After watching the hatred of the radical Left and its pundits for years, I now understand why people like Judge Kavanaugh, Karen Pence, and oh yes, Sarah Palin scare them: it’s the faith factor. They have real faith in a living God, a faith that consistently informs their responses to life’s choices and challenges.
Looking back—the phenomenon that was Sarah
Back in 2008, I went to Barnes & Nobel to see Sarah Palin. Reporter Jason Horowitz from The Washington Post asked me why I wanted to see her.
The evening before, as I’d listened to pundits trying to explain the intensity of reactions to her, both on the right and the left, I saw them struggling to put it into words. I didn’t think they were seeing the phenomenon of Sarah correctly. It wasn’t so much about ideology, but about something else.
So when the reporter stopped me, I was ready. He quoted my response in his Washington Post story [italicized words are what I actually said]:
“Judith Doctor, a spiritual therapist, said that Americans have mostly misunderstood Palin’s visceral appeal. ‘It has nothing to do with her politics, or her folksiness, or her looks,’ she asserted. ‘She’s alive inside, and that radiates energy, and people who are not psychologically alive inside are fascinated [terrified] by it. There’s a wire in those left-wing liberals that has never been quickened [made alive in their spirit], and Sarah’s got it.’”
A few days later, NY Times liberal columnist, Maureen Dowd, picked up my remarks and quoted me in her Op-Ed piece—Palin’s Gut Outflanks Obama’s Brain. Visceral Has Its Value.
Real faith terrifies the radical Left
When Sarah first burst onto the national stage, an electric atmosphere developed wherever she spoke. According to Norman Vincent Peale, “this electric atmosphere occurs whenever spiritual power is released.”
Because her faith was real and active, Palin was alive in every dimension of her being—spirit, soul, and body. She functioned from her gut, drawing upon the well of living water that Jesus Christ promised.
In a later op-ed piece, Dowd opined that Governor Palin was “dynamic” while President Obama appeared to be “static.” In other words, she was life-giving, while he was empty on the inside, spiritually dead.
This explains why Sarah inspired us, bringing hope to many. Our hearts thrilled to her American story—her rugged individualism, can-do attitude, and optimistic faith in a living God.
But the Left were terrified of her, because she exposed their own deadness. They didn’t have what she had—that life-giving energy emanating from inside her—and they knew it.
Since they did not know how to defend against it, they worked to destroy her character. She was vilified by the media, hated by pro-abortion activists, and shunned by people in her own party.
The power of faith
According to Stuart Miller, “Faith is the force behind our American character! We are inheritors of a national tradition that is ultimately spiritual in origin—faith in God, in ourselves, in our nation, and in our future” (Understanding Europeans). It was faith that carried us to our national greatness.
Kavanaugh, Pence, and Palin stand in stark contrast to the people in the radical Left. These courageous people are the genuine article. They show us what deep-seated faith in God looks like. Here are eight ways we can see the power of faith manifested in their lives:
- Their optimistic nature.
- Their whole orientation towards life, promoting it at every level.
- Their love for people and outgoing interest in others.
- They are grounded in reality, not living in their own narcissistic world.
- They are authentic and genuine, not playing a role.
- They don’t hide their religious values, believing they have a place in public life.
- They are unafraid, nor bound by political corrected ness.
- Their lives reveal the power of one person who knows who they are and moves forward in their divine purpose.
Faith is a choice
A few decades ago, humanist Erich Fromm wrote, “There is no more fundamental distinction between people, psychologically and morally, than those who love life and those who hate life” (The Heart Of Man).
But thousands of years before, God made us aware of the importance of this choice between life and death, affecting not only us, but our children in the future.
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice and by holding fast to him — Deuteronomy 30:19-20.
Unfortunately, many churches (Catholic & Protestant) are emphasizing a social gospel, instead of faith. They are teaching that Christianity is a social manifesto for change in society’s structure, rather than faith in the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to change us from within. (Norman Vincent Peale)
If we want to affect our culture like Kavanaugh, Pence, and Palin, we must apply our faith day-by-day in Jesus Christ and rely upon the Holy Spirit and become sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit. This can turn our lives into an optimistic adventure.