(CNN) -- Last Saturday, Sarah Palin stood before the huge crowd at the 2014 National Rifle Association annual meeting and condemned liberals for coddling terrorists. She loaded her speech with religious metaphors, claiming that true leaders would put "the fear of God in our enemies." She said, "They obviously have information on plots to carry out jihad. Oh, but you can't offend them, can't make them feel uncomfortable, not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists." 

Palin's invocation of forced baptism shocked both conservatives and liberals, inspiring few defenders. Christian commentators, in particular, focused on her link between torture and baptism. 

On Wednesday, the National Religious Campaign against Torture released a powerful condemnation of the speech. To Palin, the organization's executive director wrote, "Your statements play into a false narrative conveying that somehow, the conflict between the United States and the terrorist cells is a conflict between Christianity and Islam, or Islam and 'the West.' " 

The group's letter to the NRA, signed by 17 faith leaders from many different religions and denominations, reads, "For Christians, baptism is a profoundly holy act. It is in stark contrast to the abhorrent act of waterboarding. Equating baptism to an act of torture like waterboarding is sacrilegious -- and particularly surprising coming from a person who prides herself on her Christian faith." 

But it's not actually all that surprising. Palin's public rhetoric relies on crafting existential binaries between "us" and "them," creating a kind of sacred empowered victimhood among her listeners. She draws from the language of militant Christianity to claim the status of both persecutor and persecuted. This is not an accident, and I do not believe she will repudiate her remarks. 
What kind of people were they?
igned by 17 faith leaders from