Saturday 20 August 2011

Sarah Palin's religious confusion (and cynical opportunism)





Sarah Palin's love affair with the Star of David is bizarre.

In her 1996 mayoral campaign against John Stein, her former mentor, rumours were circulated that Sarah Palin would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor," implying that Stein was Jewish. Her campaign used Jew as a "smear" against a Lutheran whose surname sounded Jewish.

Sarah Palin's most consistent religious home has been the Pentecostal church. Though her family left the Wasilla Assembly of God in 2002, just before she launched her campaign for lieutenant governor, Sarah Palin has returned again and again. The now famous prayer to protect her from witchcraft took place during a visit in 2005, three years after Palin's official departure. She returned in June 2008, making reference to that earlier service and crediting the African pastor's prayer with leading her to gubernatorial victory. And when she worked from the state capital, Sarah Palin attended the Juneau Christian Center, an Assemblies of God congregation.

Muthee, on the day he prayed upon Sarah Palin, advocated for Christian bankers and bashed the Jews:

Muthee gave a short speech, during which he advocated that the Christian church should "infiltrate" seven key sectors of society (including business, government, education, and media). During that speech, Muthee claimed that "Israelites" "run the economics" of America.

In June 2008, Sarah Palin addressed the congregation of the Assemblies of God church in Wasilla. She made a reference to Pastor Muthee right at the end of this footage, saying he's bold. [The video is not directly connected to Jews, but I included it because it's a classic.]



A few weeks later, already the Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin tried to distance herself from the Assemblies of God. She told Katie Couric:

"I don't have a church, I'm not a member of any church. I get to visit a couple of churches in Alaska when I'm home, including one, Wasilla Bible Church."

In mid August 2008 she had attended a talk at the Wasilla Bible Church:

David Brickner, the leader of Jews for Jesus, was invited to speak to the faithful at the Wasilla Bible Church, Sarah Palin's fundamentalist congregation. In his talk at Wasilla on August 17, 2008, with Palin in the audience, Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" on Jews who have not converted to Christianity.

In November 2009, Sarah Palin was interviewed by Barbara Walters:

Walters asked, "Now let's talk about some issues - the Middle East. The Obama Administration does not want Israel to build any more settlements on what they consider Palestinian territory. What is your view on this? " Palin responded, "I disagree with the Obama Administration on that. I believe that, um, the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon because the population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead."

Sarah Palin's views Israel in the context of the Rapture, not as a friend of Israel. As far as she's concerned, a good Jew is a Jew for Jesus.

Another handy accessory:
The crucifix

She uses the Star of David as a fashion accessory, in the same way she used the Israeli flag to decorate her office in Juneau. This screenshot is from footage taken in late February 2008. A few weeks later, in early April, Elan Frank arrived in Juneau to film Sarah ("I don't believe in coincidences") Palin for a documentary. He's Israeli.


Recap: She used Jew as a smear against a political opponent, was prayed over by a guy who wants to get rid of "Israelite" bankers, chose to attend a talk by the leader of Jews for Jesus and seems to believe (reformed) Jews will flock to Israel to be saved.

The following celebrity was lambasted for daring to wear a Star of David to please her boyfriend:


[Sarah Palin will appear at an event with Glenn Beck on October 3. His rally in Israel seems to be running into trouble.]