Sarah Palin and Southern Gospel Music

Each year the biggest event in the Southern Gospel Music business is the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, KY. The annual event which has been going on since the late 1950's runs for nearly a week and features dozens of the top groups in the country. I've never been to the Louisville event, but from 1998 through 2003 my group opened the Great Western Quartet Convention which was then run by the NQC. The shot below was taken during our opening stand in 2002:

This year the NQC has announced a special guest:

The National Quartet Convention Board of Directors has announced plans for former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republication Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin to be featured during the 2010 event, set to take place in September in Louisville, KY....

Governor Palin will serve as the keynote speaker during an hour-long event on Thursday, September 16, beginning at 2:00pm in Louisville’s Freedom Hall, located on the grounds of the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center. Palin will speak for 30 minutes and then spend 30 minutes conducting a question and answer session with attendees. Admission to the session featuring Palin will be included with the Thursday Showcase ticket package offered by the National Quartet Convention. Attendees who purchase a ticket for the Thursday event on the NQC website (www.natqc.com) may submit a question to ask during the session. According to NQC Executive Vice President Clarke Beasley, if the question is selected, the person submitting the question will be recognized during the session.

This is interesting in a number of ways. The NQC only rarely includes politicians of any sort, and although you'd think Palin would be pretty popular among this crowd, the reaction on Facebook when this was announced was pretty mixed. Here are some of the comments that were posted there:

We have been attending the convention for many, many years, but this will probably be the last! Now that you've moved the Singing News Fan Awards away from the convention and added a politcal speaker, the point of Southern Gospel Music seems to have lost its priority with you.
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I don't attend NQC for the politics. Someone is welcome to my space.
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When will we stop wrapping the American flag around the cross of Christ. He didn't die for republicans or democrats. He died for us all. I wish that we Christians would spend all the energy that we are spending on cutting down the "other" side and use the energy to lead others to Christ.
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Yes remember how a lot of churches were pushing George W. We all know what a joke he turned out to be. I can't believe they would think people has forgotten about that already.God is not into politics. NQC should be about Worshiping our Lord and Saviour, not spreading hate and discontent. Count my family out as well.
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I was planning on leaving work early on Thursday, but won't be in too big of a rush to get there now.
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I am a conservative, but if I want to hear a politician, I'll turn on CSPAN. Besides, it's the National Quartet Convention, not the National QUITTER Convention.
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Instead of paying this quitter to "speak," why can't they spend the money on better sound. Oh well, more time for ice cream and record table perusing. You betcha! *wink*

Appears to be some grumpy Democrats among the Southern Gospel crowd.

This won't be the first politician at the NQC. One year in the 90's the event featured a performance by the Singing Senators, a quartet of Republican Senators including Trent Lott, Larry Craig, James Jeffords and John Ashcroft. That group had some problems later on as Trent Lott ran afoul of the race baiters and ended up resigning his seat, Larry "Wide Stance" Craig got caught doing a little tap-dancing in a Minneapolis airport restroom, James Jeffords quit the GOP and became an independent and in so doing handed the Senate over to the Democrats, and John Ashcroft became a controversial Attorney General under George W. Bush.

One other Southern Gospel event featuring a politician comes to mind. There used to be an event called the Western Desert Sing that was held every Memorial Day at the fairgrounds in Victorville, CA. In 1980 candidate Ronald Reagan spoke at the Sing to over 20,000 fans.

Sarah Palin seems to be one of those polarizing figures that you either love or hate. At this point I'm not sure the NQC made a wise decision in having her at an event which is focused on gospel music and rarely has any sort of political component. They might have been better off to just stick to the music.