In my previous post, I was making sport of Sarah Palin's holy-roller roots with the snake-handling images and such. But as details emerge, the real picture isn't funny at all. It's downright frightening. The Pentecostal church she belonged to, and basically grew up in, is linked to the "Third Wave" movement that has long been condemned by even the main line of Assemblies of God as heretical.
You read it right. Yahoo! News ran a piece from The Associated Press delving into Sarah Palin's background in organized religion. She used to be a Pentecostal (Assemblies of God).
You know -- it's that highly emotional Protestant denomination that is OK with speaking in unknown tongues and faith healing. Where I come from they are often referred to as "holy rollers" because of their habit of writhing about in the aisles when possessed by the Holy Spirit.
A few years ago she sort of switched to an "independent evangelical" church. (I thought that was basically what Pentecostals are.)
But, her current church embraces -- pardon the choice of words -- the Focus on the Family program that stresses prayer to help homosexuals become heterosexual. (But not practicing hetero until after marriage, of course.)
My question is: After this miracle of conversion, do they still have to handle the snakes?
There are subgroups among Pentecostals, mainly those in the South and Appalachian regions, that are into handling venomous serpents. Members have also been known to drink strychnine as a demonstration of faith.
Accountability. We have to be accountable, and we think our politicians should be too. We do not want a replay of the craven perfidy of the last 12 years that nearly sunk the ship of state. The administrators of this blog have decided, as a group, that working to elect real Democrats to office at all levels of government is the best way to achieve the restoration of oversight and accountability.
But please! Don’t make the mistake of thinking of us as battered wives who keep coming back for more, because that would be totally wrong. Parole Officers would be much more fitting. (Full Mission Statement here.)
