Palin once a member of an 'extremist' church
But apparently, it took her less than 20 years to notice and *gasp* she switched churches outside of an election cycle. So...move along....nothing to see here.
One of the musical directors at the church, Adele Morgan, who has known Ms. Palin since the third grade, said the Palins moved to the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church in 2002, in part because its ministry is less "extreme" than Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God, which practice speaking in tongues and miraculous healings.
Compare and contrast. Mr. Obama did not throw his mentor and long-time Pastor Jeremiah Wright under the bus because he found him extreme. He threw him under the Obamabus because he became aware that a desired voter demographic found him extreme.
Hope. Change. Judgment to Lead.
Link here. And Gawd do I hate linking the New York Times.
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News flash, August 8th, 2008, Obama's first stop in Hawaii was a visit to his ailing grandmother. Accompanied by Secret Service agents, Obama arrived at 4:10 PM at the Punahou-area apartment building were she lives.
So now we shouldn't vote for a man who visits his grandmother, if for some reason his wife was not also there at the same time?
Have you ever visited your grandmother without the whole family in tow?
Have you ever visited your grandmother without the whole family in tow?
Putting aside the question on whether this should have any effect on a candidate's fitness for office, don't you think that your question is framed in a way that is dishonest?
Shouldn't the question more properly be, "Have you ever flown all the way to Hawaii with your wife and kids in tow, stayed for several days, and never found the opportunity to get the wife and kids together with the grandmother?"
For many, I am sure that the answer is still "yes."
But is that not a telling answer?
Now, in defense of Obama, maybe his grandmother is a total pain in the ass who is rude to Michelle and mean to the kids. I wouldn't get them together either.
But how would it play if Dick and Lynne Cheney flew all the way to Hawaii, stayed several days, and never met with their gay daughter?
Somehow I think we would be reading about that.
And in the meta-narrative, Dick Cheney isn't the candidate that is supposed to bring us all together.
Back to the original subject: did Sarah Palin belong to an extremist church?
Yup, she sure did. Baptised at age twelve at the Wasila Assembly of God Church, she spent almost her whole adult life attending it. Her Pastor since 1999 was Ed Kalnins, who delivered these interesting concepts in his published speeches:
Kalnins said that critics of President Bush would be banished to Hell.
He questioned whether citizens who voted for Senator John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted into Heaven.
He said that Jesus "operated from that position of war mode." (What, the Prince of Peace in battle dress?)
Members of Pentecostal churches also "speak in tongues" which if you have ever witnessed this phenomenon, is quite a shock to more moderate, traditional believers.
She appears to have switched churches to deflect criticism of her concepts of faith while in public office.
All that hoopla about Obama's former pastor down the drain! It can hardly be used now that Sarah Palin's former pastor is even more colorful and controversial.
Pretty weak sauce A2:
Let's look at the score:
Palin: Leaves the church that she was brought into at the age of 12 by her parents three years after a weirdo preacher shows up because she thinks he is too extreme.
Obama: As an adult chooses to join a church with a weirdo preacher, stays for 20 years, and only leaves when he discovers that it may cost him politically at the national level.
Not exactly a toss-up, is it?
Plus, Bonus Hilarity:
She appears to have switched churches to deflect criticism of her concepts of faith while in public office.
We can't know, frankly. Maybe she did exactly this. But maybe, she really thought that the new guy was too extreme. What we do know is that if The One hadn't decided to run for President he would still be sitting in the pews at his old church. Whether he would be high-fiving fellow parishioners with each new "God Damn America" or somehow still not noticing them we don't know...but make no mistake, he would be there with Michelle and daughters in tow. Well, unless his grandmother was there.
All that hoopla about Obama's former pastor down the drain! It can hardly be used now that Sarah Palin's former pastor is even more colorful and controversial.
Sure. Keep telling yourself that, Sport.
Of course Obama belonged to a church of 10,000 people, not all of whom would have agreed with the retired pastor's remarks.
He attended the same church for 20 years, Sarah Palin attended hers for at least 26 years.
Her church was not a big-city established church, but a small makeshift church in the wilds of Alaska. When she was inaugurated as governor, the founding pastor of the church delivered the invocation.
Sarah's pastor brags in his writings that he can read minds and told a stranger on the golf course that he "knew" that the man's wife had left him.
He claims that we are in a religious war in the Mid East, and also that the End Times are coming fast and the faithful will gather in Alaska.
Somewhere, in your heart of hearts, you have to admit that religion and politics should not mix, for fear that we could all be held hostage to strange beliefs that don't have anything to do with our own.
Obama distanced himself from the old political preacher who spoke at his church, yet Palin has never said one word against Kalnins as far as I've been able to find.
It's time for her to come out boldly, as Obama did, and admit that her radical preacher does not echo her personal beliefs. Don't you think?
Sarah Palin attended hers for at least 26 years.
Tell me if I am wrong with this Timeline:
1964: Sarah Palin is born.
1976: Brought into the church by her parents at age 12.
1999: Wacko Preacher Ed Kalnins arrives.
2002: Sarah Palin changes churches.
2008: Moron points to a 26 year church membership trying to make the case that Sarah Palin is to be faulted for remaining at a church for 23 years before a wacko preacher even shows up while simultaneously laughing at said wacko preacher for claiming to be able to read minds and see into the future.
Anything out of order here?
What in Blazes is wrong with "Old Time Religion"?!
Old time religion has NOTHING to do with Politics but with the love of Christ and his message !
If some church interperts the scriptures in a way you disagree with..get thee top another church !
After all this IS a FREE country !
Remember ?
Walsingham, apparently you are agreeing with my timeline, yet calling me a "moron" in the same breath. Anything out of order here?
One: I shouldn't have called you a moron. It wasn't my finest hour. The comment stood fine without it. I apologize.
Two: How can you hold her 23 year membership in that church against her for the time before Kalnins even arrived? She lasted three years in the church after Kalnins arrived. Contrast that with the 20 years that Mr. Obama stayed with his...not to mention the fact that Mr. Obama would still be a member of the Rev. Wright's church to this day were in not for political expediency.
Walsingham, I find that sometimes the word "moron" is best qualified by the word "tendentious."
I hear that Jeremiah Wright is coming out with a book in October. An October surprise?
I hope it's true. Mr. Wright may be the gift that keeps giving.
Recall Obama called his grandmother, the one who raised him, "a typical white person." Our first post-racist president?
My brother tells me that on a visit to Hawaii Michelle and the children did not see Obama's grandmother. That alone would be enough not to vote for this poseur.