Despite the applause Sarah Palin’s remarks drew with the thousands in attendance at the National Rifle Associations’s “Stand and Fight” festival, not every Christian person found the remarks pithy.
In fact, one group called Faithful America found her comment that Islamic terrorist would be baptized by water-boarding deeply offensive and are seeking to have her comments condemned. The specter of Christian crusades still strikes a deep animosity among Muslims, particularly Middle East ones, much the same as Southern Slavery or any reference to it draws a strong reaction in African-Americans.
Faithful America does not like to see Christianity disparaged much less by someone who is known for her faith. In fact, the organization opposes torture. They find the concept of forcibly binding a person to subject them to the experience of drowning to be deeply offensive. It is understandable that the practice is something that offends the sensibilities of many people.
However, Faithful America seems to have forgotten how many terror plots were disrupted after Khalid Sheik Mohammad gave up a trove of information on hidden terror cells and their plans after being water-boarded. He was not harmed, despite the torturous experience. In fact, he was examined by a physician afterwards.
This single aspect of saving innocents, particularly Americans, has not gone unnoticed by Palin. Nevertheless, there are high profile dissenters. Senator John McCain has spoken out against the practice of water-boarding. He himself was cruelly tortured by his North Vietnamese captors. Faithful America cited this very fact. It should be noted that McCain, whose arm was permanently withered after being broken during torture and improperly treated afterwards, would have the full use of his limb had his captors used water-boarding as their method of torture.