Stan Moody

POB 240
Manchester, ME 04351
207/626-0594
www.stanmoody.com

Stan Moody of Manchester, ME, former Maine State

Representative and most recently a Chaplain at Maine State
Prison in Warren, is advocating for transparency and
accountability in Maine’s prison system…A prolific and published
writer, Dr. Moody is pastor of the Meeting House Church in
Manchester and has been a speaker on human rights issues at
conferences around the nation…

January 12, 2011

Author: Stan Moody

Dear, Dear Sarah…

I speak to you neither as a Republican nor a Democrat,

though I have served my State Legislature on both sides of the
aisle. I speak to you as a brother of the Christ in whom you
profess to believe. I speak to you as an evangelical pastor
spiritually and politically exiled for my rejection of the false
doctrine of morality as the hallmark of righteousness.
In your zeal to become an icon of Christian success, you
have violated the one fundamental rule of human nature from
which we all need to be rescued – “all evil goes back to, ‘I want to
be somebody’.” To lust after becoming “somebody” is to wrestle
with the temptation to get out in front of God and thereby to deny
His sovereign power and Divine Providence.
We mortals do indeed become so consumed with our own
importance that we become impatient with God. He seems not to
be moving as fast as He ought in the directions we prefer that He
take. The temptation overwhelms us at times to take matters into
our own hands, as though He is unable or unwilling. When we do,
however, we short-circuit the good in favor of the expedient.

Prison Reform
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To-Sarah-Palin-in-the-wake-of-the-Arizona-massacre
 I cannot deny that I have hoped for the demise that you are
now experiencing in the public eye. Your actions and the results
of your condemnation of the beliefs of others as un-American
have often reminded me of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade
against communism. That crusade was finally brought to an end
by a courageous Republican Senator from my State, Margaret
Chase Smith.
On June 1, 1950, this brave lady from Skowhegan, Maine,
rose to the floor of the United States Senate to put a stop to that
national madness. Her “Declaration of Conscience” spoken that
day could help guide us today:
I speak as briefly as possible because too much
harm has already been done with irresponsible words
of bitterness and selfish political opportunism. I speak
as briefly as possible because the issue is too great to
be obscured by eloquence. I speak simply and briefly
in the hope that my words will be taken to heart.
I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I
speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an
American.
Those of us who shout the loudest about
Americanism in making character assassinations are all
too frequently those who, by our own words and acts,
ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:
The right to criticize…
The right to hold unpopular beliefs…
The right to protest…
The right to independent thought…
The exercise of these rights should not cost one
single American citizen his reputation or his right to a
livelihood…nor should he be in danger of losing his
reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to
know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us
doesn’t? Otherwise, none of us could call our souls our
own. Otherwise, thought control would have set in.
As an American, I condemn a Republican “Fascist”
just as much I condemn a Democratic “Communist.” I
condemn a Democrat “Fascist” just as much as I
Prison Reform
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To-Sarah-Palin-in-the-wake-of-the-Arizona-massacre
 condemn a Republican “Communist.” They are equally
dangerous to you and me and to our country.
As an American, I want to see our nation recapture
the strength and unity it once had when we fought the
enemy instead of ourselves.

As a Christian, I plead with you and others who profess faith

in the New Testament God to immerse yourselves in the Sermon
on the Mount, where love of neighbor only counts when that
neighbor is considered to be an enemy.
As a Christian, I confess that my contempt for your words
has degenerated into contempt for you as a child of promise. For
that, you deserve my deepest contrition. I ask only that as the
future unfolds, you will measure your actions by the standards of
Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well.”
May God have mercy on His church!

Prison Reform
www.stanmoody.com
To-Sarah-Palin-in-the-wake-of-the-Arizona-massacre