Jessica Fargen of the Boston Herald follows the journalistic trend in her article on Thomas Muthee’s 2005 sermon. Like the AP and ABC News, Fargen misses the point by focusing on one word, “witchcraft”:
The video of a Kenyan bishop asking Jesus to protect Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from “witchcraft” has turned into a political witch hunt, says one Harvard expert who found “nothing unusual” about the blessing.
“He was giving an African prayer to an American Christian,” said Jacob K. Olupona, a Harvard African studies professor. “His prayer reflects his own background and his own training and his own world view. America may not believe in witchcraft, but witcraft is a reality (in Africa).”…
He said Muthee’s blessing has been kicked around in a game of political football.
“People should not be demonized on the basis of their faith simply because you are looking for votes,” he said. “I do not know how a Christian nation like America became so negative responding to people’s deep spirituality.”
Hint: you can tell this Harvard source has an agenda beyond the expression of “deep spirituality” when he refers to America as “a Christian nation.”
Now, if Muthee only wanted to express his deep spirituality, I don’t think many people would care. The whole point is that Muthee wants to do much more than express himself… and that after listening to Muthee’s very practical plans Sarah Palin joined Muthee in praying for Muthee’s vision to come to pass.
Don’t just watch the last two minutes. Watch the first six:
Muthee’s sermon (the theme of which is “Why Sarah Palin?”) provides a series of pronouncements that Sarah Palin should be used as a tool for fundamentalist Christianity to “invade” and “infiltrate” government and initiate policies that place the Christian God in charge of public schools, the Christian God in charge of state government, the Christian God in charge of federal government — and used to exclude members of other religions, such as Muslims, Buddhists and Wiccans.
That’s not merely an expression of “deep spirituality.” It’s a political program. Thomas Muthee delivered a political sermon of electioneering for Sarah Palin (a violation of federal tax law, by the way) that proposed the complete demolition of the separation of Church and State and the installation of an American Christian theocracy.
And here’s the kicker: finally, after Muthee laid his theocratic reasoning for Palin’s candidacy on the table, Sarah Palin joined him on stage to pray for it.
That is a substantive political story, since it places Sarah Palin in the midst of a movement to undercut the Constitution of the United States of America at the very time that she tries to put herself a heartbeat away from being the most powerful protector of it.
Why does the Boston Herald have to stop at the word “witchcraft”? Why isn’t the Boston Herald reporting the constitutional threat?