As noted at TAPPED by Sarah Posner, the theocratic Christianist preacher at Palin's Juneau church had this to say:
“Those that die without Christ have a horrible, horrible surprise.”
What this pastor means by "horrible, horrible surprise" is of course, hell-fire and eternal torment (from the God who loves you of course). Now, as Posner notes, this is pretty standard fare at most evangelical Christianist churches. Essentially, most Christianists believe, or at least read and hear taught in their churches, that when non-Christianists die, they go straight to H. E. double-hockey-sticks. But this is a rather remarkable belief to hold, is it not? Surely this idea deserves some kind of serious scrutiny as to its validity. What are the implications of such a belief? If you seriously believe that most human beings do not "have Christ" and will therefore, have a "horrible, horrible surprise" awaiting them at death, then what would your feelings be towards humanity in general, to the value of human life, to the effects of natural disasters, war, poverty, hunger, and death? Well, if the people are not Christianist, then for the believer, these catastrophes are not only unremarkable, they may actually indicate that those who face them are only getting what they deserve for not "having Christ". Aside from the inability to prove such a belief, the Christianist doctrine of hell would be pretty damnable itself if a religion, oh say, Islam, believed such a thing (which it appears they do).
Was Palin in church that day? Does Palin believe this? If Obama can be questioned about his pastor's sermons, surely our media could ask Palin to comment on this.
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