Within twenty-four hours of the announcement that John McCain was inviting Sarah Palin to serve as his vice presidential candidate, three things happened. First, the press was inundated with a seemingly endless barrage of announcements from neo-conservative organizations offering unqualified support for the selection of Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate. Second, we met Sarah Palin and discovered not only that she is the mother of an infant, and that she returned to politics three days after giving birth, but that she is a feminist (1) who identifies with the leaders of the feminist movement and publicly praises them; (2) who uses the language of the feminist cause to rally supporters; (3) who praises some of the most vicious feminists in history as a means of rallying female voters; and (4) who has embraced the type of lifestyle regarding leadership, career, and children which has long been touted as a feminist ideal.

The third thing we saw was confusion in the ranks of both liberal feminists and neo-con Christians. Both proved their loyalties were driven more by political expediency than principle. Not knowing what to do with a feminist, pro-life Republican vice presidential candidate, feminist Democrats raised criticisms of Mrs. Palin which reflected their own hypocrisy. On the other hand, neo-con Christians performed triple back-flips to justify or overlook behavior and qualification deficiencies in their new Republican candidate that they would have found distasteful had the female candidate been a Democrat.

On the other hand, there has been a response from the pro-family movement which reflects the historical and theologically orthodox position concerning what the Bible says about the mothers of young children ruling over nations. They are willing to ask the very questions that Rudy Giuliani and Republican apologists are now declaring off-limits: “At a time when the family is in such chaos, when fatherhood is in decline and when godly models of motherhood are so disparaged, what in the world are Republicans doing advocating the mother of an infant special needs child, and other young children, to serve as Commander in Chief?”

Their voices reflect the opinion of many around the country who are asking if the emperor is dressed in the beautiful clothing that neo-cons claim are really there, or whether the emperor is as buck naked as he appears to be. Because their loyalties are not with parties, but with the Church first, foremost, and forever, the analysis of these Christians is more focused on “what sayeth the Scriptures,” rather than “what winneth elections.” Here is a selection of their voices from the blogosphere:

Dr. Voddie Baucham: “Ironically, the Neocons are merely using Mrs. Palin as a political pawn. She is beloved because she gives them the coveted ‘moral high ground’ in the upcoming debates. Read recent articles and the goals become clear. We must win on abortion. She makes it hard to argue for it. We must win on the race/gender issue. She gives us a woman to their ethnic minority. We must win on being young and hip. Obama is 47; Palin is 44. We must win the ‘change’ argument. Obama is new to Washington; Palin has never served there. Checkmate! Unfortunately, this political pawn represents a fatal worldview flaw. In an effort to win the pro-family political argument, we are sacrificing the pro-family biblical argument. In essence, the message being sent to women by conservative Christians backing McCain/Palin is, ‘It’s ok to sacrifice your family on the altar of your career; just don’t have an abortion.’ How pro-family is that?” See full article.

Pastor Bill Einwechter, Th.M: “To assert that God’s Word permits a woman to hold civil office and that Christians have the liberty to support a woman for the position of civil magistrate means that one has to deny the biblical teaching on the headship of man, reject the qualifications for civil rulers set down in the law of God, ignore the biblical picture of the virtuous woman, and close his or her ears to the biblical lament of women ruling over men. The example of Deborah does not give sufficient evidence to prove that she held the office of civil ruler or to overturn the biblical doctrine that men alone are called of God to the office of civil magistrate. Therefore, Christians should not support a woman for the office of civil magistrate. It is imperative that Christians labor to restore God’s order for the family, the church, and the state.” See full article.

Jennie Chancey: “Have we completely lost our ‘righteous resistance?’ I’ll grant that Sarah Palin is a die-hard pro-life, pro-gun, pro-family conservative, but why aren’t the pundits stopping to ask the obvious question? Why is a wife and mother with five children (including a newborn with Down’s syndrome) running for vice president? She has a bountiful amount of work cut out for her by the Lord sitting in her lap and around her dining room table. I can certainly respect her Christian and biblical views, but I am really amazed at Christians leaping to embrace putting a wife and mother into political office—particularly an office that will essentially make her the helpmate of the highest official in the land and practically remove her from her husband and children.” See full article.

Carmon Friedrich: “First and foremost, the Bible speaks plainly that men are to be chosen for positions of covenant headship in government, just as they are covenant leaders in home and church. Deborah, who sat under her own tree and judged as judgment from God for the apostate Israel (Judges 4:1-3), was hardly in an ideal situation nor was it typical for God’s people to have a woman in that position of leadership as we know from every other example of godly rulers in civil and ecclesiastical spheres being men (Queen Esther did not rule as one of Ahasuerus’s wives).” See full article.

Jasmine Baucham: “Is it odd that we Christians, commanded to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) feel like our “hands are tied” in this election, that we are forced to vote for the lesser of two evils, that the vote otherwise would be “wasting” our vote? I think it is. It boggles my mind to think that, if Christians would not, in good conscience, vote for John McCain in any other instance, would rally together and vote for a man who really espoused the values they hold dear... we may not win an election, but the numbers would certainly get people’s attention.” See full article.

Caleb Hayden: “God has called women to the distinctive roles of wife and mother, plain and simple. Paul tells women to be ‘keepers at home’ in Titus 2. God has called men to stand in the gates and lead within the civil realm, as we see throughout Scripture with precious few exceptions. Many will mock this position as outdated, chauvinistic, sexist, and worse. At best, the position will strike many as ‘unfair.’ Indeed, it is unfair. God is not an egalitarian. He did not ordain men and women to function with the same roles and responsibilities. For example, in Genesis 3, God cursed the man’s responsibility of subduing the earth and taking dominion over the ground; men would have to wrestle with thorns and thistles and sweat to provide bread for their families. In turn, He cursed the woman’s role of bearing children by ordaining travail in childbirth.” See full article.

Elijah Brown: “I am fully convinced that a great deal of Christians will follow the Republican Party into the gates of hell as long as they can continue to convince them that it is better than being a democrat. (It reminds me of the piggish phrase in Animal Farm, ‘Surely you do not want Jones to come back, anything is better than Jones!’)I can say this because I have witnessed the fact that what the Republican Party calls ‘family values’ holds more sway with evangelical voters than the Scripture’s teaching on the family. The majority of Christians today stand in the shoes of the rabid liberal God haters of yesterday, under the all inclusive evangelical banner.” See full article.

Nathaniel Darnell: “Mrs. Sarah Palin is disqualified from serving as a civil magistrate, and no Christian desiring to be true to the Word of God should vote for her. This is true not because of her intelligence or abilities, not because she is married, not because she has children, not because her family may or may not be in disarray, and not because her husband has or hasn’t given her permission to serve as a civil magistrate. Mrs. Sarah Palin fails to meet the biblical qualification for a civil magistrate at the outset without need to consider her political platform because she does not meet the requirement given consistently throughout the Scriptures that a civil magistrate must be a man.” See full article.