Mollie Hemingway gets her undies in a twist (here) because she thinks Sarah Palin's baptism joke at the NRA meeting was a sacrilege against the life-giving sacrament:
Sarah Palin gave a speech to members of the National Rifle Association, gathered in Indianapolis this weekend. She said something that struck me as sacrilegious ... [:] "Well, if I were in charge, [prisoners] would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.” ... Does [waterboarding] deliver those who are subjected to it from the devil, as Christian baptism does? Does it give them eternal life, as Christian baptism does? Is it voluntary, as Christian baptism is? It is none of these things. Joking about baptism in the context of this aggressive action suggests that we don’t think baptism is as life-giving or important as it is.
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Except that the Lutheran understanding of baptism, as Mollie ought to know, also includes meting out death, and on a daily basis:
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Since waterboarding is never meant to kill but is a painful experience designed to get the truth out of someone, you might even say it bears a strong resemblence to the intent of baptism as Luther understood part of its purpose.
Sarah Palin may be many things, but in this case no one but a special pleading Lutheran grandstander looking for something to say would look at Sarah Palin's remarks and conclude she meant anything specifically religious by them. Her remarks might have been in bad taste, but it wasn't sacrilege.
After all, Sarah Palin knows an awful lot about bad taste.
