Saturday, October 25, 2008

DAMNATION BY ZIP CODE? THE PALIN DOCTRINE

I had previously read some remarks by Sarah that she had carved the U.S. into a good and bad America. washingtonpost.com  The good Americans were those who supported her and the rest were supporting the other candidate.  A comedic turn of Sarah's view was expressed by Tina Fey in one of her skits on SNL.  newsobserver.com |      Someone who criticized the wisdom of the IRAQ war was somehow less patriotic than the person who supported it.  Any disagreement with Sarah's views is a sign of an American in serious need of spiritual guidance.

A story in today's NYT suggests that her view of a good and bad America has a religious overtone.  She has long been associated with religious leaders who practice a brand of Pentecostalism known as spiritual warfare.  This is how the Times characterized that brand of religion:  "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."  A scholar referred to this religious movement as follows: 

“Spiritual warfare makes a religion of identifying demons by names and ZIP codes.”YouTube Videos Draw Attention to Palin’s Faith - NYTimes.com  The article quotes several facts relating to her association with this brand of Pentecostalism including the following: "The governor’s relationships with practitioners of spiritual warfare appear to go back many years. Mary Glazier, an Alaska Native who helped bring together the prayer warrior networks in the state, told a prayer conference in June that Ms. Palin “became a part of our prayer group out in Wasilla” when she was 24, and that “God began to speak” to her about entering politics."  You can more effectively drive out demons from the bad America when you are President.

I have previously alluded to the YouTube videos referenced in this NYT article that some find disconcerting. The following link is to a YouTube video of  a preacher Thomas Muthee, praying to protect Sarah from witchcraft.    

Thomas Muthee is " laying hands" on Sarah and exorcising all manner of demons from her at her Pentecostal church. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg Muthee got his start attacking witchcraft in his native land, and his blessing includes a prayer to protect Sarah from "every form of witchcraft". I was fascinated by all of this and that caused me to wonder whether Don Corleone (aka Hank Paulson) has tried to hire Muthee about getting rid of all the witchcraft spells on the economy and Wall Street.  


In this last Video, when her preacher refers to Alaska as a refuge state at the end of days, I understand that to mean Alaska is part of the good America that will be saved.  I suspect that my zip code is safe too, maybe the safest zip in America, for I am a resident of the SUV Capital of the World, where the True Believers proudly display multiple W stickers on the back of their energy hogs to this day,  so I am clearly in the good part of America.  Are you safe?  

I understand that Sarah has her supporters and I am fine with that being a tolerant and understanding person.  I was not surprised to see Sarah's critics being toasted by a country singer, part of that mother daughter duo, when she introduced Sarah at a recent rally: “Never before in the history of American politics has any political candidate ever been so maligned by the unrepentant liberal biased media, the pseudo-intellectuals, the Hollywood elite, and the bloggers and the haters.” NYTimes.com 

(channeling the spirit of the non-hater Spiro Agnew was she?) Hey, wear that big chip on your shoulder.  Anyone who criticizes Sarah's views is by definition a "pseudo-intellectual" , a biased and  "unrepentant liberal" and a hater.  So if you are an unrepentant pseudo-intellectual biased liberal, then you better move to the right zip code.  That just about sums it all up.   

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