First of all, to the conservative right wingers and left-wing opportunistic. Chill out! If Dick Cheney can have a lesbian daughter and be proud of the grandchild given to him by his lesbian daughter and partner… then Sarah Palin can have an unmarried pregnant teenage daughter. For purposes of election.
But, as a pastor. I’ll just put this out there. Let’s say a highly successful couple with five children came to my office. And they said “Pastor, we just found out our oldest daughter is pregnant.” Before I even dealt with the pregnancy of the daughter I would say to the couple. “Look, I know you two are very busy and very successful at your jobs. But look what you have done. You have worked so many hours and spent so little time with your young children that you are in the situation you are in right now.” Now, I know, I know that it might have happened even if the mother stayed at home full time and the father worked from his home office. It might have happened. But it didn’t. They were too busy chasing their careers that they ignored their kids enough for this to happen. So the first thing I would say to BOTH the father and the mother, is to cut back your work hours and pump up your home hours. If one of them asked “Pastor, I’m about to get a promotion that will require A LOT more of my time… what should I do?” I would say “Don’t take it.” No, I wouldn’t say “Pray about it.” I expect them to have prayed about it before they came to me. I would say don’t do it. Because this is going to add greater stress to your family. Husband OR wife, I would say that this pregnant teenagers will need her father AND her mother in the days to come. So they should not take the job. You get the point…
I know some of your reading this might think it’s sexists. But I would say this whether it was the father or the mother. If Barack Obama’s daugther was pregnant out of wedlock and Michelle Obama stayed at home full time, I would still tell Barack that this is NOT the best time to run for president. This is the time to be the man of his own household.
Which leads me to question McCain for picking Palin if he knew her daughter was pregnant. And it makes me question Palin… I think I could trust a “hockey mom” in the White House. Sure. But could I trust a hockey mom who decided to run for the VP at an extremely difficult time for his own daughter? Would I trust such great decisions to a person who decided that the care of a special needs baby is not as important as her political ambitions? I don’t know about that… See, for me it’s not about gender roles. It’s about parental roles. Political roles are conferred to you by a political system. Parental roles are coffered to you by God himself. The priority needs to be straight.
