Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-Fifty-Two -- More on Palin's Involvement with Witch-Hunters

Today's New York Times, as part of their upcoming weekend's in-depth coverage of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has brought some of the material on her religious background into the mainstream press arena. I'm glad to see it happen. The Anchorage Daily News hasn't ever covered this important aspect of Palin's persona in a meaningful way.

Over the past eight weeks, though, it has become more obvious, watching a large number of her followers at events, and in the press coverage, that it is Palin's religious beliefs and affiliations that help mark her as quite unique among recent major political candidates in the USA.

Just today, she refused to define those who might bomb women's clinics as "terrorists."


Is her refusal to define women's clinic bombers, many of whom have murdered innocent people, as terrorists, defined more by her religious views than by her political beliefs, in a way separate from those religious views? I think the evidence is increasingly overwhelming that her religious views are inextricably intertwined with her political views in ways that demand further examination of those religious beliefs, and further scrutiny of the research already done on those beliefs.

DailyKos diarist, Troutfishing, posted a diary there today, that attempts to fully define Palin's ties with the New Apostolic Reformation, a group I believe to be of greater danger to the United States than the Klu Klux Klan, the Minutemen, or the Weathermen, for instance. Here's a video from that diary:


The publication of the New York Times article on her religious beliefs, as shallow as it is in some details, is, however, an important step in the right direction on this. And the article quotes religious warfare expert Bruce Wilson, without questioning his authority in this area:

Critics say the goal of the spiritual warfare movement is to create a theocracy. Bruce Wilson, a researcher for Talk2Action, a Website 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.”

Much of my direct support to outside writers, journalists, videographers and film-makers coming up here or inquiring about Palin, has been in helping people like Bruce Wilson, and his colleagues, Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert, and the Wasilla Project. Although a lot of national attention toward Palin will evaporate when she returns to Wasilla in defeat on November 5th, and a lot of the statewide attention toward Palin will then turn toward how she handles the fallout from Troopergate, I'll continue to directly support people and teams investigating how her religious beliefs seek to tie church and state together, totally in support of one segment of the religious community, and to the detriment of all other aspects of society. The information is already out there. It just needs to be dealt with authoritatively, honestly, carefully, and in ways that help large audiences understand what is at stake here.