Hawaii's Republican Lt. Governor James "Duke" Aiona is running in 2010 to be Hawaii's next governor and could hardly seem stylistically more different than former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. But appearances can be deceptive.
The evidence is compelling. Consider:
Aiona publicly dedicated his state (and its public schools) to Jesus on December 8, 2004. Sarah Palin publicly dedicated her state to Jesus on June 8, 2008.
Sarah Palin was blessed and anointed in August 2005 by Thomas Muthee, who C. Peter Wagner has called a "close personal friend." Muthee served on the board of Wagner's World Prayer Center and as director of the East Africa division of Wagner's Spiritual Warfare Network.
Duke Aiona was blessed and anointed on November 7, 2009 by C. Peter Wagner's Apostle Ed Silvoso.
In 1989 Sarah Palin joined the personal Wasilla, Alaska prayer group of Mary Glazier, who Charisma Magazine has described in an early 2009 story as a friend of Palin's. Mary Glazier is a C. Peter Wagner Apostle who heads the North America Northwest division of Wagner's Spiritual Warfare Network (now renamed).
So why should Americans, or voters, care ?
The short answer to that is that Aiona Palin are each closely associated with a religious movement that is brutally eliminationalist, claims that every single religious and philosophical belief system except for its version of born-again charismatic Christianity is under demonic influence, and has played a significant role in inciting a bill now before Uganda's Parliament that would execute or imprison an entire segment of Ugandan society.
So consider:
There he is, the Republican candidate running in 2010 to be Hawaii's next governor, up onstage at a November 2009 conference near Honolulu being blessed and anointed by a religious leader who likens his opponents to rats which will be exterminated (see 2nd video, below).
[below: ITN CEO Ed Silvoso, ITN Chairman Francis Oda, and ITN Council member Cal Chinen bless and anoint Hawaii's Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona]
The leader's name is Ed Silvoso. He's the founder of a organization called the International Transformation Network which is working with Uganda's top leaders to "transform" that country. Silvoso's ITN is also fielding a small army of volunteer organizers in Newark, NJ. The far-flung ITN has "Transformation" operations ongoing across the globe.
As my extended report Transforming Hawaii [part 1, part 2] details, Lt. Governor James "Duke" Aiona, the 2010 GOP Hawaii gubernatorial candidate, is extensively and intimately tied to the International Transformation Network which is part of a global movement within charismatic evangelical Christianity that seeks to "transform" the Earth by purging it of perceived evil.
As my 20 minute video documentary Transforming Uganda (cited January 2010 in testimony before Congress' Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission) details, the International Transformation Network is closely linked to the so-called "Kill the gays" bill now before Uganda's Parliament that would allow the execution of gay Ugandans and mandate that Ugandan citizens become police informants.
Duke Aiona has been associated with Ed Silvoso's movement for years. He has been an honorary ITN leader, he's attended numerous ITN conferences including one in Argentina, he's contributed a chapter to one of the movement's books, and he even has appeared in several promotional videos for Transformation Hawaii and the ITN.
Aiona was listed from 2005 through 2008 as honorary chairman of Transformation Hawaii, a registered 5012(c)(3) which in 2007 officially became an ITN chapter - making Aiona, in effect, an honorary leader in the ITN. As the ad and Transformation Hawaii video documentary footage, below, details, Transformation Hawaii is based on Ed Silvoso's ideas.
[below: On December 8, 2004, Lt. Governor Duke Aiona officially dedicated Hawaii, and its schools, to Jesus.]
In October 2006 Lt Governor Aiona took time off from his reelection campaign and flew to Argentina for a week long International Transformation Network conference.
Video from the conference shows Aiona holding hands and praying together with the First Lady of Uganda Janet Museveni and exclaiming, "It’s taken me 9,000 miles, approximately, away from home to understand what is happening in Uganda, what is happening in Argentina."
[below: Duke Aiona prays with Uganda's First Lady Janet Museveni]
Ed Silvoso is an apostle in C. Peter Wagner's International Coalition of Apostles. ICA apostles, and members of Wagner's Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders (ACPE), are in the forefront of antigay organizing globally. As reported in an early 2009 Charisma Magazine story, ACPE member and ICA apostle Mary Glazier is a good friend of Sarah Palin. Palin joined Glazier's personal prayer network at the age of 24. Palin is closely linked to the movement and as governor of Alaska Palin, like Duke Aiona, also dedicated her state to Jesus.
Peter Wagner's networks are the vanguard of a global movement within evangelical Christianity that attributes homosexuality to demon possession. in 2001 Wagner declared the advent of a second Reformation. Here's Wagner's highly lucid explanation of the movement.
In the footage below, ICA Apostle Ed Silvoso tells vicious anti-gay anecdotes and describes the casting out of gay demons, and ICA apostle Cindy Jacobs conducts a mass exorcism.
One of Wagner's ACPE prophets is Lou Engle, whose organization TheCall played a major role in the 2008 push to pass California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8. Engle also led the prayers at the Family Research Council's December 2009 "Prayercast" against Health Care Reform. In the summer of 2009 Engle blessed and anointed Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. Lou Engle will stage one of his anti-gay, sexual purity obsessed TheCall rallies in Uganda's capital Kampala on May 1st, 2010.
[You can read more about the movement described in this story at the following Talk To Action web site section: Resource Directory for the New Apostolic Reformation. Also see: Heads Up: Prayer Warriors and Sarah Palin Are Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America]