"The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!" - Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) -

Monday, September 8, 2008

Sarah Palin’s Wasilla Is A Strange Place!

These People Are "Nucking Futs"!

Weird Theology in Wasilla: A Look Inside Sarah Palin's Pentecostal Church


Exposing the unusual, highly politicized religious beliefs held at the Wasilla Assembly of God.


On June 8, 2008 Palin was publicly blessed, with the "laying on of hands" before six thousand Wasilla area church members, by Head Wasilla Assembly of God Pastor Ed Kalnins and on the same day both Kalnins and Palin described, at a "Masters Commission" ceremony at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, how she had been blessed prior to winning the Alaska governorship by an African cleric known for driving the "spirit of witchcraft" out of a town in Kenya, after which town supposedly crime rates dropped "almost to zero."


Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949.


This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord.
At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation.


The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.


Along with her entire family, Sarah Palin was re-baptized at twelve at the Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, Alaska and she attended the church from the time she was ten until 2002: over two and 1/2 decades.


Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate.


Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday."


At the latter event, Palin and Alaska LT Governor Scott Parnell were publicly blessed, onstage before an estimated crowd of 6,000, through the "laying on of hands" by Wasilla Assembly of God's Head Pastor Ed Kalnins whose sermons espouse such theological concepts as the possession of geographic territories by demonic spirits and the inter-generational transmission of family "curses".


Palin has also been blessed, or "anointed", by an African cleric, prominent in the Third Wave movement, who has repeatedly visited the Wasilla Assembly of God and claims to have effected positive, dramatic social change in a Kenyan town by driving out a "spirit of witchcraft."


The Wasilla Assembly of God church is deeply involved with both Third Wave activities and theology.


Their Master's Commission program is part of an three year post-high school international training program with studies in prophecy, intercessory prayer, Biblical exegesis, authority and leadership.


Watch Bruce Wilson's video documentary detailing the extreme Religious Right connections to the Wasilla Assembly of God church, "Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave":
Uncensored: We're Back

Removed By Utube






The pastor, Ed Kalnins, and Masters Commission students have traveled to South Carolina to participate in a "prophetic conference" at Morningstar Ministries, one of the major ministries of the Third Wave movement.


Becky Fischer was a pastor at Morningstar prior to being featured in the movie "Jesus Camp." The head of prophecy at Morningstar, Steve Thompson, is currently scheduled to do a prophecy seminar at the Wasilla Assembly of God. Other major leaders in the movement have also traveled to Wasilla to visit and speak at the church.


The Third Wave is a revival of the theology of the Latter Rain tent revivals of the 1950s and 1960s led by William Branham and others.


It is based on the idea that in the end times there will be an outpouring of supernatural powers on a group of Christians that will take authority over the existing church and the world.


The believing Christians of the world will be reorganized under the Fivefold Ministry and the church restructured under the authority of Prophets and Apostles and others anointed by God.


The young generation will form "Joel's Army" to rise up and battle evil and retake the earth for God.


While segments of this belief system have been a part of Pentecostalism and charismatic beliefs for decades, the excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000.


The beliefs and manifestations of the movement include the use of 'strategic level spiritual warfare' to expel territorial demons from American and world cities.


Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably.


In early 2008 an outbreak of those phenomena commenced at the palatial former ministry estate of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, recently bought up and restored by prominent Third Wave author and leader Rick Joyner's Morningstar Ministries. The (spiritual) "breakout" lasted for many weeks and was publicized in an extensive collection of video footage available on YouTube.


Healing services in the Third Wave movement claim to heal the sick and injured through methods that in some cases can appear bizarre - including, as in recent cases involving Todd Bentley, the patient being head butted or kicked by the anointed healer.


Recipients of such "spiritual" or miraculous healing make a wide range of astonishing claims - to have been cured of life-threatening illnesses, had joints repaired or replaced, been given gold teeth or gold fillings, regrown stunted limbs and even had deformed skeletal structures straightened and reshaped. Worldwide mission efforts of the movement are built around the idea of combating witches, warlocks, and generational curses, which prevent churches from being able to take root.


Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard-Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of 'Holy Laughter' around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival.


Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005.


As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee 'prayed over' Sarah Palin and entreated God to "make a way" prior to Palin's successful bid for the Alaska governorship. Muthee made a return visit to the Wasilla Assembly of God in late 2008.


Thomas Muthee's Word of Faith Church is featured in the "Transformations" video which details an account on how Muthee drove "the spirit of witchcraft" out of Kiambu, Kenya, liberating the town from its territorial demonic possession and enabling a miraculous societal transformation.


The "Transformations" video set is used as an argument for social improvement through spiritual instead of human means, and as the best method for fighting corruption, crime, drugs and even environmental degradation.


In the video, producer George Otis declares that after Thomas Muthee and his followers banished the "spirit of witchcraft" from the town, the crime rate in Kiambu dropped almost to zero, along with the rate of alcoholism, and according to Otis most of the residents of the town joined churches.


The "Transformations" video has helped spark a network of 'Transformation' ministries and mission organizations and 'transformation' has become a buzz word for change based on supernatural instead of human efforts.


The Third Wave, also known as the New Apostolic Reformation, is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around C. Peter Wagner, founder of the World Prayer Center.


This center, which was built in coordination with Ted Haggard and his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ."


Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about the World Prayer Center which is often referred to by those familiar with the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.'


It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare.


Wagner has his own group of about 500 Apostles in his council and each of these Apostles has ministries under their authority, sometimes hundreds or thousands. Recently various networks of Apostles came together to form the Revival Alliance.


Leaders of the Revival Alliance including Rick Joyner of Morningstar anointed Todd Bentley whose Lakeland Healing Revival has recently been a controversial topic in the Evangelical world.


Wagner's top leaders often conduct spiritual warfare campaigns against the demons that block the acceptance of their brand of Christian belief, such as 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997.


Several of their top prophets and generals of intercession spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation. (The "Great Harlot [or 'whore'] of Mystery Babylon" theme also figures prominently in the sermons of Texas megachurch pastor and Christians United For Israel founder John Hagee, former endorser of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.)


Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church.


Following the 'Operation Ice Castle' prayer excursion which included planting a flag for Jesus on Mt. Everest, one of the lead prayer intercessors from the excursion, Ana Mendez, reported that there had been dramatic results including, "millions have come to faith in Asia... and other things happened which I believe are also connected...an earthquake had destroyed the basilica of Assisi, where the Pope had called a meeting of all world religions; a hurricane destroyed the infamous temple 'Baal-Christ' in Acapulco, Mexico; the Princes Diana died... and Mother Theresa died in India, one of the most famous advocates of Mary as Co-Redeemer."


Church of the Rock, led by Senior Pastor David Pepper, has taken their youth to participate in 'The Call, Nashville.' This event is held at various locations around the country under the leadership of Lou Engle, also featured in the movie "Jesus Camp." At these events youth are worked into a frenzy of anger and consternation at supposed national moral corruption. Engle, who shuffles while he preaches in imitation of Jewish prayer, is featured toward the end of the "Jesus Camp" video documentary.


The Third Wave movement is cross-denomination and is not synonymous with any specific denomination, nor is it synonymous with Evangelical or Fundamentalist.


Although the movement emerged from Pentecostalism, it draws its support from a variety of denominations and religious streams. They believe they are forming a post-denominational church to take the world for the end times.


To date, all of the writing and objections to this movement have emerged from other Evangelicals and Fundamentalists who believe the movement to be unbiblical. Also, it is other conservative churches that refuse to embrace the 'outpouring of the Spirit' that are targets of much of the anger of the movement.


You can find more information on the Third Wave movement and additional links to the activities of Palin's churches on http://www.talk2action.org/ in the following articles:


Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave, Part One
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/0244/84583


Sarah Palin's Churches and the Third Wave, Part Two with embedded video:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/03830/11602


The New York Times front-pages how Palin went from hiding her most recent pregnancy to showcasing the child at the GOP convention. “No one has ever tried to combine presidential politics and motherhood in quite the way Ms. Palin is doing, and it is no simple task. In the last week, the criticism she feared in Alaska has exploded into a national debate. On blogs and at PTA meetings, voters alternately cheer and fault her balancing act, and although many are thrilled to see a child with special needs in the spotlight, some accuse her of exploiting Trig for political gain.”


The Washington Post, meanwhile, writes how the Palin pick has energized GOP voters in Virginia (although the article suggests that the state GOP doesn’t seem to be all that well organized).


The New York Times’ Bill Kristol with not the greatest defense of the Palin pick: "Should voters be alarmed by a relatively young or inexperienced vice-presidential candidate? No.


Since 1900, five vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency during their term in office: Teddy Roosevelt in 1901, Calvin Coolidge in 1923, Harry Truman in 1945, Lyndon Johnson in 1963, and Gerald Ford in 1974.


Teddy Roosevelt took over at age 42, becoming our youngest president, and he’s generally thought to have proved up to the job. Truman was V.P. for less than three months and had been kept in the dark by Franklin Roosevelt about such matters as the atom bomb -- and he’s generally thought to have risen to the occasion. Character, judgment and the ability to learn seem to matter more to success as president than the number of years one’s been in Washington.”


More: “Did McCain think Palin his very best possible successor? Perhaps not. Did Barack Obama think Biden the absolute cream of the Democratic crop? Perhaps not.


They undoubtedly thought highly enough of their running mates to have confidence in their ability to take over their administration in case of incapacity or death. I think most voters will accept that basic judgment. But -- shocking to say! -- both Obama and McCain also took political considerations into account in making their selections."


Bloomberg takes a look at her academic career. "Interviews with classmates paint a similar picture of Palin as an anonymous, though motivated and hard-working, student who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.


She later told a campus publication that one of her best semesters was spent learning about broadcasting at a student-run Idaho television studio. ‘My sense from people is that she was an average student,' said Kaylene Johnson, author of a biography, ‘Sarah' (Epicenter Press, 2008). ‘I don't know that she distinguished herself in college in any particular way.’”


“Palin, 44, made an impression on one college friend, Stacia Hagerty, who credits her conversion to Catholicism in part to discussions the two had as dorm mates at the University of Idaho's Neely Hall. As a teenager, Palin had attended the Assembly of God Church in Wasilla, Alaska, and she encouraged her friend to commit time to church. "


“Gov. Sarah Palin's church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer.


‘You'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality,’ according to the insert in the bulletin of the Wasilla Bible Church, where Palin has prayed for about six years. … Focus on the Family, a national Christian fundamentalist organization, is conducting the ‘Love Won Out’ Conference in Anchorage, about 30 miles from Wasilla.


“Palin has not publicly expressed a view on the so-called ‘pray away the gay’ movement. Larry Kroon, senior pastor at Palin's church, was not available to discuss the matter, said a church worker who declined to give her name.


Gay activists in Alaska said Palin has not worked actively against their interests, but early in her administration she supported a bill to overrule a court decision to block state benefits for gay partners of public employees.”


Lots of profiles this weekend, here's what you need to know out of Newsweek. "Little of her experience will help Palin with the questions she's sure to face in the days and weeks to come. The media (and presumably voters) will aim to find out what Palin believes, what her expertise is and whether she's really prepared to be next in line for the most powerful job on the planet.


At last week's Republican convention, the former sportscaster proved she can deliver a terrific speech (written by Matthew Scully, who wrote some of George W. Bush's more memorable lines). But journalists are clamoring for a chance to question her directly.


She'll need to have cogent views on Iraq, to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites (which McCain himself has occasionally confused) and the distinctions between Hizbullah and Al Qaeda. She'll be asked about Iran's nuclear program and China's growing power, about the national debt, the subprime mortgage crisis, America's trade imbalance and the value of the dollar against foreign currencies.”


”Palin started intense tutorials last week in a suite of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Stephen Biegun, a longtime foreign-policy hand who last worked on George W. Bush's National Security Council, ran what one participant called a ‘boot camp on McCain world.’ Biegun and others briefed her on international issues. McCain's top domestic-policy adviser, economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, led other sessions.


Before Holtz-Eakin even got started, Palin let him know that she likes to get her study points on large index cards. ‘What we have to do is take all our accumulated policy and John McCain's entire Senate history and get her comfortable with the campaign,’ Holtz-Eakin told NEWSWEEK.”


”Others involved in the process say Palin has a long way to go, and they are watching closely to make sure she doesn't get overwhelmed.


Over the weekend before the convention, campaign aides made the uncomfortable decision to urge her to go public with her unmarried 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy in order to rebut salacious Internet rumors that the teen was actually the mother of Palin's own newborn child.


An aide, speaking anonymously because the matter is sensitive, says that Palin and her husband grew angry about the allegations.


"Do I have to show them my stretch marks?" she asked one campaign official. In the midst of the drama, Palin had little time to interact with her family because she was shuffling from one briefing or prep session to another. (In St. Louis, a campaign aide took Todd shopping at a Saks Fifth Avenue, where he bought a new suit to wear to the convention.)


At one point McCain, himself tied up in campaign duties, asked an adviser, ‘Can you make sure she's OK?’”


The Seattle Times digs through Palin’s record as mayor of Wasilla. “As much of Palin's hometown rallies with pride around her, 1,400 miles away -- in a National Archives warehouse in Seattle -- three boxes of documents help capture the quality of her mayoral experience. These records, from a federal wrongful-termination lawsuit, include the minutiae of municipal governance, with memos to administrators and personnel records stamped ‘confidential.’


The documents, combined with accounts from her hometown newspaper, show how Palin's first year as mayor could easily have been her last. She became embroiled in personnel challenges, a thwarted attempt to pack the City Council and a standoff with her local newspaper. Her first months were so contentious and polarizing that critics started talking recall.”


“Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska ‘to make sure God's will be done here,’” the Alaska Daily News writes. “State records show that Palin submitted a travel authorization for a quick round-trip visit to attend the June 8 graduation of the Master's Commission program at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church where she was baptized at age 12. The only other item on the agenda for that trip was a ‘One Lord Sunday’ service involving a network of Mat-Su Christian churches earlier that morning at the Wasilla sports complex.”


I hear things. Things like this from John Elfmont of Redondo Beach: "After the last comma in the last sentence of your piece on Sarah Palin, you used the phrase `get real.' Amen, brother! Though a lifelong conservative Republican, I am sick to death of all of them from `W' on down. I'm sick to death of the empty cliches about the `American people,' blah blah blah. But I like Sarah because I believe that if she goes into a store for a hunting license, a moose is soon going to die.


"Also, she's every bit as unqualified to be president as is BHO. And look at the bright side. If McCain hocks the big lugie whilst in office, and Sarah becomes president, guess who's then but a `heartbeat away from the presidency?' Can you say: President Pelosi?"


Don Spencer of Manhattan Beach wrote, "Why is it important that one party prevail over the other? At what point of taxation will the producers of goods and services start diminishing their efforts?


"If the Supreme Court were not in play, we could argue that no matter which side wins this contest, in four years we have another chance for correction. However, the court is in play and a lifetime of bias will likely be selected by the next president. The liberal side believes in a `living' Constitution. The guarantee of `rights' then becomes a wild card as to how they are going to be defined. This would truly be a significant and frightening change."


Ward B. wrote, "Sarah Palin reminds me of that time-honored bumper stickers when we were young: `Get your heart in Dixie or get your ass out.' So many people bewildered by the pain and confusion of life have turned to simplistic sources of comfort, like evangelical Christianity. Put nationalism in a glass, pour in an equal part of religion and you have fundamentalism. That same cocktail can be mixed by substituting Christianity with Islam.


"In my book, those who follow people like Sarah Palin are no different than the Taliban and, given the chance, would commit acts on a par with the Taliban. Let Palin and her Bible-toting, automatic rifle-armed followers loose and see what happens. It is scary that she is proud to be an obnoxious right-wing zealot. McCain is a jerk for giving her a pulpit. It is cheap politics of the worst kind. It is not a stroke of genius. It is the fanning of the fires of hatred and aggression."


By the way, if you missed the column in question on Friday, you can read it and others at www.dailybreeze.com/bogert.


From that same Web site's comments section I took this message from "Surprised" in Redondo Beach: "Wow, I followed the snarky title and imagine my shock to find another piece of left-wing drivel created by the Breeze's resident left-wing blogger. You'll be able to tell when the owners are serious about saving their paper, they will have fired Bogert."


Actually, I'm not a blogger. For starters, I use my real name and I have an editor who hates me for being a liberal. But "Surprised" shouldn't be surprised by my political leanings after 25 years. And all the opinions (except yours) expressed in this space are just that, opinions, trifles to be considered and forgotten.


Al in Redondo Beach wrote, "Palin extolled small-town values as if small-town America was still a Rockwell painting. It's not. Thanks to Republican policies over the last few decades, small-town America is today a devastation of closed factories, unemployment, abandoned downtowns and meth addiction. The capper is that huffingtonpost.com identifies Wasilla as the meth capital of Alaska."


Another writer shot back, claiming that Redondo Beach is the meth capital of the South Bay.


Dan B. of the South Bay's meth capital wrote, "First of all, Palin is as irrelevant as Dan Quayle or Joe Lieberman.


She was obviously picked by politician McCain as pandering window dressing.


Relevant though is how McCain has been turned into a completely pathetic political hunk of Republican putty.


And we are so tired of hearing this McCain war hero garbage. A war hero doesn't keep bragging it up or letting others brag it up and use that to get elected.


McCain has been on the gravy train ever since coming home from that war 40 years ago. McCain is a politician. Know it. Understand it and stop believing all this political trash coming out of these Madison Avenue campaigns."


Dan B. also suggested that I should run for president. Which is a little like saying that the Joker should run for meth commissioner? I mean police commissioner.



End Post…..

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