What she actually said was: "My oldest, my son Track, is a soldier in the United States Army now. ... Pray for our military. He's going to be deployed in September to Iraq. Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan."
So she was asking that they pray that the war was God's plan, which is different than stating that it was God's plan. According to Politifact, Abraham Lincoln did once state a similar sentiment, as described in "a book titled Six Months in the White House with Abraham Lincoln, written by Francis B. Carpenter and published in 1867, not long after Lincoln's death.":
"No nobler reply ever fell from the lips of a ruler, than that uttered by President Lincoln in response to the clergyman who ventured to say, in his presence, that he hoped 'the Lord was on our side.'
"'I am not at all concerned about that,' replied Mr. Lincoln, 'for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.'"
So while I, too, have a problem with Palin's conservative views that stem from her faith, her answer to Gibson's question was a reasonable one, especially considering Gibson got her quote wrong to begin with.
My personal take is that its a few steps farther than saying, "God bless America, and God bless our troops," which is practically a required statement at the end of a political speech these days, and that its a perfectly appropriate statement before a church group.
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I just want to note that Palin did not tell her church that the war in Iraq was "God's plan."
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/714/
What she actually said was:
"My oldest, my son Track, is a soldier in the United States Army now. ... Pray for our military. He's going to be deployed in September to Iraq. Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan."
So she was asking that they pray that the war was God's plan, which is different than stating that it was God's plan. According to Politifact, Abraham Lincoln did once state a similar sentiment, as described in "a book titled Six Months in the White House with Abraham Lincoln, written by Francis B. Carpenter and published in 1867, not long after Lincoln's death.":
"No nobler reply ever fell from the lips of a ruler, than that uttered by President Lincoln in response to the clergyman who ventured to say, in his presence, that he hoped 'the Lord was on our side.'
"'I am not at all concerned about that,' replied Mr. Lincoln, 'for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.'"
So while I, too, have a problem with Palin's conservative views that stem from her faith, her answer to Gibson's question was a reasonable one, especially considering Gibson got her quote wrong to begin with.
My personal take is that its a few steps farther than saying, "God bless America, and God bless our troops," which is practically a required statement at the end of a political speech these days, and that its a perfectly appropriate statement before a church group.
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