The Mudflats

And a new communications director shall be made manifest, and it shall be a bold decision, and his name shall be David Murrow…presumably no relation to Edward R.

Back on June 6, “The Ear,” column of the Anchorage Daily News reported the rumor that Murrow was on deck.  Sources say he was offered the job on May 26, and his first day was June 10.   His first action as Palin’s Communications Director was, ironically, NOT announcing his own hire for 19 days and counting.  The Juneau Empire finally has something up.

Murrow said he was too busy to talk to the Empire on Friday, but earlier told the Alaska Budget Report Newsletter he began the job June 10 and is paid $103,716 annually.

So who is this mysterious on-the-job-for-three-weeks-nobody-knows-who-he-is mystery man? Who is this Communications Director who is “too busy” to talk to the newspaper of the state’s capital?

Murrow told the Budget Report that he owned a media production company that once did work for a Palin campaign, and is also author of two books on Christian men and church.

According to the American Library Association’s Booklist, “Murrow advocates injecting a strong shot of testosterone into the proceedings to restore the masculine spirit to the church,” in his first book, “Why Men Hate Church,” published in 2004.

In 2008 he published “How Women Help Men Find God.”

You may purchase an autographed copy of either of these works at the website Church for Men.  Murrow owns the site.  Here are some snips:

How did Christianity, founded by a man and his 12 male disciples, become the province of women? There is a pattern of feminization in Christianity going back at least 700 years, according to Dr. Leon Podles, author of The Church Impotent: the Feminization of Christianity. But the ball really got rolling in the 1800s. With the dawning of the industrial revolution, large numbers of men sought work in mines, mills and factories, far from home and familiar parish. Women stayed behind, and began remaking the church in their image. The Victorian era saw the rise of church nurseries, Sunday schools, lay choirs, quilting circles, ladies’ teas, soup kitchens, girls’ societies, potluck dinners, etc.

Soon, the very definition of a good Christian had changed: boldness and aggression were out; passivity and receptivity were in. Christians were to be gentle, sensitive and nurturing, focused on home and family rather than accomplishment and career…

Some of you don’t know what I’m talking about. A feminized church? Some guys are happy with church just as it is, and see no need for change. Others are the sensitive type and actually like the macho-deficit…

Think of the pictures of Jesus you saw as a child. Didn’t they suggest a tender, sweet man in a shining white dress? As our boys grow up, whom will they choose as a role model: gentle Jesus, meek and mild, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action hero? The irony here is that the real Jesus is the ultimate hero, bold and courageous as any man alive, but we’ve turned him into a wimp…

So how did our friend connect with Sarah Palin?  She asked him to work on her bid for Lt. Governor.  Not having much money to pay for his services, she asked him for a discount.  He prayed about it.  “God usually doesn’t prompt me on my business decisions,” he said.  But this time, it seems, the big guy made an exception, because Murrow signed up to the Palin campaign at a cut rate…and the rest is history.

So, what does our new Communications Director think about Palin’s communication style?

Most politicians learn early in their careers to carefully parse every word that flows from their mouths. Not Sarah. She has a tendency to speak her mind, and say things that might one day come back to haunt her. More than once I’ve rolled my eyes and thought to myself, Sarah, why did you say that? But our governor keeps following that moral compass – and comes up smelling like a rose.

We may not think that Christianity is testosterone-challenged, or could use a new image of Jesus as Terminator to combat a”macho deficit,”  but many in the state have indeed rolled their eyes lots of times and thought to themselves, “Sarah, why did you say that?”  So, there’s some common ground.

“As far as her religious beliefs go, Sarah is your garden-variety evangelical Christian,” says Murrow.  “She’s a woman of genuine faith, but not a zealot or weirdo. She has not hidden her faith during her term as governor, but neither has she worn it on her lapel. I think that’s a good thing.”

Since the time of that quote, in early September, things have changed.  She now has a Christian book author writing her memoirs, a Christian book author as her communications director, has traveled to stricken Alaskan villages with two evangelical preachers to distribute food boxes containing religious materials, has littered her electronic communications with religion-speak, and had SarahPAC refer to an image of her with her child as an “iconic representation” having been “desecrated” by a Photoshopper.  Since that time, we’ve also been treated to video clips of Palin herself, in her church, being prayed over by a witch hunting pastor from Kenya who thinks the church should infiltrate the government.  Then there was that trip when Palin asked students to pray for a pipe line and to “make sure God’s will be done here.”  After enough examples, you begin to see a pattern.

Hmm… what was that about not wearing religion on her lapel?

Murrow will be Communications Director #4.  Is this his “bold destiny made manifest?”  Or will he be rolling his eyes and wondering why his boss “just said that?”  Stay tuned.