if you agree with this post you can recommend MSNBC pick up the news on Sarah Palin's religious ties, discussed below, at: countdown@msnbc.com and rachel@msnbc.com
[report excerpt]
In a November 24th, 2009 segment of MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann asserted that Palin's religious views are not unusual, in terms of American culture. That might be true if giving Samurai swords to graduating religious students, claiming Christians can learn to raise the dead, and advocating the religious cleansing of unbelievers, is normative within Christianity.
Sarah Palin's beliefs mattered in 2008, and they still matter today, maybe more so. Imagine a Petraeus/Palin ticket in 2012. Pair Palin with a right wing nationally known military figure, much younger than McCain...
Why does the national profile of Sarah Palin only seem to grow, seemingly by the day ? A bestselling book, interviews with Oprah and Barbara Walters...
There's a widespread sense, among American liberals and moderates that there is something odd about Palin, and over the last several days speculation has broken out [1, 2, 3, 4] on statements from Palin that sound as if they might be rooted in apocalyptic belief. But Sarah Palin's churches do not teach about the Pre-Trib Rapture, and the truth about Sarah Palin's religious ties makes belief in the Rapture look positively normative...
Below is an excerpt from a new report I have written, which showcases extensive video evidence demonstrating that Sarah Palin is closely linked to a highly distinctive religious tendency, which the majority of Americans know little to nothing about, that is bent on achieving Christian dominance over all significant sectors of society including government, business, education, and media.
Over the course of the past year, working together with a research colleague, I have extensively documented that Sarah Palin is tightly associated with the top leadership of a newly formed Christian tendency called the New Apostolic Reformation. The goal of the movement ? - This is not about the "Rapture." It's about Christian supremacy.
Many Americans including some on the right, including some Christian fundamentalists, would be shocked by the tenets and practices of Sarah Palin's religious tendency, and if the story about Sarah Palin and the New Apostolic Reformation broke through into mainstream media, well...
It would be a game changer. For the good in my opinion. So if you want to help banish Palin from the national stage, please help me publicize the nature of the religious movement Palin is closely tied to.
as noted in New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein's October 24, 2008 story YouTube Videos Draw Attention to Palin’s Faith,
Ms. Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as "spiritual warfare."
Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that "spiritual warriors" must "battle" them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism. The movement’s fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders’ claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians.
Ms. Palin delivered an enthusiastic graduation speech for a class of young spiritual warriors in June at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church in which she was raised.
While there was considerable media attention lavished on Palin's June 8, 2008 speech to Wasilla Assembly of God Masters Commission students, mainstream media wholly failed to delve into the nature of the Masters Commission program, which teaches Bible memorization, "prophecy," and "authority" according to Wasilla AoG head pastor Ed Kalnins, who was the Masters Commission program's first graduate. The program is international and graduates several thousand students per year.
At the end of the June 8 Masters Commission graduation ceremony, at which Sarah Palin received an honorary Masters Commission diploma, students in the program were presented with swords (both samurai swords and also one western-style broadsword.) Ten minutes before that ceremony, a speaker onstage addressed Sarah Palin, who at that time was still in the audience.
Videos 1 and 2, below - Palin's Masters Commision graduation speech. Video three - Graduating Master's Commission students are presented with swords. Video 4 - national Masters Commission speaker Jayme Montera, addressing those same Wasilla Assembly of God Masters Commission students prior to their graduation, waves a sword about onstage, then plays an extended video clip from Mel Gibson's American Revolutionary War movie, "The Patriot."
As Laurie Garrett quoted me, in her New York Times story,
"Critics say the goal of the spiritual warfare movement is to create a theocracy. Bruce Wilson, a researcher for Talk2Action, a Web site that tracks religious groups, said: "One of the imperatives of the movement is to achieve worldly power, including political control. Then you can more effectively drive out the demons. The ultimate goal is to purify the earth.""
Those were my words, and I stand by them. Over the course of the last year, the evidence has become overwhelming. Your help in getting this news out would be very welcome and, I dare say, time well spent.