priests) and most of all under the Eucharistic species. He is present in the sacraments by his power, in such a way that when someone baptizes, Christ himself baptizes. He is present in his word, for it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church. Finally, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he himself promised: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.
Indeed, in this great work which gives perfect glory to God and brings holiness to men. Christ is always joining in partnership with himself his beloved Bride, the Church, which calls upon its Lord and through him gives worship to the eternal Father.
It is therefore right to see the liturgy as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ, in which through signs addressed to the senses man’s sanctification is signified and, in a way proper to each of these signs, made effective, and in which public worship is celebrated in its fullness by the mystical body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the head and b y his members.
Accordingly, every liturgical celebration, as an activity of Christ the priest and of his body, which is the Church, is a sacred action of a preeminent kind. No other action of the Church equals its title to power or its degree of effectiveness.
The bottom line is that Catholics, certainly faithful Catholics, believe that Christ is present in the Sacraments, and this, obviously, includes Baptism.
Think a moment on the thought of Christ baptizing His enemies by waterboarding them.
It's just stupid. It's stupid on steroids.
Walk it back Sarah. Walk it back and regain some respect.