Picture reportedly taken by Glenn Beck's photographer
Governor Palin headlined a Teen Challenge "Raise the Roof" fundraiser last night in Montana. Her comments about faith, no doubt, inspired the crowd and spoke to their deepest-held beliefs. Besty Cohen of the Missoulian writes:
Praising God and America, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin brought an adoring crowd to its feet with her message of faith, family and the power of prayer during a Sunday fundraising event to support a Christ-centered Missoula women's residential center.
"God and family and country - take a stand in that order and things fall into place," Palin told a sold-out crowd of 1,600 at the Hilton Garden Inn during her 40-minute talk at the "Raise the Roof" capital campaign for Teen Challenge.
"Taking a stand for God is not always easy ... but it is always right and worthwhile," Palin said.
God and prayer help people find their true calling and innate talents, she said, and in God's "cosmic calculus" for each of us he provides the lessons we must learn in our individual journeys.
Teen Challenge, she said, is an example of God's work in action. Each day, the national program helps alcoholics become sober, drug addicts come clean and helps scared, unwed teen mothers turn that hardship into life's great blessing.
In Missoula, the group serves up to 20 women and their small children who have been caught in addictions to drugs or alcohol.
There are no perfect families, Palin said - and family isn't just who you are born into, but who you choose to be around.
In the inevitable troubled times, it is faith in God - and prayer - that see people through.
[...]
And she took exception to those who believe it is politically extreme to pray and believe in God.
Governor Palin knows well the power of faith in Christ, and Governor Palin also knows what big-government people, even some well-meaning ones, never seem to get--that the role of the government was never to replace the role of God and the church in the lives of people. And perhaps this is one of the biggest distinctions between Liberals and Conservatives, particularly Conservatives of faith. God's plan was always for the church to reach out, to help, to heal, and to lift people up and out. Look at the Book of Acts church in the Bible. See how they chose to give of their own possessions and share with those in need. Too often self-seeking government officials fail to help people out of their circumstances but create systems that keep people down, exploiting them rather than empowering them--because empowering the people would mean disempowering themselves--and of course, they can't have that. Although so many on the Left love to throw around the words "separation of church and state," which are nowhere in our founding documents, the real desire of big-government types has always been to replace the church with the state. It'll never succeed.
Cohen's article further reports on Governor Palin's remarks:
"I love my country and I love our system, but government can't fix the problems - government is the problem," she said. "Government can't dry a tear or lend a shoulder or put back together a family, or country or state."
Healing, she said, is a matter of God and neighbors helping neighbors.
Teen Challenge's success rate in doing just that - healing and helping - is far beyond scientific comprehension, she said.
"Faith-based prescription is so effective, that's why government doesn't like it," Palin said.
Teen Challenge is an organization that should be celebrated and used as a role model for all of America, she said.
Describing it as "part church, part school and part hard work," the group doesn't rely on taxpayer money.
"It's neighbor helping neighbor, the way America used to be," she said, "and we need to get back to that."
Palin's call to action was certainly heard by her audience.
When she finished her talk, Palin offered to match the price a Palin-signed T-shirt would bring for Teen Challenge's $450,000 fundraising campaign.
The bidding started at $500, and for several moments the spontaneous auction became a hand-raising showdown until the final bidder won the shirt with an offer of $3,500.
The money will be used to add a commercial kitchen and dining room to the group's West Seventh Street home in Missoula.
Governor Palin's generous gift is the way it's supposed to work. She chose to go into her own pocket to give. She didn't demand or tax. She didn't take from some and give to others. She herself gave willingly, as the majority of Americans would opt to do if the government remembered its place, allowed people to keep more of what they earn, and simply stopped playing God.
Read more here.
(h/t Josh Painter)
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