Candace

Talmadge

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October 13, 2008

Sarah Palin’s Religious Ties Now Up for Discussion

Sarah Palin really should not have waded into this debate.

The GOP vice-presidential candidate has resurrected talk about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

“I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our country,” Palin told New York Times columnist William Kristol.

What’s sauce for the gander applies to the goose, too. Palin and her religious associations are now fair game. Some of Palin’s religious affiliations are eyebrow-raising, too.

The official web site of Republican presidential candidate John McCain makes absolutely no mention of his running mate’s religion in her biography, which mostly discusses Palin’s political history but also mentions her family to the extent of pointing out that her husband, Todd, has a Native Alaskan grandmother. This is an astonishing omission from the political party of “faith-based initiatives” that has courted and bowed to religious conservatives for decades.

According to Wikipedia, Palin was born a Catholic, but early in her childhood her family joined the Wasilla Assembly of God, which is part of the Assemblies of God, an international association of Pentecostal churches. The AOG endorses Christian Zionism, the belief that Jesus can return to Earth only when Israel takes complete control of all the lands around Jerusalem and Palestine.

Palin remained a member of this church until 2002, a date that coincides with her first foray into statewide politics, an unsuccessful run for the post of Alaska lieutenant governor. She now attends the Wasilla Bible Church, an independent religious organization.

A statement from the McCain camp shortly after Palin became the vice-presidential nominee maintains that she no longer considers herself Pentecostal and describes her as a “Bible-believing Christian.”

Whose Bible, Governor? The Bible of Ed Kalnins, head pastor of the Wasilla Assembly of God? The Bible of Kenyan Bishop Thomas Muthee?

According to Bruce Wilson of Talk2Action, this year Palin has been blessed, in rituals held at public events, on at least five different occasions, by current or former Wasilla Assembly of God pastors. Last month, in a videotaped statement, Kalnins said Palin not only maintains friendship with her former church but also has attended, since she officially left, "various conferences and special meetings" at the church.

One of these events was in June, when Palin spoke at the Wasilla Assembly of God at the graduation ceremony for a class of Kalnins’ Masters Commission. This is a school Kalnins runs to prepare believers for “end times,” a radical interpretation of New Testament verses in which the purest of Christians are Raptured (assumed alive) into Heaven. The remaining sinners endure the Tribulation of living in a world ruled by the Antichrist. This sinful world is utterly destroyed in Armageddon, after which Jesus returns to rule.

The Wasilla Assembly of God provides support to the ministry of Muthee, a self-proclaimed witch-hunter and, according to Wilson, a top leader of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Founded by C. Peter and Doris Wagner, the NAR is an international Protestant religious movement openly hostile to any other form of Christianity, such as Catholicism, and other faiths as well, asserting that all of them are invalid and even under demonic influence.

Once again, at the Wasilla Assembly of God, Muthee prayed over Palin in October 2005, at the start of her gubernatorial campaign, calling on God to protect the candidate from "spirits of witchcraft." Before blessing Palin, Muthee urged Christians to "infiltrate" key areas of society, including business and finance, government and politics, education and schools and the media.

This becomes interesting in the light of another speech Muthee gave in March 2004, at Kingsgate Community Church in the United Kingdom.

"The violent take it by force,” he said. “People that have spiritual backbones are the ones that are going to advance. They are the ones that will move forward . . . I thank God for what I see happening in this place. I thank God for the vision, the passion that I can see here. And my word is this: the more violent you become, the more committed you become, the quicker you will see things happen in this region."

Muthee was talking about "spiritual violence," but his in speech the next year at the Wasilla Assembly of God, just before he blessed Palin as a political leader, Muthee called on Christians to take control not of the "spiritual kingdom" but the "earthly kingdom.”
 

Does Palin believe in end times like Kalnins and other AOG members? If so, it could impact her entire thinking about American policy toward Israel and the Middle East. “It’s fair to ask Palin some questions about her beliefs,” says Chip Berlet, senior analyst at Political Research Associates in Somerville, Mass.

Does Palin endorse the NAR’s dismissal of all other religions? Does she back Muthee's call for Christians to use deceit, and perhaps violence, to attain control in major areas of society? If yes, this could affect her stance on a wide range of social policies if she becomes vice president.

Palin and the entire McCain campaign are tight-lipped about her religious affiliations and views. No one responded to a phone call and two follow-up e-mails putting these and additional questions to the governor.

In addition to watching late-night comics parody Palin, voters should think about these questions before filling out their ballots on Nov. 4.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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