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WND's Olivia St. John: "I pray" that "avowed feminist" Palin "begins to turn her heart toward her home"

July 08, 2009 2:30 pm ET by Media Matters staff

From St. John's July 8 WorldNetDaily column, headlined "Desperate conservatives fooled by Palin?":

As America prepared to celebrate Independence Day, Sarah Palin declared her own independence - as a woman. By announcing she was resigning as governor of Alaska 18 months before the end of her term, Palin shocked adversaries and friends alike. While the media fireworks temporarily pushed Michael Jackson coverage off the front page, Palin naysayers like NBC's Andrea Mitchell opined that perhaps she was missing family life after a tiring stint of politics.

Fat chance of that.

Palin is an avowed feminist. As such, her husband and children have to fall in line behind her career goals. If everyday actions speak louder than words, then she holds more affinity with her pro-abortion feminist sisters than with her conservative sisters nursing babies at home.

[...]

It came close to sounding as though Palin's family was a priority when she said, "...every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family." She also stated, "...we know we can effect positive change outside government" and "actually make a difference."

Was Palin talking about "the hand that rocks the cradle" kind of difference that celebrates motherhood and the value of children, not only inside the womb, but outside as well?

Palin's history over the past 17 years tells another story. Three years after the birth of the first of her five children, she entered the rough-and-tumble world of Alaska (and eventually national) politics and has never looked back.

Has America become so emasculated that our only hope of getting another Ronald Reagan into the Oval Office is to idolize Palin as a political Madonna? Hardly.

Do we have no men who can match her intelligence, charisma and leadership skills? To the contrary, we have better.

Have conservatives become so desperate for a passionate leader that they forsake their most basic values of home and hearth? Yes, but it's more than that.

Sarah Palin represents the empirical self of millions of women working outside the home. They live vicariously through her supposed success. Seeing such a woman extolled gives credibility to their frantic lifestyle juggling job, children, husband, church, and housework.

It has been said that part of Palin's appeal is that her family is like so many other families. She is today's American woman, who works outside the home and does it all. Whose daughters get pregnant out-of-wedlock. Whose husbands wear the aprons.

Have we gone insane? Is this something to celebrate?

[...]

It has been said that the sin of homosexuality precedes judgment on a nation. Yet, the first instance in Scripture where we see a curse enacted was in the Garden of Eden when a woman took the lead and a man followed. Does this not describe America today? "As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them," says Isaiah 3:12.

As conservatives continue chanting Sarah Palin for president, are they disenfranchising the men capable of stepping up to the plate in 2012? There are many strong conservative men better qualified to lead the greatest nation in the world.

I pray these men rise to the fore and that Sarah Palin begins to turn her heart toward her home.

I pray America wakes up to realize once again that the hand that rocks the cradle truly rules the world. That is a mother's highest calling. That is Sarah Palin's calling.

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    • Author by shaggles (July 08, 2009 2:40 pm ET)
      1  
      Wow. I guess compared to her Palin is a feminist. Her version of Christianity sounds a lot like the Taliban's version of Islam.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by NiceguyEddie (July 08, 2009 2:58 pm ET)
        3  
        If Palin's a feminist, I'm a butch lesbian.
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      • Author by deeznuts (July 08, 2009 4:11 pm ET)
        1  
        Amazing.

        A wingnut for whom Sarah Palin is not wingnutty enough.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by wookie (July 08, 2009 2:48 pm ET)
      3  
      So why does Olivia St. John have a career outside the home?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Easy to refute wingnuts (July 08, 2009 3:18 pm ET)
        1  
        Because she's like Phyllis Schlafly, a woman who travels all over the country telling women their place is in the home.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by shaggles (July 08, 2009 4:33 pm ET)
        1  
        Excellant point.
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    • Author by snoopy (July 08, 2009 2:53 pm ET)
      1  
      "I pray" that "avowed feminist" Palin "begins to turn her heart toward her home"


      Sorry Olivia, but the reich has a higher calling for Tokyo Rose.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by newzhound (July 08, 2009 3:04 pm ET)
      2  
      Olivia St. John: Clearly a deep thinker:

      "Fox News' Bill O'Reilly captured the essence of the homosexual movement's goal when Media Matters for America reported his protesting "the San Diego Padres' decision to host a gay pride night and a children's hat giveaway promotion" during a baseball game. O'Reilly said that "thousands of gay adults showed up and commingled with straight families." He insisted that "clear-thinking people understand it is completely out of context and inappropriate."

      "Then O'Reilly solidly hit the ball out of the park when he said it is "insane" to "cluster" homosexuals and lesbians during an event for children under 12.

      "Are we helpless in protecting our kids? By no means.

      "We can start by removing our children from the public schools, which stand at the vanguard of teaching and normalizing the homosexual lifestyle."

      In the words of my former barber, she's "all the way crazy..."

      Report Abuse
    • Author by captfoster2 (July 08, 2009 3:13 pm ET)
      3  
      "As America prepared to celebrate Independence Day, Sarah Palin declared her own independence - as a woman."

      Well, that's one way of trying to explain away Palin's incessant need TO QUIT everything she attempts when the fire gets to hot...

      If that is feminism... I have a wife of 20 years that would gladly explain to Palin that she is no feminist, but a total loser and a pathetic quitter!
      Report Abuse
    • Author by epkklk851 (July 08, 2009 3:14 pm ET)
      1  
      How very disturbing! You know, I stayed home with my kids until they were 10 years old, and I began substituting in the school they attended to earn some extra money for their education. Am I a good Conservative? Heck no, I was and am a flaming liberal! I went to a church that taught this kind of garbage when I was a kid. Luckily, I grew out of the phase, but the distaste for the teaching hasn't gone away. This is the worst kind of Holy Hannah Bible thumping I have seen in a long time!
      Report Abuse
    • Author by snoopy (July 08, 2009 3:15 pm ET)
      1  
      What's next? Burkhas and one piece swimsuits?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by magnolialover (July 08, 2009 3:26 pm ET)
      2  
      So is this another woman who wants men to run everything? It appears so, and in that case, I would hazard to bet that a "man" could have written her story better than her, and what is she doing writing anyway? Shouldn't she be home making babies and pies?

      These people are incredible. I'm sure this woman doesn't think she should be able to vote either, because she's a woman.

      There are all different types of feminists out there. They don't all fall under one big blanket.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by rtwmd1230 (July 08, 2009 3:28 pm ET)
      2  
      Olivia's a whackjob, but she realizes, in her own wierd way, what a huge gap there is between what Palin says and what Palin does
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Leftym0m79 (July 08, 2009 3:40 pm ET)
      1  
      If everyday actions speak louder than words, then she holds more affinity with her pro-abortion feminist sisters than with her conservative sisters nursing babies at home.


      Actually Olivia, I know more breast feeding, liberal, stay at home moms than I do conservative, but I digress. As you sit there in judgment over a woman that chooses to draw a paycheck from outside the home, I wonder if you are paid for your column and how much time you spend working on it instead of with your children. Those in glass houses and all.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by bintx (July 08, 2009 6:02 pm ET)
           
        I'm with you. Most "conservative" women I know find breastfeeding disgusting and immoral.
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    • Author by ReasonAndResolve (July 08, 2009 3:58 pm ET)
      5  
      Gee, maybe if those conservative men she has so much praise for would actually pay their workers a living wage more mothers could afford to stay home and be the weak-sisters she imagines women are meant to be.

      It is a tad disingenuous to espouse family values and cry about moral decay when it is the constant drive for more profit that has sucked the lifeblood out of American families. Fathers can't even afford to take a little time out to spend being fathers.

      This is just more anti-feminist, conservative hypocrisy.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by IRONY 101 (July 08, 2009 4:04 pm ET)
      1  
      ST. JOHN:It has been said that the sin of homosexuality precedes judgment on a nation.

      Said by whom...? Nazi Germany was judged pretty harshly for its sins, but I don't recall homosexuality being the big one.

      Pretty ironic that Sarah Palin, the Bible thumper, gets castigated by another Bible thumper...and she didn't even sleep with another woman.
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    • Author by overmars jr. (July 08, 2009 5:34 pm ET)
      1  
      Good grief, do conservatives any media voices that can make a lick of sense? No wonder they're so lost and pathetic: their leaders are bald-faced liars, their pundits are pointless and their talking points are pure manipulation.

      Are there even real conservatives left? And who do they look to?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Pinhead (July 08, 2009 5:36 pm ET)
      1  
      No wonder they call it "World Nut Daily"
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    • Author by bintx (July 08, 2009 6:01 pm ET)
         
      This person got her history so very wrong. There have been women working outside the home and women supporting their families since time began. She's speaking to the "traditional" American family which was created in the years following World War II.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Lute (July 09, 2009 8:06 am ET)
         
      I was kinda wonderin when the fundies would come to the realization that having a woman as their only viable alternative was just plain wrong.

      Seems to be a hole in the body politic, some young charismatic may step into it, whipping the flock into a frenzy...bringing the nation back to the Lord, ya know.
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