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"He's had some statements that to me sound kind of liberal, has taken me aback, has kind of surprised me," Palin said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper." http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/12/sarah-palin-taken-aback-by-pop
e-franciss-liberal-statements/?hpt=hp_t2]

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Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said Pope Francis has “taken her aback” with his liberal interpretation of Christianity and has expressed fears he may be being influenced by the mainstream media.

In an interview with CNN, Palin laid bare her misgivings about Pope Francis, who has impressed believers and nonbelievers alike with his humble and practical application of the gospel.

"I'm kinda trying to follow what his agenda is. You know he came out with a couple of things in the media but again I'm not one to trust the media's interpretation of somebody's message but having read through media outlets," the former Governor of Alaska said.

Her statements were slammed by some on social media. Radio 4 presenter Tom Sutcliffe summed it up on Twitter as: “Christianist baffled by an encounter with Christianity.”

Another wrote: “If Sarah Palin's this shocked by Pope Francis, she'll be catatonic when she finally gets round to reading about Jesus in the New Testament.”

Indeed, Pope Francis has impressed communities worldwide with his modest and thrifty attitude and more liberal teachings on women, abortion and homosexuality.

He also said the Catholic Church is obsessed with abortion, gay people and contraception and its moral authority risks “falling like a house of cards” if it continues.

Amidst the furore over female clergy, Pope Francis said women have a “fundamental importance” in the Roman Catholic Church, pointing to the fact they were the “first witnesses” of the resurrection

Pope Francis has also eschewed the traditional Popemobile for a Ford Fiesta and more recently cast out the 'Bishop of Bling' from his German palace with its £20,000 bathtub and walk in wardrobe. There are now plans for it to be turned into a soup kitchen for poor people.

His war on corruption continued on Monday when Pope Francis delivered an impassioned sermon, during which he quoted a passage from the bible that said Christians who donated money to the church but stole from the state were leading a “double life and deserved to be tied to a rock and cast into the sea".

Sarah Palin made the comments about the ‘liberal’ Pope as part of a promotion for her new Christmas book. She kicked off the tour in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The book is called Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas and in it she claims religious freedom is under attack by the “sneering media” and atheists in general. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sarah-palin-fears-liberal-pope-franc
is-being-influenced-by-the-sneering-media-8937069.html

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"Palin: 'It Was Not My Intention' To Criticize Pope Francis"

On Thursday, Palin tried to explain her remarks.

“Just to clarify my comment to Jake Tapper about Pope Francis: It was not my intention to be critical of Pope Francis. I was reminding viewers that we need to do our own homework on news subjects, and I hadn’t done mine yet on the Pope’s recent comments as reported by the media,” Palin wrote on Facebook.

The one-time vice presidential candidate used the opportunity to take a dig at one of her favorite targets, the media, in apologizing for the confusion.

“Knowing full well how often the media mischaracterizes a person’s comments (especially a religious leader’s), I don’t trust them to get it right when it comes to reporting on the Vatican,” Palin wrote. “I do, however, trust my many Catholic friends and family, including some excellent Catholic writers, who have since assured me that Pope Francis is as sincere and faithful a shepherd of his church as his two predecessors whom I admired. I apologize for not being clearer in my response, thus opening the door to critical media that does what it does best in ginning up controversy.” http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/sarah-palin-not-being-critical-o
f-pope-99865.html#ixzz2krZkob6L]

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TAPPER: So, you obviously feel very passionate about the national debt. The other day, you gave a speech in which you compared it to slavery.

PALIN: To slavery. Yes.

And that’s not a racist thing to do, by the way, which I know somebody is going to claim it is.

TAPPER: Don’t you ever fear that by using hyperbole like that — obviously, you don’t literally mean it’s like slavery, which cost millions of people their lives and there was rape and torture. You’re using it as a metaphor.

But don’t you ever worry that by using that kind of language, you — you risk obscuring the point you’re trying to make?

PALIN: There is another definition of slavery and that is being beholden to some kind of master that is not of your choosing. And, yes, the national debt will be like slavery when the note comes due.

TAPPER: So you’re not — you’re not work — I mean I’m — I’m taking it as a no, but you’re not — you’re not concerned about the language —

PALIN: I’m not one to be politically correct, evidently.

TAPPER: OK.

PALIN: And, no, I don’t — I don’t worry about things like that, because no matter what I say, no matter what a lot of conservatives say, they’re, you know, they’ll be targeted and distractions will be attempted to be made to take the listener and the viewers’ mind off what the point is, by pointing out, oh, she said the word slavery in a speech, and, I did say the word slavery, because I want to make a point.

TAPPER: You can understand why African-Americans or others might be offended by it, though?

PALIN: I — I can if they choose to misinterpret what it is that I’m saying. And, again, you know, I’m sure if we open up the dictionary, we could prove that with semantics that are various, we can prove that there is a definition of slavery that absolutely fits the bill there, when I’m talking about a bankrupt country that will owe somebody something down the line if we don’t change things that is, we will be shackled. We will be enslaved to those who we owe.

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She doesn’t care if the use of the term slavery offends people. In fact, she probably hopes that it will offend people so that she will get even more attention.

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