While it's a bit too conspiratorial for my tastes, a Daily Kos diarist, dogemperor, investigates and writes about Sarah Palin's Assemblies of God congregations together with some pretty far-out Christian Dominionists.
Among the diarist's attempted premises is that the Juneau (AK) Christian Center's "School of Destiny" is somehow code for Joel's Army, a special brand of militaristic Christianity profiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center here.
To the extent that dogemperor, who is herself apparently a former member of a "coercive" Dominionist movement, is trying to establish a nexus between the cast of characters described by the SPLC and Sarah Palin, I'm skeptical, despite the diarist's informed assurances.
But given the incessant howling from the political right over Barack Obama's Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright and his associates, these inquiries are fair game, unlike another recent Daily Kos diary, which seems to me little more than a load of speculative sleaze.
Nevertheless, there's a good bit of interesting — and occasionally disturbing — reading at the links above.
I read the link you gave about Sarah Palin's church. Frankly you do yourself a disservice linking to uneducated dribble like that. Disagree with the lady on her experience, or policies but the stuff he drug up on her is laughable. Her church is pretty main line as far as evangelical churches go. Really the blog piece was way over the top. Find better reasons to reject Palin than this!
ReplyDeleteI agree with IT that this stuff is both very thin, and very much like what the right shrieks about re: Obama.
ReplyDeleteBut those are both good reasons not to make anything of it. Wait until a more substantive connection can be proven, I'd say.
It's a miracle; truth is stranger than speculative fiction. Abstinence wins again, delivering another precious baby into the world!
ReplyDeleteYou can practically hear the teeth-gritting in the press release, although, technically, it does not outright deny the speculative sleaze.
Mark, I thought I provided more than enough disclaimers. But that the dots are not sufficiently connected doesn't make the dots themselves any less interesting.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I guess I should get ready to be called whacky now.....but, as a feminist and as one who has had a lot of experience with Assembly of God members (including my own brother for several years before he woke up)I don't find that diary all that crazy.
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact I think it's tone is zealous but the ideas presented are not ridiculous at all.
I worked at GM and watched as Assembly of God church members almost took over the local union. That was 13 years ago. My brother took me to his church and that was where I saw so many of my co-workers I was shocked. And, the scariest part was that almost every single one of them was recently divorced and remarried to other church members (first spouses wouldn't convert).
I've learned to never underestimate the power of a church over people and how difficult it is to get to the real agenda for most of them.